The Program
A yearly success
Since 1963 the faculty of Columbia Law School, in cooperation with our partners in the law faculties of Leiden 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 these 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.
An extraordinary program
Last summer my colleagues returned 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 LL.M. degree in a US law school, whether at Columbia or elsewhere, we believe these offerings provide an invaluable foundation to make your LL.M. study more successful and rewarding.
Fascinating topics
Along with this expanded basic curriculum, we will present a range of elective courses exploring fast-developing areas of US law. From the fundamentals of contracts law 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 Leiden in July 2010, to be part of a Program that is in its second generation of achieving extraordinary results, for participants and faculty alike.
Edward Morrison, Executive Director
