World of
difference
A
s the practice of law
becomes increasingly
global, Loyola’s School of
Law has stepped up the
international emphasis
throughout its curricular,
service, and competition
offerings. Nothing
helps students gain international perspectives like
immersing themselves in other cultures and seeing
other legal systems for themselves—and the law
school’s slate of study-abroad options, begun 30
years ago in Rome, has expanded across the globe.
The School of Law offers summer programs
in Rome and Beijing, a winter program in
London, and courses that include spring-break
immersions in Santiago and countries in Asia
and Africa. The new LLM program in rule of law
for development, PROLAW®, is based in Rome.
Students participating in the Willem C. Vis
International Commercial Arbitration Moot
have the opportunity to compete in Vienna
and Hong Kong.
“We’re immensely proud of our study-
abroad programs’ 30 years of making strong
contributions to the School of Law’s offerings,”
says Jean Gaspardo, assistant dean of students.
“They’re incredible opportunities to build a global
perspective of the law and legal systems, and we
expect them to remain an important part of why
students come to Loyola.”
Changing viewpoints
Especially for the many students who have
never been abroad before, the law school’s
study-abroad programs are opportunities to try
out international travel while learning. 3L Lindsey
Johnson participated in the London Comparative
Advocacy Program over winter break this year. For
two weeks before the start of the spring semester
each year, Associate Dean for Administration James
Faught guides a dozen students through activities
that focus on the English system of advocacy. After
a series of lectures at the Middle Temple Inn of
Court, students accompany barristers to court at
the historic Old Bailey and meet with barristers,
judges, and court administrators to discuss the
cases and the English legal profession.
“The program was the perfect balance of a
great educational experience with a chance to have
fun exploring London,” says Johnson.
Like Johnson, Jacquelyne Mosley-Pastrana
had never traveled outside the U.S. until she
participated in two very different international
study programs last summer, in Beijing and
Rome. The law school’s summer program in
China, held at Loyola’s Beijing Center, explores
comparative and international law in areas such
as health, environmental, public, and art law.
Students also take a course introducing them to
the Chinese legal system.
The summer program in Rome, now
celebrating its 30th year, was the first of the law
school’s international study options and remains
a centerpiece of the program. Based at Loyola’s
John Felice Rome Center, students have a choice
of comparative law courses; this summer’s topics
include health law and bioethics, criminal law,
common law, civil law, domestic violence, products
liability, human rights, and education. An optional
extension in Strasbourg, France, offers the chance
to explore institutions including the Council
of Europe, European Court of Human Rights,
European Parliament of the European Union, and,
via a field trip to Luxembourg, the Court of Justice
of the European Union.
2L Mosley-Pastrana, who hopes for a career
in labor and employment law, civil rights, or
public service, says her twin international study
experiences have changed the way she views the
law and her future career. “Now I think about the
international aspects of what I’m learning and even
reading in the news,” she says, “and I have a more
global perspective of what my potential clients’
needs and risks might be.
“Studying abroad also gives me an advantage
in job interviews,” she adds. “Recruiters always want
to know about my international experience—
especially in China, which really stands out.”
Second-year student Niya Kelly is interested in
domestic violence work. As part of the one-on-one
conversations Professor Thomas Haney has
with his first-year Contracts students, Haney
encouraged her to enroll in the Comparative Law
Seminar: Legal Systems in the Americas course so
she could explore the South American response
to this issue. The annual course, which Haney
cocreated, studies legal systems in Spanish-
speaking South America with particular emphasis
on Chile. During spring break, students travel to
Santiago to study and research individual projects.
They meet with faculty and students at the
Universidad Alberto Hurtado’s law school, as well as
with local lawyers, judges, and businesspeople.
“As Americans, we sometimes forget about
the outside world and look to our way of doing
things as the only way,” says Kelly, noting that
Chile has established special courts and even a
special police force to address domestic violence.
“I really appreciated the opportunity to meet with
Chilean judges and police officers who are doing
things differently.” In fact, Kelly was so intrigued by
the differences in how the U.S. and Chile handle
domestic violence cases that she’s hoping to enroll
in next year’s London Comparative Advocacy
Program“so I can compare how all three countries
approach these issues,” she says.
Celebrating its 30th year, School of Law’s study-abroad program
gives students the distinct advantage of a global perspective
Solid, transferable skills
Loyola’s study-abroad options are flexible
enough to appeal not just to first-time international
travelers, but also to seasoned global voyagers
like Zach Hunsinger. A ChildLaw Fellow in the
third year of a four-year dual law and social work
program, Hunsinger has spent a summer working
in the child law center of the University of Pretoria,
South Africa, and will have his first social work field
placement this summer at a migrant shelter for
youth in Mexico. There, he’ll design and lead a pilot
program of workshops related to human rights and
self-development.
For the past seven years, Civitas ChildLaw
Director Diane Geraghty has led a spring-break trip
to a different African, Asian, or European nation
each year. Students form small groups focusing on
topical research issues that compare laws in the
U.S. and the countries they’re visiting. Hunsinger
participated in both the 2011 trip to Tanzania,
on which he studied the domestic servitude of
girls, and this spring’s journey to Turkey, where he
explored how that country maintains its status as a
secular democracy while having state-sanctioned
religious organizations.
“These are hands-on classes where you learn
solid and transferable skills, like how to structure
an interview to get the insights you’re seeking
and how to have a meaningful conversation with
someone from a completely different culture,”
Hunsinger says of his time in Dar es Salaam and
Istanbul. “Learning in an international context
means bringing fewer preconceived notions to the
table. That even has a positive effect on how you
interact with people when you’re back in the U.S.”
Since he plans a career with a nongovernmental
organization (NGO), Hunsinger says a chief benefit
of studying in as many countries as possible—he
plans to join next year’s group in Santiago “unless
Professor Geraghty comes up with another
amazing country,” he says—is identifying his own
strengths and limitations. “I’ve learned I’m not
a strong community organizer, for example, so
I’m not sure I have the skills needed to work in a
developing country,” he explains.
“Every time I go abroad, I’ve learned as much
about myself as I have about the culture I’m in and
the subject I’m studying.”
■
Associate Dean James Faught (back row) guided Christine Heaton, coordinator of law school continuing legal education programming (left), and 3Ls Lindsey Johnson and Sara
Stretch around London as part of the annual comparative advocacy program he leads.
“Studying abroad
gives me an
advantage in
job interviews.
Recruiters always
want to know about
my international
experience.”
—STUDENT JACQUELYNE MOSLEY-PASTRANA
INTERNATIONAL STUDY
SPRING 2012
23
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LOYOLA LAW
