Georgetown Law Alumni Magazine - Res Ipsa Loquitur
Spring/Summer 2009 - Online Volume 1
Lectures and Events
Grand Opening of a Global Law School
On October 28, Dean Alex Aleinikoff and representatives of nine other premier law schools from around the world gathered in what was once the public records office of the United Kingdom to set a record of their own — the establishment of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies, a first-of-its kind, collaborative offering of transnational legal education in a truly global setting.
The Center, which is spearheaded by Georgetown Law, is not just another studyabroad program but a unique experiment in legal education that marries form — a truly global campus with professors and students from all over the world — with function — the study of international, transnational and comparative law.
The opening ceremonies reflected that vision, as Aleinikoff and Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia joined representatives from each of the Center’s participating schools at King’s College, London, for a document-signing ceremony.
“We’re delighted to gather in this historic setting with our partner institution, King’s College, … to celebrate the successful opening of our shared academic enterprise,” Aleinikoff told the crowd in his brief opening remarks. “Our inaugural class of students and faculty has been hard at work for the past eight weeks, teaching and learning together in a global learning space.”
DeGioia noted that the document was being signed on the birthday of the humanist scholar Erasmus, who lived during the Renaissance, the first great era of globalization. “By helping to teach all of our law students to be better global lawyers, this new Center for Transnational Legal Studies will help ensure the promise of greater global justice [and] a stronger global community — which, as Erasmus recognized nearly five centuries ago, we are all part of,” DeGioia said.
Later, at London’s 18th-century Spencer House, the Rt. Hon. Baroness Brenda Hale of Richmond, the first woman judge to serve on the United Kingdom’s highest court, congratulated Georgetown Law on its “splendid initiative.” Some U.S. judges, she noted, have paid little attention to foreign law — claiming that the U.K., for instance, has become too heavily influenced by the differing legal traditions of Europe. “Those traditions, I am glad to say, are very well represented among the universities that are part of this enterprise,” she said, drawing a chuckle from the crowd.
Georgetown Law professors hosted panel discussions during the two-day celebrations — attended by, among others, members of the Law Center’s European Law Alumni Advisory Board. The panelists, which included Ted Burke (L’86), William P. Frank (C’63), and Robert Ruyak (L’74), discussed the role of the global lawyer and lent their thoughts on the new Center.
“Call me a romantic if you want, but I still believe that law is a great vehicle for peace and for justice — at the local level, at the national level, and the global level,” Aleinikoff said. “As we teach our students, work together with colleagues and faculty and interact with the members of the profession, we all contribute our hope to a more just world through the pursuit of transnational law.”
