Celebrating I Two Decades in China
n 1981, China was largely unknown to the West. That’s when then Willamette University College of Law Dean Leroy Tornquist and Law Professor James Nafziger made the visionary decision to develop an international program with East China University of Politics and Law (ECUPL). Three years later, Willamette’s China Summer Program was born. Over the past 21 years, Willamette’s China Summer Program, the oldest such program in existence, has introduced some 700 students from Willamette and more than 120 other universities and colleges throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe to China’s rapidly evolving legal system. The four-week program, which is open to both law students and law school graduates, has also provided an inside look at the blend of ancient and ultra-modern that is China. “ECUPL is in Shanghai, China’s biggest city and center for international trade and investment, so we thought it would be an exciting opportunity,” explains Nafziger, who is the College of Law’s Director of International Programs. “The exchange program allows American law students to learn about the Chinese legal and judicial systems and Chinese society and culture,” says Xian Min Chen, a law professor at ECUPL and deputy director of the University’s International Exchange Center. The China Summer Program, which is taught in English, teaches students about American and Chinese law. “As a comparative law program, the China Summer Program offers a unique opportunity to gain insights not only into foreign law, but by contrast, into features of the American legal system,” says Nafziger. The China Summer Program has also evolved into an exchange program. A sizeable number of Chinese students have come to Salem to study. Willamette has also hosted three visiting scholars from China and published several articles on China-related legal issues and the Willamette Journal of International Law and Dispute Resolution, now in its thirteenth volume. Perhaps most importantly, Willamette’s China Summer Program has launched the legal careers of a number of alumni who are now major players on both the Chinese and American legal scenes.
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