ELI offers law program for 14th year

What do you do when you are a lawyer in a civil law country and want to learn more about the common law system of the United States?

If you have three years and $100,000, you could attend a U.S. law school and earn a J.D. (juris doctor) degree. If you only have one year and $30,000 to spare, you could earn a one-year LL.M. (master’s of law) degree from a U.S. law school.

And if you have only four weeks? You could do what 11 lawyers and law students did in the summer of 2006—attend ELI’s American Law and Legal English Institute (ALLEI). Since 1993, ELI has offered this unique program, which combines classes in U.S. law and legal English with professional visits to law firms, courts and government agencies in Delaware, New York and Washington, DC. This summer, legal professionals from Brazil, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan took part.

“This program is very helpful to my practice of law because it is more than just classes. Here we are able to meet colleagues and see exactly how the U.S. common law system operates,” said Pablo Roman, from Chile.

While studying in the ALLEI program, the participants attended a criminal trial in Delaware Superior Court and an oral appellate argument in Delaware Supreme Court, visited with colleagues in several law offices, attended a program of the Delaware Division of Corporations, and toured the U.S. Capitol and U.S. Supreme Court.

“The U.S. common law system, which originated in England, is significantly different from the legal systems of most other countries,” said Chris Wolfe, ELI’s legal studies coordinator. “I tell our participants at the end of the program that they are not only bilingual, they are now bi-legal!”

The American Law and Legal English Institute is offered each year in January and July. Additional information and applications are available on ELI’s webpage,
www.udel.edu/eli/programs_allei.html