Producing International Impact in Developing Legal Infrastructure
Educating Legal Educators In China
Funded by a $1.6 million USAID grant, as part of USAID’s Rule of Law in China Initiative, Pacific McGeorge is leading a five school consortium of:
- American University's Washington College of Law
- Zhejiang Gongshang University College of Law (Hangzhou)
- South China University of Technology (Guangzhou)
- China University of Political Science and Law (Beijing)
The mission is to train Chinese law professors in methods for teaching advocacy and providing experiential legal education. Training has taken place in Sacramento, California, Washington, D.C. and China. Training includes summer workshops, joint U.S.-China research projects, scholarly conferences and faculty exchanges.
Developing The Judiciary In Africa
Professor Linda Carter helped facilitate the 2nd West African Judicial Colloquium in Ghana, which brought together supreme and high court judges from 15 different countries and furthered efforts to create a strong network of national judges with access to information on judicial systems around the world.
Professor Carter presented information about how the courts could benefit from legal internship programs. She outlined the operation of U.S. and international court programs, stressing how law students can fill the need in the courts for well-trained researchers.
Professor Carter emphasized creating a relationship between the national courts and local law schools as a way to strengthen the legal capacity within a country. The colloquium was sponsored by Brandeis University's International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life, the Faculty of the University of Ghana, and the African Foundation for International Law.
Working on Law for Africa
Professor Kojo Yelpaala is a founding member of the African Law Institute, which is dedicated to the harmonization of the continent’s key laws and is a member of the Institute’s Board of Governors. A consultant on various aspects of international business transactions and industrial policy to several foreign governments, Professor Yelpaala presented his article, “In Search of a Model Investment Law,” at an African Development Bank meeting in Tunis, Tunisia.
The article examines investment laws in Africa from a comparative and historical perspective, and recommends a new approach to stimulate investments:
1) breaking the continent’s raw materials vulnerability dependence that only attracts “scoop and ship” operations;
2) reaching and empowering the “guts” (small- to medium-size enterprises) of the economy; and
3) targeting high-value investment.