Teaching Global Skills to International and U.S. Students

The Global Legal Writing Skills Committee is charged with supporting and promoting the teaching of global skills in an increasingly diverse and multicultural legal learning environment.  The Committee has compiled the following resources for teaching global skills to international and U.S. law students. The list is not intended to be exhaustive but rather a sampling of noteworthy resources.

ONLINE RESOURCES

GLWS Webinar Series

The Global Legal Writing Skills Committee has created a video library and webinar series on teaching international students and international law to U.S. students. The presentation slides and webinars are available at https://suensemble.suffolk.edu/Playlist/Qf58KsDz and https://suensemble.suffolk.edu/Watch/Px32Nnd6.  

 

Blogs and Educational Websites

  • ESL Resources
  1. http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/esl/
  2. https://sites.google.com/a/slu.edu/legal-esl/
  3. https://lawschooltoolbox.com/navigate-law-school-esl-student/
  4. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/678/01/
  5. http://home.gwu.edu/~meloni/eslstudyhall/shgrammar.htm
  6. https://www.englishpage.com/
  • Grammar and Legal Writing
  1. http://www.lawprose.org/lawprose-blog/
  2. https://mariebuckley.com/
  • Teaching International Law Students
  1. http://llmlegalwriting.blogspot.com/2017/03/

ARTICLES ON TEACHING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Legal English

  1. Marta Baffy, Shifting Frames to Construct a Legal English Class, 25 J. of English for Academic Purposes 58 (2017).
  2. Elizabeth R. Baldwin, Beyond Contrastive Rhetoric: Helping International Lawyers Use Cohesive Devices in U.S. Legal Writing, 26 Fla. J. Int'l L. 399 (2014).
  3. V. K. Bhatia, Simplification v. Easification: The Case of Legal Texts, 4 Applied Linguistics 42 (1983).
  4. V. K. Bhatia, Legislative Writing: A Case of Neglect in EA/OLP Courses, 8 J. of English for Specific Purposes 223 (1989).
  5. Teresa Brostoff, Ann Sinsheimer, and Megan Ford, English for Lawyers: A Preparatory Course for International Lawyers, 7 Legal Writing 137 (2001).
  6. Nigel Bruce, Dovetailing Language and Content: Teaching Balanced Argument in Legal Problem Answer Writing, 21 J. of English for Specific Purposes 321 (2002).
  7. C. N. Candlin, et al., Developing Legal Writing Materials for English Second Language Learners: Problems and Perspectives, 21 J. of English for Specific Purposes 299 (2002).
  8. Christine B. Feak, et al., A Preliminary Analysis of Law Review Notes, 19 J. of English for Specific Purposes 197 (2000).
  9. Christoph A. Hafner & C. N. Candlin, Corpus Tools as an Affordance to Learning in Professional Legal Education, 6 J. of English for Academic Purposes 303 (2007).
  10. Alissa J. Hartig & Xiaofei Lu, Plain English and Legal Writing: Comparing Expert and Novice Writers, 33 J. of English for Specific Purposes 87 (2014).
  11. Alissa J. Hartig, Intersections Between Law and Language: Disciplinary Concepts in Second Language Legal Literacy, 45 Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 69 (2016).
  12. Craig Hoffman, Using Discourse Analysis Methodology to Teach "Legal English", 1 Int’l J. of L., Language, & Discourse 1 (2011).
  13. Karl Uhrig, Cognitive Responses to Sociocultural Elements in Professional Graduate Programs: Two Case Studies, 3 TESOL J. 87 (2012).

Research, Reasoning, and Culture

  1. Teresa Kissane Brostoff, Using Culture in the Classroom: Enhancing Learning for International Law Students, 15 Mich. St. J. Intl. L. 557 (2007).
  2. Matthew A. Edwards, Teaching Foreign LL.M. Students About U.S. Legal Scholarship, 51 J. Leg. Educ. 520 (2001).
  3. Julia Hanigsberg, Swimming Lessons, An Orientation Course for Foreign Graduate Students, 44 J. Leg. Educ. 588 (1994).
  4. Elizabeth L. Inglehart, Teaching U.S. Legal Research Skills to International LL.M. Students: What and How, 15 No. 3 Persps.:  Teaching Leg. Res. & Writing 280 (2007).
  5. Robin Nilon, The Calculus of Plagiarism:  Toward a Contrastive Approach to Teaching Chinese Lawyers, 2 S.C. J. Int’l L. & Bus. 1 (2006).
  6. Julie M. Spanbauer, Lost in Translation in the Law School Classroom:  Assessing Required Coursework in LL.M. Programs for International Students, 35 Int’l J. Leg. Info. (2007).

ARTICLES ON TEACHING GLOBAL SKILLS TO U.S. STUDENTS

  1. John A. Barrett, Jr., International Legal Education in the United States: Being Educated for Domestic Practice While Living in a Global Society, 12 Am. U.J. Int’l L. & Pol’y 975 (1997).
  2. Susan Bryant, The Five Habits: Building Cross-Cultural Competence in Lawyers, 8 Clinical L. Rev. 33 (2001).
  3. Simon Chesterman, The Globalization of Legal Education, 2008 Sing. J. Leg. Stud. 58 (2008).
  4. Susan J. DeJarnatt & Mark C. Rahdert, Preparing for Globalized Law Practice: The Need to Include International and Comparative Law in the Legal Writing Curriculum, 17 J. Legal Writing Inst. 3 (2011).
  5. Diane Pennys Edelman, A Global Approach to Legal Writing and Legal Research: An Evolutionary Process, 5 Drexel L. Rev. 497 (2014).
  6. James R. Maxeiner, Learning from Others: Sustaining the Internationalization and Globalization of U.S. Law School Curriculums, 32 Fordham Int’l L.J. 32 (2008).
  7. Jill J. Ramsfield, Is "Logic" Culturally Based? A Contrastive, International Approach to the U.S. Law Classroom, 47 J. Leg. Educ. 157 (1997).
  8. Carole Silver, Getting Real About Globalization and Legal Education: Potential and Perspectives for the U.S., 24 Stanford L. & Pol’y Rev. 457 (2013).
  9. Carole Silver, Internationalizing U.S. Legal Education:  A Report on the Education of Transnational Lawyers, 14 Cardozo J. Int’l & Comp. L. 143 (2006).
  10. Margaret Y.K. Woo, Reflections on International Legal Education and Exchanges, 51 J. L. Educ. 449 (2001).
  11. Rosa Kim, Globalizing the Law Curriculum for Twenty-First-Century Lawyering, 67 J. Legal Educ. 905 (Summer 2018).

TEXTBOOKS ON WRITING AND LEGAL SKILLS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

General Textbooks

  1. Anne M. Burr & Howard Bromberg, U.S. Legal Practice Skills for International Law Students (Carolina Academic Press 2014).
  2. Anne Enquist, Laurel Oates & Jeremy Francis, Just Writing: Grammar, Punctuation, and Style for The Legal Writer (5th ed. Wolters Kluwer 2017) (includes a section for ESL students).
  3. Deborah B. McGregor & Cynthia M. Adams, The Guide to U.S. Legal Analysis and Communication (2d ed., Aspen Publishers 2015).
  4. Nadia E. Nedzel, Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students (4th ed., Wolters Kluwer 2017). 
  5. Laurel Currie Oates & Anne Enquist, The Legal Writing Handbook (6th ed. Wolters Kluwer 2014) (includes a section for ESL students).
  6. Jill Ramsfield, Culture to Culture: A Guide to U.S. Legal Writing (Carolina Academic Press 2005).
  7. Susan Reid, Legal Writing for International Students (Peconic Press 2005).
  8. John B. Thornton, U.S. Legal Reasoning, Writing, and Practice (Carolina Academic Press 2014).
  9. M. Baffy & K. Schaetzel, Academic Legal Discourse and Analysis: Essential Skills for International Students Studying Law in the United States (Wolters Kluwer 2020).

Legal English Books

  1. Kevin J. Fandl, Narrowing the Gap: Legal English for the New International Legal Practitioner (American Bar Association 2012).
  2. Craig Hoffman & Andrea Tyler, United States Legal Discourse: Legal English for Foreign LLMs (Thomson/West 2008).
  3. Amy Krois-Lindner & Translegal, International Legal English (Cambridge Univ. Press 2006).
  4. Deborah S. Lee, Charles Hall & Susan M. Barone, American Legal English: Using Language in Legal Contexts (2d ed. Univ. Michigan Press 2007).
  5. Susan M. Reinhart, Strategies for Legal Case Reading and Vocabulary Development (Univ. Michigan Press 2007).
  6. Mark E. Wojcik, Introduction to Legal English: An Introduction to Legal Terminology, Reasoning, and Writing in Plain English (3d ed. International Law Institute 2009).
  7. English for Legal Studies, ESP for Law Students, English for Specific Purposes: Case Studies in TESOL Practice (TESOL 2002).
  8. Craig Hoffman, Practical Legal English:  Writing as a U.S. Lawyer (West Acad. Pub. 2019).
  9. Karen M. Ross, Essential Legal English in Context:  Understanding the Vocabulary of U.S. Law and Government (New York Univ. Press 2019).

Legal English for Drafting / Transactions

  1. Cynthia M. Adams & Peter K. Cramer, Drafting Contracts in Legal English (Wolters Kluwer 2013).
  2. Edward W. Daigneault, Drafting International Agreements in Legal English (2d ed. Manzsche 2009).

TEXTBOOKS ON WRITING AND GLOBAL LEGAL SKILLS FOR U.S. STUDENTS

General Textbooks

  1. Mary-Beth Moylan & Stephanie J. Thompson, Global Lawyering Skills (2d ed. West 2013).

DICTIONARIES AND REFERENCES

  1. http://dictionary.findlaw.com/
  2. http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/
  3. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex