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Pamela J. Smith, an associate professor of law at the University
of Missouri, taught courses in U.S. patent, intellectual property,
software and cyberspace law at Renmin University of China's School
of Law in Beijing.
Smith found that students were particularly interested in U.S.
intellectual property and cyberspace law. While Beijing's next
generation of lawyers may not include many who will ever actually
practice in the United States, "they fully intend to be world
participants," she says.
The law professor also noted that the People's Republic of China
is working to bring its laws into compliance with international
treaties. Since the United States is a leader in this area, studying
its laws helps the Chinese to understand how intellectual property
is defined and regulated in the West.
She hopes to stay in contact with her Chinese students and plans
future collaborations with at least two Chinese colleagues. These
will probably include a comparative analysis of U.S. laws with
those being written, amended and applied in China as well as visits
from Chinese lecturers to Missouri's Columbia School of Law.
There was so much enthusiasm for Smith's lectures that she was
also invited to speak in the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
In China, Smith says she also sharpened her classroom skills.
Lecturing in English to students who nodded-even when they didn't
fully understand-taught her to be more sensitive to those who
don't ask questions back home. "It broke down my assumptions
that people hear exactly what you intended to say, just because
you said it," says Smith, who as a result has introduced
more repetition and comprehension testing into her teaching.
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