Last week, two-and-a-half pallets filled with 30 boxes of books donated by the faculty at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School were shipped to Beijing, China to assist in legal education there.
“The book donation is just a small act of giving by the BYU law faculty, but it has a large effect in China,” said Lynn Wardle, BYU law professor and coordinator of the book donations. “It provides an opportunity for Chinese lawyers, judges, law teachers and law students to study some of the same legal materials that have been used in legal education in the United States of America. That allows them to learn from the legal developments that have been tried and implemented in our legal system, which in some ways can benefit nations with developing economies and legal systems.”
This is the third shipment of law books sent to China from the BYU faculty. The first two shipments went to the Nanjing Agricultural University in Nanjing, China, where Michael Chen, a BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School graduate, served as dean of the law faculty.
“The university officials and students at NAU were thrilled to receive such a generous donation,” Chen said. “The books provided a valuable resource to both students and faculty.”
The current shipment of books will go to the Law Spirit program in Beijing, China. Law Spirit is a legal education program for Chinese lawyers who want to learn about American law and legal English.
Chen, now a practicing lawyer in Beijing, said the Law Spirit program has a wonderful library room, but hardly any books in it.
“For legal subjects like commercial and industrial regulation, international law, basic rights and many comparative law subjects, these new materials will provide a comparison or example,” Wardle said. “They may help prepare legal professionals in China for the kinds of legal rules and procedures they will encounter in the global legal environment.”
The law book donation project is ongoing. Wardle hopes to increase both the number of books collected and the number of countries into which the books are donated for use in legal education in future years.
For more information or to donate, contact Lynn Wardle at (801) 422-2617.
Writer: Tonya Fischio
