I recently finished my teaching stint in the Summer Law Program, spending six hours on Corporate Governance and six hours on Relational Contracts. Since becoming a legal academic 10 years ago, I have taught "foreign" (non-US) students in various settings, including as LLMs, as undergraduates in their home countries, and in short programs for graduate students. The experience is almost always a little disappointing, and I have been wondering why.

Here are some possible sources of problems:

* Language. Americans benefit immensely from the fact that English has become the world's language, but the fact remains that many educated people do not speak English well enough to understand a course in law. I do not intend this to be a criticism of non-English speakers -- American law is tough enough for Americans -- but simply an observation. I speak a bit of German, but I cannot imagine sitting in on a law course in German. Yet, that is what we ask of non-English speaking students who wish to partake of our knowledge.

* Legal culture. Students outside the influence of the British Commonwealth assume that they understand the divide between civil law and common law, but when I teach the law of fiduciary duty using Delaware cases, students from a civil law tradition are often baffled. Perhaps I could make this more understandable if I had a deeper knowledge of the civil law, but in any event, this gap exists, and it is much more difficult to bridge than I would have imagined before actually attempting the feat.

* Educational culture. Most American law schools place some value on original thought. Our culture is largely one of exploration and discovery. This is often a shock to students when they enter law school from degree programs that emphasize rote learning, and we spend a great deal of time (especially during the first year of law school) trying to inspire independent thinking. Foreign law students usually come to us with the same sort of bias for rote learning, but we do not have the time to train them. The result is that we are asking questions with no answers and they are wondering why we know so little about our area of supposed expertise.

* Law is complicated. How much can someone learn about corporate governance in six hours? Less than you might think. I have learned to approach these sessions through case studies (in this instance, a case study of Enron) because stories are more memorable than lists of important issues. Still, even at my best I can't hope to provide much depth of analysis. We spend most of the time establishing a framework for thinking about corporate governance.

* Their Motivation. What exactly are foreign students expecting from their interaction with American professors? In some circumstances, I have been teaching students whose primary interest was in practicing their English, and they spent a great deal of time flipping through their dictionaries, trying to learn new words. In other instances, I have met students who hoped that I might provide a contact for them in the United States as they searched for employment here. Of course, many of the students genuinely want to learn some American law, despite the obstacles.

* My Motivation. Why do I want to teach foreign students? In some instances, the primary motivation is that this is how I pay my way to their country. "Will teach for travel." Or I want to earn a little extra money at home. But there is another aspect of this, too, a missionary aspect that is more noble. I feel like I have learned some things that might be valuable for foreign lawyers, and I want to share it. Finally, I always learn from my students -- even those who are silent in class often share interesting insights outside of the lecture. Looking at the picture as a whole, however, I must admit that my incentives are mixed.

The bottom line question in all of this is whether these sorts of programs are worthwhile. Despite my disappointments, I have benefitted immensely from my travels and from my interactions with non-U.S. students. As a faculty development program, therefore, I am in favor. I have a harder time knowing whether the programs are worthwhile to the students. My sense from occasional conversations with alumni of various courses is that the programs are viewed positively, but not overwhelmingly so. Perhaps the key is to set the expectations at the right level -- that is, modest.

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