Egyptian Law Professors Elect to Visit BU on a Tour of American Law Schools
The professors toured BU Law as part of a USAID-funded project on legal education organized by the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative.
This November, Boston University School of Law hosted a group of law professors from Egypt. The visit was organized by the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), a USAID-funded program created to support the legal principle that nations should be governed by the law, rather than by individual government officials. The project was established in 2007, and works closely with partners in more than sixty countries to “build sustainable institutions and societies that deliver justice, foster economic opportunity and ensure respect for human dignity.” The professors elected to visit BU Law based in part on the strength of its clinical law program and innovations in experiential education and pedagogy.
Over their two-day visit at BU Law, the professors from Egypt met with faculty and students, sat in on multiple clinics’ classes, and toured the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse in Boston and watched civil clinic students give simulations of their arguments in a federal case. While at the courthouse, they had lunch with US District Court Judge William G. Young, who spoke to them about the American legal system. Associate Dean for Experiential Education Peggy Maiseland Associate Director of Clinical & Trial Programs Adrienne Smith helped organize the agenda and gather professors to support the visit.
The professors came from two universities: Ain Shams University Faculty of Law in Cairo and Menoufia UniversityFaculty of Law in Al Minufya. Their specialties range from international trade law, to civil procedure and criminal law, among areas. At a lunch with BU Law faculty and staff held in their honor, Professor Ahmed Khalifa of Ain Shams University gave an overview of legal education in Egypt and spoke about the challenges of integrating experiential education into their system. His colleague, Sahar Abd El Sattar Emam Aly, then discussed what she has done to establish an extra-curricular clinical program at Menoufia University. The professors noted how much they appreciate the exchange of ideas available to them on such a visit, and that they looked forward to adapting what they had learned in the United States to work in the Egyptian system of legal education.