For a civil lawyer trained in a "continental" legal system studying common law, particularly in an American law school, is a most rewarding experience. As I was fortunate enough to discover many years ago, it is a tremendous opportunity to get acquainted with a totally different approach to both legal education and legal thinking, and to arrive, by an almost subliminal process of comparison, at a more profound understanding of ones own law. The next best thing for those interested in American law, but unable to study in the United States, is participation in the Leyden-Amsterdam-Columbia Summer Program on American Law.
The Program was established more than 40 years ago as a joint project of the law schools of Columbia University, based in New York City and the Universities of Amsterdam and Leyden. It is sponsored by a number of American and Dutch law firms, foundations and corporations; additional funding is derived from tuition fees of participants. The Program is designed to introduce non-American law graduates to the methodology and contents of American law. Courses are taught by members of the Columbia Law School and cover a broad range of legal topics. Instruction is based upon the American case method, an interactive process between teacher and student, which can only be fruitful if the assigned cases and materials have been thoroughly studied in preparation of classroom discussion. Extensive reading is therefore required and a readiness to engage in legal debate is expected. The success of the Program is predicated on the participant's total commitment to the American approach to law and legal thinking. A basic knowledge and understanding of the principles of American law will be the reward for four demanding weeks of intensive legal education.
To balance the seriousness of the working sessions, the Program also features a number of (mandatory) extracurricular activities. Several excursions will give the participants an impression of the city and country hosting the Program. There will be many opportunities for friendly association with fellow students, faculty, and other members of the legal profession. Living and learning amidst some fifty lawyers from many different countries is a unique and effective way to become acquainted with new ideas and different opinions. Getting in touch with people from various cultures, both in the classroom and outside, will contribute to a better understanding of the views held in other parts of the world and to a new appreciation of contrasting cultural values. In this respect, the Program has much more to offer than a crash course in American law. Not only does it provide lawyers with an opportunity to learn more about a foreign legal system and to broaden their professional horizon, but also, by offering a congenial environment for a multicultural exchange of thoughts and ideas and bonds of friendship. In this way the Program contributes to fostering harmony, goodwill and a spirit of international co-operation among the participants and, through them, of the nations they represent.
Since 1963 the faculty of Columbia Law School, in cooperation with our partners in the law faculties of Leyden and Amsterdam, have offered this Summer Program in American Law to introduce our legal system to students from the world over. We have learned a great deal in forty years about how to present a combination of basic material and advanced legal analysis to young lawyers from other systems. They, in turn, have taught us a great deal about our craft of teaching and, through their questions and discussions, about our law.
This coming summer my colleagues will return to Amsterdam with an extraordinary program of offerings. In addition to our required introductions to constitutional law, civil litigation, statutes and administrative practice, we will present a newly redesigned introduction to researching American law. This course, which has been under development for several years and has been refined through presentation in a variety of settings, offers what we at Columbia believe is the most effective route to rapid mastery of the materials of our law. Through explanatory lectures and hands-on training we can afford students and practitioners who need the ability to find US law a range of skills that we think are available nowhere else in a short course. For those considering an LLM degree in a US law school, whether at Columbia or elsewhere, we believe these offerings provide an invaluable foundation to make your LLM study more successful and rewarding.
Along with this expanded basic curriculum, we will present a wide range of elective courses exploring fast-developing areas of US law. From the fundamentals of contracts law to to the legal revolution sparked by the Internet, scholars studying and participating in current legal change will be bringing you the newest developments, and the context in which to understand them. Students and young practitioners interested in these areas will find both a comprehensive survey of US law as it stands, and also an opportunity to discuss forthcoming developments with professors who are among those best placed to observe and affect them.
One of the unique features of American legal education has always been the give-and-take of classroom discussion. My colleagues from the Columbia faculty volunteer to participate in the Program because of the excitement it offers them as teachers, giving them a chance to bring their style of class discussion to a different and fascinating range of students. We urge you to come to meet us in Amsterdam in July 2003, to be part of a Program that is in its second generation of achieving extraordinary results, for participants and faculty alike.
