1. Training Lawyers for International Mobility
Prof. Dr. Barbara Pozzo
Full Professor of Private Comparative Law
Dean Law School
Department of Law, Economics and Cultures
University of Insubria - Como

2. Summary Introduction: the Italian background
How to prepare law students for international mobility
1. Comparative Law Teaching
2. Comparative Legal Linguistics
3. Erasmus
4. Joint degrees
II. How to prepare practising lawyers to international mobility
1. Postgraduate courses
2. Summer schools

3. Introduction: the Italian background
In Italy statistics show that in the last 5 years the number of highschool students who want to spend one year abroad during the 5 years of highschool has doubled
Result of the Reform of the elementary and secondary school of the late ‘90s:
English has been introduced as compulsory language since the first grade of elementary school
Second language (generally French, Spanish or German) compulsory since the first grade of secondary school
This new self-consciousness with foreign languages has enhanced the willingness to spend one year abroad already at highschool level

4. How to prepare students for international mobility
When students arrive at the University → which are the problems to send them abroad?
In Italy Law school is a 5 years course with limited possibility of exams choice → so it is not so easy to convince students to spend one year abroad
Incentives:
Universities may integrate the EU scholarship to go abroad (Insubria has doubled it)
Law schools may organize their teaching program in order to facilitate students to go abroad at least for one semester

5. How to prepare students for international mobility
Especially, we need to prepare students:
to understand differences and similaritites between legal systems
to understand the strong links between a foreign legal system and the foreign legal language in which it is embedded: the language will be the first barrier that they will meet in studying a foreign legal system
Role of comparative law:
specific courses in private and public law
Introduction to the methodology of comparative law
Historical backgrounds of the different legal systems
Legal transplants
Legal translation and legal languages

6. How to prepare students for international mobility

7. How to prepare students for international mobility

8. How to prepare students for international mobility
EU law as a struggle towards harmonization, with its differences and contradictions
«United in diversity»
Role of translation and of the official languages in the harmonizing process
The EU Rule is drafted in one language (until now English in 90% of the cases), translated into the other 23 and implemented into 28 different legal systems: differences in the interpretation always emerge

9. How to prepare students for international mobility
Joint degrees:
Very difficult to organize (due to the different structure of the law school in Italy)
One year work in order to finalize an agreement
Como Insubria/Nantes: Juristes trilingues
Opportunity to work with those Highschools that have introduced the so called ESABAC: joint baccalauréat Italy/France

10. How to prepare practising lawyers to international mobility
Postgraduate courses
organized by the University and accredited as continuing legal education for practising lawyers by the Bar
Less burdensome than masters
Generally one day a week
Legal English
Translating international contracts
Translating commercial documents
In Como: Preparation to the exam of practising lawyers in Switzerland

11. How to prepare students and lawyers for international mobility
Summer School in Comparative Law
→ specific subjects: environmental law
→ how the same EU directive has been implemented in different countries (DIRECTIVE 2004/35/CE on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage)
→ how the same problems have been dealt with by different legal backgrounds EU/US, but also in emerging countries like China or India

12. Conclusions

13. Conclusions

14. Conclusions

15. Grazie