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Law School

Contents:

A. Law school in general, according to Sienho Yee

B. Law schools in the USA

C. Foreigners in US law schools

D. International law: http://www.sienhoyee.org/pil.htm

E. Teaching jobs in US law schools: http://www.aals.org

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A. Law School in General, according to Sienho Yee

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Law school is nice for several reasons. The best among these is that it can instill in the students a certain attitude towards things and a certain methodology in dealing with issues and reality.  Once you have mastered these, you can do anything you like about society competently. 

Law is about how to manage society, and, in the final analysis, forms part of the unique nature of society.  If one has big ambitions, being a legal thinker should be the goal, and you can give the world ideas that might move it into a certain direction, in some respects, perhaps.  For example, if an idea of yours about how this or that law should be, and then it is adopted by the law-makers, you would have moved the development of the law into a certain direction. Of course, one can also be content with being a normal lawyer, fixing problems when they arise, and making a comfortable living.

If you like to read a little about what law and law school life are like, please read:

Scott Turrow, One L (about first year law school life at Harvard).
Anthony Lewis, Gideon's Trumpet.
Telford Taylor, An Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trial.
Joseph J. Ellis, American Sphinx : The Character of Thomas Jefferson
(Vintage) (1997).
Jan Jaan Kross, Professor Martens' Departure (Anselm Hollo trans. 1994).
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (Paperback - April 4, 1995).
Kafka, The Trial.
Charles Dickens, Bleak House.

In addition, I would like to recommend that you read the biographies of other founders of the USA, such as Madison, Hamilton, etc.  They are great stories about how to set up a pretty good nation-State.

If you like to read anything that I have published, let me know and I will see whether I can send you copies.  The list is here: http://www.sienhoyee.org/publications.htm. 

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B. US Law Schools

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Here is some general info:  http://www.abanet.org/legaled/prelaw/prep.html

In the United States, the design of normal law school education for a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree (on this see below “2.  Types of degree and education”) is based on the idea that a law student should be a mature “thinker” and therefore must have had a sufficiently good basic education as an undergraduate before entering law school. This is in some contrast to the situation in many other parts of the world where law is being studied as a “university” subject, and not just that, but also by an undergraduate starting at age 17 or 18. The merits or demerits of the two approaches may be apparent to you if you just imagine a 17 or 18 year-old undergraduate pondering the intricacies of separation of powers, the rule of law, the values of self-determination, questions that philosophers in their prime are struggling with.

The overall outlook of a normal US legal education is one of “general legal education”, but with plenty of room for specialization. Once in law school, a student is required to master the basic core subjects in the first and second years. In the second and third year (now perhaps even in the second semester of the first year), a student is allowed to take “elective” courses, and, therefore, to attempt some specialization. Typically, a student is required to write three substantial papers: one on research method, one on appellate litigation, and one for a seminar on a substantive issue. If a student is involved in a journal (especially the “Law Review”, normally considered to be the voice of a particular law school), then the student, more likely than not, will write another long paper and edit it for months for publication in the journal.

The pretty interesting or, weird, thing about law is that prestige and semblance of power are more important in this discipline than probably in other disciplines. Really good ideas may not necessarily win out; the trappings of power and glory may. Because of this, you not only have to be a good lawyer, or a good thinker, you probably also have to have other “credentials” to be successful. Therefore, you might want to have your education at one of the top law schools, regardless of the costs. That fact alone may open the door to you in your endeavors.

Personally I believe ultimately good ideas will win out (http://www.chinesejil.org/wang1.pdf). However, the time it takes for good ideas to win out may be more than you can imagine or stomach. That is to say, although almost any significant situation presents an intellectual battle, only a few can be soldiers in it, and most are not able to see the clashes of ideas and therefore cannot appreciate good ideas and good values. So you have to be prepared to endure a lot and, hopefully, acquire some enriching experience that there is no substitute for.

My personal experience tells me that the publication of my long paper in the Columbia Law Review is the single most important factor when I first started my job hunting; everywhere they asked me about that paper.

As far as getting ready for law school is concerned, it does not matter what you are studying now.  Of course, being a good thinker is the most important; otherwise getting into law school would not help.  So something that can help to inspire your imagination and improve your reasoning processes would help. Beyond that, the most important is to get the best grades you can.  Second, try your best to do well in the LSAT. Take the test only when you are ready for the best score; otherwise they keep the bad scores for an average in the future. The combination of good grades and a high LSAT score will get you into nice law schools.  The law school admission process is very much "number-driven".

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C. Foreigners in US Law Schools

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1.  Scholarships and stuff

Different law schools have their scholarship/fellowship programs.  An applicant has just to go to their websites to find info and try them all. There is no simply way of finding out info.

Generally speaking, however, the better a law school is, the stronger its scholarship program is.

A good law school normally takes pride in having a policy that almost guarantees education if an applicant is accepted, regardless of his or her financial situation.

However, this policy may not apply to a foreign applicant.

The general idea is that it is very difficult for a foreigner to get a full scholarship from a US law school. Only a few fortunate ones at the best schools may secure the special scholarships for foreigners.

2.  Types of degree and education

a. The Regular Degree—Juris Doctor (J.D.). As a result of the belief mentioned above, the regular law school education in the USA is the Juris Doctor program, on the basis of a prior B.A. degree in any field, consisting of three years of rigorous training in law as a university subject, as well as a “professional” subject, and leading to the award of the Juris Doctor degree. This system in reality collapses into one the two or more parts of the legal education and practice training prevailing in other parties of the world that are designed as the basis for a license to practice law.

Because there are so many law schools in the USA, getting a J.D. is probably not that great an achievement. The achievement becomes greater if the J.D. is from a top US law school, and, greater still, if the J.D. comes with a substantial publication in the very Law Review of your own top US law school. Normally fewer than 10% of any class can obtain that kind of achievement in a top law school. Even fewer will be able to produce papers with some lasting effect.

b. Other degrees and forms of training (Information copied from elsewhere for ease of use):

"Some American lawyers receive their education, not through a law school, but by reading the law, an arduous form of apprenticeship or study with an expert. Prospective lawyers who have been awarded the J.D. (or other appropriate credential), must fulfill additional, state-specific requirements in order to gain admission to the bar in the United States."

"The Juris Doctor (J.D.), like the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), is a professional doctorate. The Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.S.D.), Doctor of Judicial Science (S.J.D.), and Doctor of Comparative Law (D.C.L.), are research and academic-based doctorate level degrees. In the U.S. the Legum Doctor (LL.D.) is only awarded as an honorary degree."

"Foreign lawyers seeking to practice in the U.S., who do not have a Juris Doctor (J.D.), often seek to obtain a Juris Master (J.M.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), Master of Comparative Law (M.C.L.), or a Master of Jurisprudence (M.J.)."