Thoughts About the First Week of FDI Law Class

2009-10-14

OK, I made it out alive after two (out of 20) classes. I was slightly worried about a class size of about 22, but I think it might settle down to under 20, which is more manageable. Around 15 would be the best.

So far, nothing too surprising. Comparatively talkative group. I think I've had participation from about 25% of the class, which is not bad. Considering that we have yet to discuss anything too exciting (today's lecture included Representative Offices), I'm happy with 25%.

As usual, I suspect that not all of the Chinese students are onboard with my teaching philosophy, which is to be expected. I do not simply review the black letter law, but try to approach the study of the law as a practitioner. I am trying to train FDI lawyers, not simply teach them what the law says.

Needless to say, this is not the normal style for a Chinese law school, so I usually get some students who think I'm wasting their time. Such is life. Hopefully some of them will appreciate my lectures more once they start working at a law firm and encounter practical issues.

But for the most part, so far, so good. We have covered Representative Offices and some basic issues with Foreign Invested Enterprises. On Monday and Tuesday of next week, we will dive into Joint Ventures, Wholly Foreign-owned Enterprises, trading companies, etc.

What I expect will be new to the students will take place next Wednesday – an in-depth review of a Joint Venture Contract. This is much different from reading about what a contract should look like in the law. We'll see what their reaction is to contract language and drafting issues.

I'll check in on this stuff next week.

Tags: China Law