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4.2.12
WC: 191694

The question I’m most often asked about my classroom teaching is how the students have
changed and how the teaching of law has changed during the 50 years I have been at Harvard.

The change in the student body has been dramatic. The vast majority of our students are no
longer the white American males that dominated the classroom in the early 1960s. Nearly half the
class is comprised of women, about a quarter of the class of racial and ethnic minorities, and
approximately 10% from foreign countries. This increased diversity brings with it a wide range of
viewpoints and experiences that enrich the class discussion.

Today’s students are also older, with more work experience. They come to the classroom with
firm, if not always clear, views of who they are and what they want to be. They are not the naïve,
sycophantic, uncritical consumers that characterized my generation of students right out of
college. This is all good, because it makes teaching them more challenging.

Equally important has been the globalization of law over the past quarter decade. When I began
teaching, all law, like all politics, was local. Today, virtually all law is global. A typical case that
comes across my desk and that I now teach about is as follows:

A man born in Israel becomes a British citizen and moves to Houston where he works for
a multinational firm which allegedly paid a bribe to an African prince from one country to
build a gas facility in another African country using French funds transmitted from a Swiss
bank. The person is now in Canada and the United States and Great Britain are both
seeking his extradition. The laws of each of the countries differ considerably as to what
constitutes a bribe, as distinguished from a proper or merely unethical payment. The laws
of each country also differ as to the propriety of preparing witnesses and gathering
evidence.

A lawyer confronting this kind of case must know how to deal with these transnational problems.
Law schools have traditionally offered courses in international law, teaching the students about
international tribunals and treaties. The source of problems confronted today are not decided by
international law or international courts. They are transnational, rather than international, in
nature and require an ability to navigate the very different terrains of many nations’ legal systems.

Among the areas of law in which political and legal boundaries are frequently crossed, are:
internet law, environmental law, antitrust law, corporate law, criminal law and many newly
emerging fields of law. We are just beginning to teach our students how to practice in this global
environment. We must do more if we are to stay ahead of major changes and prepare our
students to be great lawyers through the middle of the 21st Century.

I have been privileged to teach nearly 10,000 students over my half century career as a law
professor. Among the students I have taught, mentored, advised and encountered have been
Presidents, Supreme Court justices, judges, senators, congressmen, corporate CEO, deans,
professors, university presidents, journalists and other movers and shakers. With the privileges of
teaching tomorrow’s world leaders comes enormous responsibilities. Among these
responsibilities is not to use the classroom to propagandize one’s captive audience. My goal is
not to turn conservatives into liberals, but to make conservatives more thoughtful conservatives,

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