International and comparative law perspectives on Constitutional Law

[Brian Landsberg]

	The Pacific McGeorge Center for Global Business and Development
is seeking expressions of interest from domestically oriented law school
faculty who wish to attend a Training Workshop on Introducing
International and Comparative Law Issues into Core Courses.

Background

	For many years, the curriculum at most law schools has included
courses addressing issues in international and comparative law.   These
courses, however, traditionally have been electives, and only a fraction
of law school graduates have taken such electives.  In recent years, a
growing number of faculty at various law schools have become convinced
that increasing globalization makes exposure to international and
comparative law topics important to the vast majority, if not all, of
law school graduates.  In support of this objective, the AALS just
opened its annual convention with a day-long workshop on the topic of
Introducing International Issues into the First Year Curriculum.

	Last August, the Pacific McGeorge Center for Global Business and
Development conducted a workshop on Globalizing the Law School
Curriculum, attended by professors from 31 law schools in the United
States and Canada.  At this workshop, there was broad support for using
a pervasive approach to expose students to international and comparative
law issues, either in lieu of, or in addition to, requiring a course
specifically on such topics.  Under a pervasive approach, professors
teaching traditionally domestically oriented core courses, such as Civil
Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Corporations, Criminal Law and
Procedure, Property and Torts, integrate international and comparative
law issues relevant to their particular subject matter into these
traditionally domestically oriented core courses.

	The participants at this workshop also identified a number of
challenges to be overcome in order to implement such a pervasive
approach.  These included the need to educate professors teaching core
courses about international and comparative law - both generally, and as
these topics impact core subjects - to a degree sufficient that
professors would feel comfortable in introducing international and
comparative law topics into their classes.  Among the recommended ways
to meet this challenge was to establish training workshops at which
domestically oriented faculty could receive a basic introduction to
international and comparative law, as well as an overview of how
international and comparative law impact upon their core courses.  (The
success of the law and economics workshops of the 1980s provided a model
for this recommendation.)

The Proposal

	The Pacific McGeorge Center for Global Business and Development
has developed a tentative proposal for such a training workshop to take
place in August of 2006:

DATE: 	August 10-11, 2005
LOCATION:  The historic Claremont Hotel, Berkeley, California
LENGTH:	Day and one-half (all day Thursday and Friday morning)
AGENDA:	Thursday and Friday morning lectures (by Stephen
McCaffrey and 	Mathias Reimann) will provide an introduction to basic
concepts in international and comparative law (including sources and
principles of 	international law, resolution of international disputes,
the interplay of international and domestic law, differences in civil
and common law systems, and the impact of  culture and legal philosophy
upon different legal systems).  
		Thursday afternoon will be devoted to subject-specific
concurrent break-out groups in which attendees will receive an
introduction to the impact of international and comparative law on Civil
Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Corporations, Criminal Law and
Procedure, Property and Torts.
COST:	Estimated $ 675 per attendee (including accommodations and
				attendance at workshop)

Purpose of this Message

	We need to determine whether enough domestically oriented law
school faculty members wish to attend such a workshop in order to make
it worthwhile to proceed with this endeavor.  Specifically, we are
looking for expressions of interest from 70 domestically oriented
faculty members (10 each who teach the following subjects: Civil
Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Corporations, Criminal Law and
Procedure, Property and Torts).  If you, or anyone you know at your
institution, are interested in attending, please reply to
c_george2 at pacific.edu.