Foreign-trained legal scholars in the UK: ‘irritants’ or ‘change agents’?

Siems, Mathias

Abstract

In most countries and universities, few legal scholars pursue their academic careers in a country that is different from their home jurisdiction. However, the UK is a rare exception, as its universities have shown a great willingness to appoint legal scholars from any legal tradition and any part of the world. As the topic of foreign-trained legal scholars is underexplored in the current literature, this paper aims to fill the gap. It identifies 539 foreign-trained legal scholars at Russell Group universities, which amounts to 36.69% of their academic staff in law. Subsequently, the paper presents the results of a survey which explored how respondents deal with the challenges of being based at UK universities, such as the possible expectation to assimilate to the UK legal environment, and considering the impact of the result of the Brexit referendum. Overall, the paper finds that foreign-trained legal scholars should not be regarded as (negative) ‘irritants’ to UK legal scholarship and education, but that they can be rather be seen as (positive) ‘change agents’ in their universities.

Citation

Siems, M. (2021). Foreign-trained legal scholars in the UK: ‘irritants’ or ‘change agents’?. Legal Studies, 41(3), https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2021.15

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 27, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Mar 25, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: Nov 16, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 16, 2021
• Journal: Legal Studies
• Print ISSN: 0261-3875
• Electronic ISSN: 1748-121X
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2021.15
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1221979