李锐：美国纽约大学法学院（2010年秋季学期）
时间：2011-02-22 来源：作者：
NYU Law Flashback
Life here is in the fast lane. Everything in New York City is 24-7. This mega-city runs around the clock like crazy, and it is, indeed. People always keep complaining about all kinds of things here in NYC, but the surging incoming crowd never stops. I was the lucky one, who can actually live in NYC, in Manhattan, at Washington Square Park, right on the 5Th Avenue, and as part of the NYU Law family.
Eating out and shopping is what New York is all about, and there are many delightful and reasonable neighborhood choices. There are many supermarkets and gourmet grocery stores in our neighborhood. Bleecker and Prince Streets have a terrific line-up of specialty stores, including bakeries, meat, vegetable, pasta and coffee stores, for those who like to do their shopping door to door. West 14th Street is a mecca for bargain hunters who have a tolerance for milling crowds, while East 14th Street has a supermarket, banks, and other more predictable offerings. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Union Square hosts a large Green Market with fruits, vegetables, flours and other seasonal offerings trucked in by local farmers. There is an unbelievable array of specialty stores in the Village and SoHo. Restaurants and specialty boutiques are everywhere, lining the east-west running streets above and below the Law School. By the way, it is really expensive here in NYC, and I am not pulling your leg.
Life is amazing, but school is pressing. This top-five-ranking U.S. law school would only double the pressure and speed inherited with NYC. There is rat race at every corner, giving nobody even a second to put his or her feet up. Students here are fully aware of the importance of being prepared, since playing off the cuff can barely keep your heads above water, but will never get you off the ground and rock.
I hate selecting courses because we have so many options and every single one of them is appealing. Law school classes vary widely in their subject matter and in the skills they teach. Here in NYU Law we have programs like Traditional LLM, Corporation law, Environmental law, IP law, Trade regulation, Legal theory, International business regulation, litigation and arbitration, Taxation, and etc. NYU Law’s classes generally fall into the following categories:
? Courses are lecture-style classes. Some are quite broad, but many are focused on subfields or particular methodologies. The choices are quite varied in this respect.
? A seminar or colloquium is a small class; some seminars may have as few as five or six students, while others may be as large as 30 students. Seminars and colloquia provide a more detailed examination of a subject than is possible in a lecture course, and class presentation entails significantly more discussion and student participation.
? A simulation course is defined as a mock or model class in which students receive tangible experience in tasks and processes related to a particular area of law. They are often classes in which students draft briefs and memos, conduct mock arguments, mock trials, or mock negotiations.
? Clinics involve representation of actual clients or communities under the intensive supervision of a faculty member. Clinics have a required seminar component as well. In order to serve clients and communities as effective practitioners, each clinic requires students to master particular bodies of law (e.g., family, civil rights, or death penalty law), and to learn specific skills suited to different practice arenas (e.g., litigation, policy analysis, and/or outreach skills).
? Directed Research is research and writing undertaken independent of a class and under the supervision of a faculty member.
NYU Law has a special and rewarding pre-course, Introduction to U.S. Law, which is designed for students trained outside of the U.S. legal environment. It usually starts two weeks before the fall semester begins. Introduction to U.S. Law provides an overview of the U.S. Constitution, the federal court system, and the American first-year law curriculum, and includes close reading, analysis, and discussion of a series of court decisions. In addition, the course includes segments on how to brief cases, how to do legal research on Lexis and Westlaw, and how to prepare for law school exams. While the course does not bear credit toward the LL.M. degree, and students are graded on a pass/fail basis, a final diagnostic essay examination identifies those students who, based on their examination grade, will be enrolled in U.S. Legal Methodology which focuses on research, writing, advocacy, and negotiation in a U.S. legal environment.
5 months in New York City, a real and beautiful dream. Life here is unique and awesome. Using big fancy words, I would say this NYU Law School stay made my experience intellectually stimulating and personally rewarding. Using own words, I would put it like this, I don’t wanna wake up from this dream.
Life here is in the fast lane. Everything in New York City is 24-7. This mega-city runs around the clock like crazy, and it is, indeed. People always keep complaining about all kinds of things here in NYC, but the surging incoming crowd never stops. I was the lucky one, who can actually live in NYC, in Manhattan, at Washington Square Park, right on the 5Th Avenue, and as part of the NYU Law family.
Eating out and shopping is what New York is all about, and there are many delightful and reasonable neighborhood choices. There are many supermarkets and gourmet grocery stores in our neighborhood. Bleecker and Prince Streets have a terrific line-up of specialty stores, including bakeries, meat, vegetable, pasta and coffee stores, for those who like to do their shopping door to door. West 14th Street is a mecca for bargain hunters who have a tolerance for milling crowds, while East 14th Street has a supermarket, banks, and other more predictable offerings. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Union Square hosts a large Green Market with fruits, vegetables, flours and other seasonal offerings trucked in by local farmers. There is an unbelievable array of specialty stores in the Village and SoHo. Restaurants and specialty boutiques are everywhere, lining the east-west running streets above and below the Law School. By the way, it is really expensive here in NYC, and I am not pulling your leg.
Life is amazing, but school is pressing. This top-five-ranking U.S. law school would only double the pressure and speed inherited with NYC. There is rat race at every corner, giving nobody even a second to put his or her feet up. Students here are fully aware of the importance of being prepared, since playing off the cuff can barely keep your heads above water, but will never get you off the ground and rock.
I hate selecting courses because we have so many options and every single one of them is appealing. Law school classes vary widely in their subject matter and in the skills they teach. Here in NYU Law we have programs like Traditional LLM, Corporation law, Environmental law, IP law, Trade regulation, Legal theory, International business regulation, litigation and arbitration, Taxation, and etc. NYU Law’s classes generally fall into the following categories:
? Courses are lecture-style classes. Some are quite broad, but many are focused on subfields or particular methodologies. The choices are quite varied in this respect.
? A seminar or colloquium is a small class; some seminars may have as few as five or six students, while others may be as large as 30 students. Seminars and colloquia provide a more detailed examination of a subject than is possible in a lecture course, and class presentation entails significantly more discussion and student participation.
? A simulation course is defined as a mock or model class in which students receive tangible experience in tasks and processes related to a particular area of law. They are often classes in which students draft briefs and memos, conduct mock arguments, mock trials, or mock negotiations.
? Clinics involve representation of actual clients or communities under the intensive supervision of a faculty member. Clinics have a required seminar component as well. In order to serve clients and communities as effective practitioners, each clinic requires students to master particular bodies of law (e.g., family, civil rights, or death penalty law), and to learn specific skills suited to different practice arenas (e.g., litigation, policy analysis, and/or outreach skills).
? Directed Research is research and writing undertaken independent of a class and under the supervision of a faculty member.
NYU Law has a special and rewarding pre-course, Introduction to U.S. Law, which is designed for students trained outside of the U.S. legal environment. It usually starts two weeks before the fall semester begins. Introduction to U.S. Law provides an overview of the U.S. Constitution, the federal court system, and the American first-year law curriculum, and includes close reading, analysis, and discussion of a series of court decisions. In addition, the course includes segments on how to brief cases, how to do legal research on Lexis and Westlaw, and how to prepare for law school exams. While the course does not bear credit toward the LL.M. degree, and students are graded on a pass/fail basis, a final diagnostic essay examination identifies those students who, based on their examination grade, will be enrolled in U.S. Legal Methodology which focuses on research, writing, advocacy, and negotiation in a U.S. legal environment.
5 months in New York City, a real and beautiful dream. Life here is unique and awesome. Using big fancy words, I would say this NYU Law School stay made my experience intellectually stimulating and personally rewarding. Using own words, I would put it like this, I don’t wanna wake up from this dream.