Information Technology Meets International Contracting: Tales from a Transpacific Seminar
Zeitschrift für Japanishches Recht/Journal of Japanese Law, Vol. 19, pp. 69-100 (2005)
34 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2015
Date Written: 2005
Abstract
This paper is in essence a personal memoir concerning the first year of what, at the time, was a novel course offering: an international negotiation simulation, conducted transnationally, in which teams of students from the University of Tokyo used email, videoconference facilities, and other resources to negotiate a major acquisition agreement with teams of students from the University of Washington.
I encountered sufficient hurdles and setbacks along the way that, with less than a month to go before the start of the semester, I was ready to throw in the towel. I'm thankful I did not do so, for the seminar turned out to be the most exciting and rewarding teaching experience I've ever had. I offer this account in the hope others might learn from my experiences with a transpacific seminar.
I originally wrote the account in 2001. When I prepared it for publication, in 2005, we had just completed the fifth year of the course. In the interim, professors at some other universities had established courses along similar lines. Rather than rewriting the paper entirely, I retained it in its original form, as a nearly contemporaneous account of the first year of what had proven to be a successful experiment. I added some updates in brackets.
Keywords: law schools, legal education, international education, global education, international contracting, negotiation, United States, Japan, videoconferencing, remote learning, distance learning, distance education, education technology, skills training, practice skills, simulations
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