Abstract
Prior to becoming a law professor, the author was engaged in a rewarding international business law practice—a practice that was possible in part because of opportunities the author had while still in law school. As a law professor and law school dean, he now focuses on finding or creating opportunities for others to have interesting and worthwhile international experiences and to receive meaningful international education while still in law school. Often challenging under ordinary circumstances, the pandemic has made it even more challenging by seriously hampering the law school’s ability to (i) place students in international internships, (ii) operate the law school’s summer law program abroad, and (iii) bring to campus international lawyers and law professors, whether as speakers, researchers, or visiting professors. Yet, ensuring that U.S. law students can obtain meaningful international education and experience is important even in a pandemic.
This essay explains why that is so. It argues that transnational law practice is ubiquitous and describes how transnational law is relevant across practice areas, sometimes in unexpected ways; it describes some of the ways a U.S. law school can better prepare students for the transnational practice of law, in part by drawing on the author’s own experience as a law student and practicing lawyer; and it describes the mobilization of resources that the author and his colleagues undertook in the pandemic to create meaningful international opportunities even when international travel was not possible, as they recognized the critical importance of law students being able to obtain or deepen understanding of international law and the world outside U.S. national borders. The essay also acknowledges inequities that have been highlighted and exacerbated by the pandemic. And the essay identifies a silver lining of the pandemic: those innovations and the increased commitment to equity that can continue long after the pandemic is finally behind us.
Recommended Citation
William P. Johnson,
The Ubiquity of Transnational Practice and the Corresponding Critical Importance of International Education for U.S. Law Students,
46
S. Ill. U. L.J.
73
(2021).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol46/iss1/4