Internationalizing the U.S. Law School Classroom: Lessons Learned from Teaching Transnationally

• Author: Christopher R. Kelley - Nataliia Borozdina
• Position: Christopher R. Kelley is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas. He was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine in 2005 and in the Republic of Moldova in 2011. - Nataliia Borozdina is a graduate student in the University of Arkansas's College of Education and Health Professionals funded through the Fulbright Graduate Student ...
• Pages: 131-148

Internationalizing the U.S. Law School

Classroom: Lessons Learned from Teaching

Transnationally

C

HRISTOPHER

R. K

ELLEY

*

AND

N

ATALIIA

B

OROZDINA

**

The classroom continues to be the dominant teaching environment

despite the growth of “classroomless” distance education.

1

A classroom lets

those in it interact in real time, thus allowing all to gain the benefits of face-

to-face interactions.

2

The classroom, however, is a problematic place to

“internationalize,” particularly when the students and the professor in it are

mostly or all domestic.

3

When lacking international students and professors,

an alternative is to bring either or both into the classroom virtually using

digital audiovisual technology.

4

This technology lets teachers teach

transnationally; that is, to teach students in different countries

simultaneously or to teach students in one country from another country.

5

This article focuses on two University of Arkansas School of Law

transnational courses. In the first, a Rule of Law Colloquium course, the

students are in Arkansas and Ukraine. In the second, an International

Commercial Arbitration course, the students and one professor are in

* Christopher R. Kelley is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas. He

was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine in 2005 and in the Republic of Moldova in 2011.

** Nataliia Borozdina is a graduate student in the University of Arkansas’s College of

Education and Health Professionals funded through the Fulbright Graduate Student Program

for Russians. She co-authored this article as a 2018 summer intern at the University of

Arkansas School of Law with support from the United States Department of State’s Edmund S.

Muskie Internship Program.

1. See Martin Pritikin, ABA Online Credit Increase a Step in the Right Direction, L

AW

360 (Sept.

4, 2018, 3:12 PM), https://www.law360.com/articles/1076685/aba-online-credit-increase-a-

step-in-the-right-direction.

2. See Gerald F. Hess, Blended Courses in Law School: The Best of Online and Face-to-Face

Learning?, 45 M

C

G

EORGE

L. R

EV

. 51, 59 (2013).

3. See Carole Silver, Internationalizing U.S. Legal Education: A Report on the Education of

Transnational Lawyers, 14 C

ARDOZO

J. I

NT

’

L

& C

OMP

. L. 143, 154 (2006) (noting the presence

of foreign law students internationalizes a law school’s student body); Carole Silver, Getting Real

About Globalization and Legal Education: Potential and Perspectives for the U.S., 24 S

TAN

. L. &

P

OL

’

Y

R

EV

. 457, 469 (2013).

4. Andrew Moore et al., The Globalization of Legal Education, 92 M

ICH

. B.J. 40, 42 (2013).

5. Digital technology has these and many other uses in legal education. For two annotated

bibliographies of publications about legal education and technology, see Pearl Goldman, Legal

Education and Technology: An Annotated Bibliography, 93 L. L

IBR

. J. 423 (2001), and Pearl

Goldman, Legal Education and Technology II: An Annotated Bibliography, 100 L. L

IBR

. J. 415

(2008).

THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER

A TRIANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE ABA/SECTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH

SMU DEDMAN SCHOOL OF LAW

132 THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER [VOL. 52, NO. 1

Arkansas; two other professors are in Germany and Switzerland,

respectively, and occasionally elsewhere, usually Russia.

6

Both courses have been taught as transnational courses for at least four

consecutive years.

7

Though transnational courses are an uncommon way to

internationalize the classroom, they can be effective international learning

experiences. Therefore, the first of this article’s two purposes is to encourage

others, lawyers and law professors, to try transnational teaching.

Teaching transnationally well, however, is challenging.

8

And how-to

manuals are scant. Nevertheless, lessons learned from others’ experiences

can help. This article’s second purpose, therefore, is to offer lessons learned

about how to create and manage a transnational course. These lessons were

mostly learned from four years of transnationally teaching the two types of

transnational courses on which this article focuses.

9

This article’s Part I briefly discusses reasons for internationalizing the

classroom. There and elsewhere, this article focuses on two gains: enriching

classroom discussions and enhancing the students’ overall learning

experience. It then turns, in Part II, to the history and attributes of the two

courses from which this article mostly draws its lessons learned. The

courses’ history and attributes thus provide an essential context for this

article’s core—these lessons. In its Part III, this article discusses these

lessons, most of which are practical. They are practical because teaching

transitionally is different from teaching domestically, and these differences

are potential tripping hazards that are better avoided than not. The article

concludes with thoughts about the overall potential for and experience of

teaching transnationally.

6. As discussed in this article’s Part II.C, these international professors are experienced

practitioners. For a discussion of the advantages of teaching courses by teams of professors and

practitioners, see R. Michael Cassidy, Reforming the Law School Curriculum from the Top Down, 64

J. L

EGAL

E

DUC

. 428, 432-39 (2015).

7. See Christopher R. Kelley, LAWW 5252, International Commercial Arbitration (course

syllabus) (on file with author) [hereinafter International Commercial Arbitration]; Christopher

R. Kelley, LAWW 5692, Rule of Law Colloquium (2018) (course syllabus) (on file with author)

[hereinafter Rule of Law Colloquium].

8. In addition to the challenges associated with creating and maintaining the transnational

relationships needed for a transnational course, adapting to digital technology also can be

challenging. For a discussion of these challenges and the potential gains from overcoming

them, see W. Warren Binford, Envisioning a Twenty-First Century Legal Education, 43 W

ASH

. U.

J.L. & P

OL

’

Y

157 (2013).

9. Professor Kelley has taught a Legal Writing in English course almost every semester for

six years to law students at the Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University Law Faculty in Kyiv,

Ukraine, using Skype. Some of the lessons learned doing this were learned again teaching the

Rule of Law Colloquium and International Commercial Arbitration courses transnationally.

THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER

A TRIANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE ABA/SECTION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH

SMU DEDMAN SCHOOL OF LAW