Having just joined ALSBTALK, I'm really enjoying reading the interchange.
I need any assistance or information you might wish to share on the following:
 
 A colleague is working with a major university in Belarus to establish a
business school there. We have visiting us now a small busload of
Belarussians, primarily scientists who will be teaching in the school. They
are learning English and being introduced to business academic study. My
colleague has asked me to do a two hour presentation on "the law" to which
I responded "OK." He doesn't know what these folks need or what would be
best for them. My suggestion was that they need an introduction to how law
and business/the economic system are integrated and how legal structures
and principles permit a market system to operate efficiently (or make it
difficult to operate effciently). Of course there are tremendous cultural
and social differences between the U.S. and the emerging NIS countries. I
know little of this and certainly less of their current legal structures.
While I do research, I thought some of you may have visited NIS countries
or Russia in similar ventures or assisting with legal structures/ business
law issues in developing market economies. Any information you could
forward me, directions you could point me in, experiences you could share,
or even suggestions for what to present to this group would be welcome. Is
anybody a Belarus expert?
 
Jim Highsmith
 
Responding to earlier messages:
1. Dan, our business law group is in the department with finance,
international business, real estate, and insurance. We have 6 full-time law
professors, but one teaches real estate almost exclusively and another one
is chair of the department. I've seen law housed with just about every
other disciplinary group in other schools, so I imagine your resolution
could be more a political one than one based on the logic of a particular
home. What makes the most sense in your school's culture?
2.Ken, on pre-law: pre-law advisors work well here. We have them in many
departments besides ours, including criminology, journalism, poitical
science, philosophy, management, etc. We have a legal environment of
business option in our department, but pre-law students are discouraged
from it because of the duplication for someone going to law school. The
philosophy department has a pre-law option. We fought their use of the
"pre-law" appellation, but we lost. Philosophy does a great job. Many
students, however, are naive about what is appropriate preparation for law,
and think they must take the "pre-law" major. I think counseling enlightens
them, but they may make choices about their major before they seek pre-law
counseling.
3. Todd Starr Palmer, We have an MBA required course entitled "Seminar in
the Regulatory and Ethical Environment of Business" that I teach. It may be
akin to the George Mason course that Linda Samuels described. Law
professors designed and have taught the course (with a one-semester
exception). I would not say it combines traditional business law and
business and society. We expect our students to have those foundations
already (some don't). It combines an extension of legal environment
(focusing on regulation and the public policy process) with ethics.
 
James Highsmith, Craig School of Business, California State University Fresno
209-278-2208 Office 209-278-2341 Department ----FAX 209-278-4911