Student Activities

Gray's Inn Program is an Eye-Opening Experience

An opportunity to study law in London, initiated by the School of Law in 2004, has been an instant success among students. Titled Transnational Dispute Resolution, the course is taught during May at Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in London. The students live in London for three weeks, attending class four mornings a week and visiting important English legal institutions such as Parliament, the Law Courts, and the other Inns of Court. The students also interact with the student barristers at Gray's Inn, dining "in hall" with them in the Inn's 16th-century refectory, debating them, and of course visiting the local pubs.

Rising third-year student Laura Swingle found the Gray's Inn program an eye-opening experience. "After completing the program, I felt I had a more well-rounded approach toward law and life in general," Swingle said. "Their legal culture and government system is so different from ours; it was interesting to learn law from a different perspective."

The program was initiated last year by Professor Martin McWilliams and adjunct professor Timothy Scrantom. In 2005 Professor Joel Samuels joined the program's faculty. McWilliams' and Scrantom's goals were to offer USC law students a study-abroad opportunity that would provide a close look at the legal system that was the basis of our own. Swingle thinks the program does just that. "It was the best class I've had in law school so far," she said.

The first week of the course is approved for South Carolina Continuing Legal Education. For more information visit www.law.sc.edu/graysinn/.

Swingle in Gray's Inn Square.

The Southeastern Environmental Law Journal

The Southeastern Environmental Law Journal is one of the few environmental law journals in the Southeast. A student editorial board publishes the journal semiannually, selecting two or three articles for each edition.

"We try to pick a mix of general and more creative approaches to environmental law when we choose our articles," Carolyn Perozzi, editor in chief, explained. Each issue also includes at least two student notes on a recent environmental law development. The journal's goal is to provide the legal community with a balanced presentation of environmental topics and an illustration of the pervasiveness of environmental law in all areas of practice.

The journal began 15 years ago, as the South Carolina Environmental Law Journal. After Professor Kim Diana Connolly began work with the journal in 1999, it was renamed to reflect its broadened scope. It provides students an opportunity to engage in sophisticated legal writing and editing in the environmental arena, provides scholars an outlet for a variety of articles related to environmental or natural resources matters, and has the additional purpose of serving practitioners in, or interested in, the Southeast region. The majority of the content is useful to a national audience, but the journal commits to publishing at least one article each year that targets the Southeast. "As the law school expands its environmental law offerings and programs, including dual degree programs in law and the environment, the journal fits in well with the rest of the environmental programs," said Connolly, who is now faculty editor.

C. Victor Pyle III, former editor in chief, is currently an associate at Ogletree Deakins in Columbia. He echoes the importance of the journal in providing timely and in-depth information about current environmental law topics that are helpful to practitioners. "I often refer to past journal articles in doing research for clients," Pyle said.

Perozzi also emphasized the big plans in store for the journal's Web site. "My goal this year is to increase the status of the journal," she said. "It is important to have the Web site as polished as possible because it can influence an author's decision on whether or not to submit an article for publication." In the near future, the Web site will feature archived lists of articles and article abstracts, to better serve the legal community.