Sometimes, It's Not Just Lunch

Law School Celebrating 25 Years in Europe

by Geary Reamey, Professor of Law

n 1985, Vincent Johnson and I were promoted to Associate Professor. To celebrate, we joined my wife, Kay, at a Thai restaurant for lunch. Our conversation turned to travel, and we chatted about how nice it would be to teach in a foreign study program, but quickly concluded that we were unlikely to receive such an invitation.

Spring rolls lead to international partnership

Maybe, we thought, we should start our own program. Ideas about possible locations for the venture flew around the lunch table. If we had been older, wiser, and more cautious, the idea might have ended where it started – with spring rolls. Instead, we proposed the idea to then Dean James Castleberry, who found the idea very appealing. It was agreed that Vincent and I would do all the groundwork, present it to the faculty, and – if there was support – be included in at least the inaugural faculty for the new program.

That summer, after we had researched possible sites for our program, Vincent was dispatched to Europe where he toured facilities and met with law deans of several European universities. His warmest reception was by Professor and Dean Fritz Raber of the University of Innsbruck, Austria. An ardent supporter of international partnerships, his response to a possible partnership with St. Mary’s was very encouraging.

After further discussions and faculty approval, the first session was set for July of 1986. Twenty-five students, including four from other American law schools, attended the first program. Ours was one of only 40 summer foreign law study programs offered that year and the curriculum included several classes on Texas law – quite an odd offering for the Alps!

Supreme Court Justices are faculty mainstays

Since then, much has changed. Always committed to a serious course of summer study, we attracted some of the best law teachers in the United States and other countries, and tailored our course offerings to focus on hot topics in international law. Vincent and I began a long, uninterrupted period as directors of the program, although he eventually moved on to other projects. The reputation of the program grew, and soon we were attracting 100 or more students from schools across the U.S. and several foreign countries each summer.

Now among more than 200 summer foreign study programs, St. Mary’s remains one of the most recognized and longest-running. Seven Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have taught in the program, several of them multiple times. The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist was on the faculty four times, and only failing health prevented a scheduled fifth appearance. Judges and prosecutors from the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia have lectured, too, as have many well-known international law practitioners, foreign law professors and local experts.

Innsbruck results in internationalization of curriculum at home

What else has come from that lunch conversation? Thousands of law students from St. Mary’s and more than 130 other American law schools have studied in Austria, taking courses not usually found on home campuses, and enjoying travel and cultural opportunities they might never have had. More than half of our own law faculty have prepared and taught courses in international law due to this program. Our international curriculum has expanded exponentially as a result, and we now offer a Master of Laws in International and Comparative Law at home. Our faculty exchange program with the University of Innsbruck has allowed more than a dozen faculty members to teach and learn in a foreign country, and St. Mary’s Bill Greehey School of Business started its own Innsbruck program after we began.

This year, we celebrate 25 years of success in internationalizing our curriculum, faculty, students and campus through the Innsbruck program. All because of a little idea at lunch. So, the next time you’re tempted to skip lunch, remember: It’s not just food; it’s an opportunity to do something whose impact can endure.

Professor Reamey teaches primarily in the area of criminal law and procedure, but has also taught courses in constitutional law, international human rights, jurisprudence, and domestic relations, and has served as a supervising attorney in the St. Mary’s clinical program. He joined St. Mary’s School of Law faculty in 1982, after several years in private practice.