A Shining Hour Judge Browning, Justice White, Judge Kennedy Hear Moot Court's Best Advocates, Robert Teeter and Sandra Seville-Jones
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THE MAGAZINE OF THE UCLA SCHOOL OF LAW ~ ! L VOL 8, NO 3 SUMMER 1965 A Shining Hour Judge Browning, Justice White, Judge Kennedy hear Moot Court's best advocates, Robert Teeter and Sandra Seville-Jones. Story on Page 10. Dean Prager, Attorney General Van de Kamp and Justice Lui (presi dent of the law alumni] with graduates at the School of Law gradua tion program, which was held this year in the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus. UCJ. A J.aw is published al UCI.A for alumni. friends. and other members of The UCLA Sr:hool of La w wmmunily. Issued three timt•s a year. Orfices a t 405 Hilgard Avenue. Los Angelt!S 90024. " Pos tmaster: St!ntl address changes to Alumni Office, School of Law, 405 Hilgard, Los Angel es 90024." Charles E. Young 1 Chancellor Ted Hulbert I Editor Susan Westerberg Prager I Dean LaReesa Wolfenbarger I Editorial Assistant Michael T. McManus 1 Assistant Vice Marlyn Pauley I Art Production Chancellor, Public Communications Photography I AS UCLA Photo Service Joan T yndall 1 Acting Director of Development and Alumni Rela tions The International Law Program: A Diverse, Strong Composite by Ted Hulbert hen several s tudents in UCLA's Republic, was again on her way to China-this time international law program sketched to attend the trade fair in Canton, which for hun the outlines of their· itineraries for dreds of years has been a ce nter of in ternationa l summer work and s tudy, they drew commerce. Wong, w ho completed her UCLA law a vivid composite of the maturity, degree last December, sees the Pacific Ba s in as an divers ity and s trength w hich the area of unlimited caree r opportunity. program has achieved in its ties to nations which Cecilia Wu Hsu, a Chinese-American w ith fami ly rim the Pacific Ocean. roots go ing back to Taiwan. spent the summer hon UCLA law student David Kay, fluent in Mandarin ing her research skills at Hahn & Hahn in Pasadena. Chinese and a graduate of Brown University's pro Now in her th ird year of law at UCLA, Hs u ini ti all y gram in Asian hi story, was headed to Hong Ko ng became interested in the law as she saw immigrants where his summer with the international law firm from Taiwan struggle to become assimilated to the of Baker and McKenzie would give him a taste of u.s. the Pacific Basin's mushrooming commerce. Each of these students brings a unique perspec The s ummer was equall y exotic for Chen Ming tive to UCLA's program of Pacific Basin studies. mi an, one of two People's Republi c of Chi na stu All of them agree that their personal perspecti ves dents no w s tudying law at UCLA. He worked in have become vastl y enl arged, partly through the the downtown Lo s Angeles office of Kindel & process of legal education and partl y just by shar Anderson, dealing w ith conflict of laws cases in ing experiences wi th other·s in chall engi ng envi ron the international department. "! think it is quite ments. exciting," Chen said in modes t understatement of UCLA law Professors William Alford, Arthur his immersion in Western law. Rosell and Philli p Trimble provide the academi c Linda Wong, who in 1984 was the first U.S. law depth for the inlemalional law program; Alford student placed in an externship in the People's teaches Chinese law, Japanese law is expandin g 1 under Rosell's directi on, while Trimble leads the program of law, diplomacy, and na tional security. The School of Law offers one of the few programs .. in the country that fo cus special a ttention on Asian law, and UCLA's loca ti on in Los Ange les situates the law school in a major legal center w hich is also a foca l point of world trade. This co mbination of factors has a ttracted students of top cali ber. "These s tudents are very impressive; they are as good as any st ud ent s anywhere in the U.S. in terms of their background, training and intell ect. We're fortunate to have them," says Professor Alford. "We are attracting many s tudents w ith extensive lan guage skills," adds Professor Rosell, "some of them recent immigrants from East Asia, while others have specialized in East Asian s tudies as part of their academic careers." David Kay '86 is a case in point. Whi le at Bro wn Uni versity, he became fluent in Mandarin Chinese; he also acquired a background in Japanese, as he continued hi s studies in Oriental languages and li teratures at Berkeley. "I realized early on that language was the ke y to things," says Kay. "While reading a book on Chinese hi s tory in two trans lations w hich were very differ ent, I realized I would have to mas ter the language." Kay received a graduate fell owship to co ntinue hi s s tudy at the Stanford Center in Taiwan from 1977 to 1978, at a time w hen "there was no opportunity for any American to s tudy on th e mainland." The breakthro ugh in U.S.-China relations came the next year. "Scholars had recogni zed that the David Kay U.S. China policy would eventuall y change, but there had been no guarantee that it would be in our lifetime." Kay has jus t completed an article for publication a s um mer in Hong Ko ng. "Professor Al ford was in the UCLA Law Revie w on a topic whi ch, in its ve ry helpful on the article," Ka y says. He, in turn, own realm, represents a remarkable breakthrough has been assisting Alford's research fo cused on in Chinese law. Kay's article is on th e patent law of Ameri can trade reg ul ation and th e problems en the People's Republi c; the fact that a bod y of patent countered when nations w ith ma rket and non law now is evolving in China once would have market ec onomies do business w ith one ano th er. seemed beyond im agining. "My great interest is in Chinese law," says Ka y. "It is very unusual for a Communis t co untry to "I would like to practice in that area, s tarling with go to the length which China has to protect intel co mmercial matters and, I hope, growing into other lectual property," Kay notes. "Foreign scholars things. I would li ke to watch the development of were waiting desperately for something li ke this to American policy." come from China. It is a massive project, which With othe1· UCLA law s tudents, Kay has had the began several yea rs ago; China's patent law became opportunity to know two mainland Chinese stu effec ti ve in April 1985, and th e Chinese are doing dents as friends during this pas t year. Chen Ming everyt hing right, in the opinion of American patent mian of Zhongshan Un ive rsity and Lin Ketong of experts." the Chinese Unive rsity of Political Science and Kay's law review article w ill be publi shed in Law, UCLA's law s tudents from the People's Re October, a well -suited event to welco me the young public, w ill be completing thei r American legal China scholar home for his fina l year at UCLA after education this Fall. 2 each other." He smiles as he explain s this deep frustrat ion of language, and the smil e co nveys warmth and humor-quali ties whi ch surely are invaluable for surmounting culture shock. Near the end of his summer position in the inter national department of Kindel & Anderson's office in downtown Los Ange les, Chen says quite openl y. "I am s till trying to solve the language problem. I should be honest and say it has no t bee n easy. One year of law school is not enoug h; there is so much to be learned, and for me this has been a learning experience. "I think !learned a lot from this job. I have begun to realize ho w a n Am erican law firm operates, whi ch will be of great value to me as a Chinese lawyer. By working here, I have gained useful ex perience since there are so many law firms being started in China." The entire st ructure of law as it is taught in a Western law school has been a new experi ence for Chen. "The American law school's case method is very different from the Chinese method of legal edu cation. In China, the student onl y takes notes: in th e American law schoo l, discussion occupies mo st of the class lime. T hat is the major difference. "In America, s tudents are much more in vo lved in class discussions; they often raise ques tions that give views opposing the teacher. Of course, stu dents in China sometimes argue w ith teachers but not so often as American students. This is a good point tha t we s hould learn from. "My personal feeling," continues Chen, "is that Linda Wong the case method is not always systemati c. I think this ari ses from the fac t that th e American teach ing's purpose is for students to become future law "The study of law as it is ta ught in American law ye rs, and so they s hould be train ed to think like schoo ls is such a new experi ence for Chinese s tu lawyers.