Date: 2021
Type: Article
Foreign-trained legal scholars in the UK : ‘irritants’ or ‘change agents’?
Legal studies, 2021, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 373-389
SIEMS, Mathias, Foreign-trained legal scholars in the UK : ‘irritants’ or ‘change agents’?, Legal studies, 2021, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 373-389
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71790
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
In most countries and universities, few legal scholars pursue their academic careers in a country that is different from their home jurisdiction. However, the UK is a rare exception, as its universities have shown a great willingness to appoint legal scholars from any legal tradition and any part of the world. As the topic of foreign-trained legal scholars is underexplored in the current literature, this paper aims to fill the gap. It identifies 539 foreign-trained legal scholars at Russell Group universities, which amounts to 36.69% of their academic staff in law. Subsequently, the paper presents the results of a survey which explored how respondents deal with the challenges of being based at UK universities, such as the possible expectation to assimilate to the UK legal environment, and considering the impact of the result of the Brexit referendum. Overall, the paper finds that foreign-trained legal scholars should not be regarded as (negative) ‘irritants’ to UK legal scholarship and education, but that they can be rather be seen as (positive) ‘change agents’ in their universities.
Additional information:
First published online: 25 March 2021
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71790
Full-text via DOI: 10.1017/lst.2021.15
ISSN: 0261-3875; 1748-121X
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Sponsorship and Funder information:
This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - CUP Transformative Agreement (2020-2022)