【Research Center for the Legal System of Intellectual Property】

Activities

Things at Law School in America (2)

RC Kazuhiro Ando

Time flies like an arrow. It has been 10 months since my last column about things at law school in America. During that time, I went through tough assignments like classes, exams, and reports in English. And fortunately I have graduated from law school this July. When I received a graduation certificate at home, I was filled with deep emotion for a while, thinking of the rigors of studying for exams. (I was given only an empty tube at the graduation ceremony in May).

Although there are many benefits that can be gained from studying at overseas law schools, it was a quite wonderful experience for me to attend various distinctive classes. Contract Law used a Socratic method to make students think independently. Trademark Law explained law lively and clearly using PowerPoint slides with visual images. Legal Skill was taught by an active lawyer, who was practical and persuasive. Entertainment Law used actual copyright infringement case materials in a moot court. These classes were well designed and very popular among students. Of course, there were some professors who came late to class or conducted sloppy teaching with too much content. They were literally negative examples. It was a quite fruitful opportunity for whom aimed to be a university teacher. I am now looking forward to standing on a platform as a teacher more strongly than before.

Recently, the increasing number of Japanese universities has allowed students to evaluate classes. However, there would not be so many chances for lecturers to sit in on other classes. While it is important for them to exercise creative ingenuity in teaching by themselves, it is also significant to proactively adopt other teacher's excellent way of teaching. A man has the freedom to imitate as far as such imitation is not against the law.

From this September, I will study US IP Law for another year at the University of Washington School of Law, located in Seattle. My great concern is what kind of way of teaching I can meet in this school.