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Law students travel to Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia
Six UB law students and their professor are studying how national law can help stabilize the chaos in countries struggling from war and civil strife during a four-week educational seminar to Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia.
Isabel Marcus, professor of law who organized the seminar and who accompanied the students oversees, said she believes the trip is the first of its kind among any law schools in the U.S.
A former chair of the Department of Women’s Studies who has made numerous professional trips to these war-torn countries working with human rights advocates, Marcus said the students—all in their mid-20s to early-30s—have impressed her with their interest and zeal for their upcoming experience.
“I believe that this program is an innovation in the school curriculum,” Marcus told the UB Reporter before leaving with the students on Jan. 2. “It allows students to study a subject intensively on site after spending a semester learning from books and documents. It also will show them how complex the issues of identity, nationalism and the rule of law are in a post-war zone like the region that was formerly Yugoslavia.”
The students took an intensive seminar she taught during the fall 2008 semester, Marcus noted, adding that they are keeping journals during their trip and will write a research paper upon their return.
“In each country, their schedule includes discussions with law professors and students, representatives of different human rights groups, police officers and judges, journalists, religious leaders, cultural figures and a representative from the Ministry of Education in Kosovo, where a new curriculum for schools is being developed,” she said.
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