Professor Lawrence Solan Named Co-Chair of AALS Section on Global Engagement

01/28/2020

Lawrence Solan, Don Forchelli Professor of Law and Director of Graduate Education, has been named 2020 co-chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Section on Global Engagement. The newly created administrative section is a merger of the sections on Graduate Programs for Non-U.S. Lawyers and International Legal Exchange. Desiree Jaeger-Fine, director of international programs at the Law School, serves on the section’s Executive Committee.

The Section on Global Engagement promotes international communication and understanding through the transnational movement of law faculty, administrators, and students. The section also promotes joint research projects among institutions and faculty around the world, and encourages, where appropriate, the inclusion of international and foreign law materials into the U.S. law school curriculum.

According to Solan, the new section was formed in recognition of the fact that most law schools have a single entity overseeing their graduate program and their exchange program. Brooklyn Law School encourages students who have interest in international law to take advantage of the opportunity to earn foreign LLMs at sister schools that also count towards their JDs.

An active member of the AALS, Solan has previously chaired academic sections on Legislation & Law of the Political Process and Insurance Law.

“I’m very happy to be a part of such a cooperative effort,” said Solan. “The fact that law schools that are technically in competition with each other can pull together to determine best practices in this area is very heartening.”

Solan, who holds both a law degree and a Ph.D. in linguistics, is director of the Center for Law, Language & Cognition. His scholarly works are devoted to exploring interdisciplinary issues related to law, language and psychology, especially in the areas of statutory and contractual interpretation, the attribution of liability and blame, and linguistic evidence. He is the author of several books on law and language, including The Language of Judges (University of Chicago Press 1993), which is widely recognized as a seminal work on linguistic theory and legal argumentation. He has served as president of the International Association of Forensic Linguistics and on the board of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health and the editorial board of the International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law.