• Selected
• Entire List

Abstract:
The knowledge-based economy, namely the new world economy based on the exploration, production, sharing and protection of knowledge, is growing. Europe and the U.S. are the leading destinations for U.S. and international students seeking to study or work abroad. However, still today less than 1% of the current U.S. student body decides to temporarily go abroad during college or graduate school.

Aware of the importance of international education, Congress is in the process of enacting the Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act with the aim of sending 1 million U.S. students abroad in the next 10 years.

With the intention to enhance the debate among administrators and scholars, this article has five main objectives:
a) Provide the most recent data with respect to the flow of U.S. students abroad;
b) Provide the most recent data with respect to the flow of International students into the U.S. and, similarly, the development of international education in other countries;
c) Summarize the criticism on the latest ethical concerns created by the study abroad industry of third party providers;
d) Analyze the effects of the international education industry shaping the structural change of U.S. law schools;
e) Try to envision the future of the global law school.

Data shows that employers are more inclined to hire graduates who have studied and/or worked abroad. However, in order to remain competitive and satisfy an increasing demand of professionals with a foreign background, U.S. employers need to hire foreign- educated graduates. U.S. law schools are realizing the importance of preparing students for the global knowledge-based economy.

The rise in tuition costs, the wealth of the labor market, the complexity of visa procedures and a renewed competition among universities (in steady expansion) are re-shaping the globalization process of legal education. Law schools are changing and adapting to the ever changing legal education needs.

Abstract:
Legal education is slowly but steadily becoming global. U.S. law schools are adapting to the need to educate jurists who can work on cross border issues. Within the next 100 years, U.S. law schools will face the challenges of educating an increasing number of international students, while dealing with diverse legal systems.

In the next 100 years, U.S. law schools will expand overseas with several branches (at least one in every country or group of countries with legal and economic relevancy) and will embrace corporate form and a business approach. Faculty and administrators should carefully plan today for the future placement (in terms of ranking) and development (in terms of scientific breakthrough) of their academia if they seriously consider obtaining global presence, recognition and intellectual credibility. Those who do not have plans to globalize today will struggle tomorrow locally.

Only those law schools that are investing today in a solid globalization of their curricula and hiring faculty with diverse skills will be the primary actors in the field of global legal education in the 22nd Century.

This article has three main objectives:
(a) To define the issues currently influencing the movement global movement in legal education and their effect on its future development.
(b) To analyze the visa (or entry) regulations of the countries where U.S. students currently have the privilege of travelling for study or research purposes.
(c) To analyze the host regulations that U.S. universities have to face when they plan to offer educational services in a foreign jurisdiction through a physical presence in that jurisdiction.

An analysis and comparison of the entry regulations of 16 jurisdictions will be offered, with special attention to the French, Italian, E.U. and U.S. visa situations. The paper will analyze how E.U. regulations are not completely and uniformly followed by some member states and how U.S. regulations could be improved for at least short term study programs. The legal and economic consequences of these regulations will be addressed as well.