Students on the Italian study tour prepare for a trip down into an old mine on the southwest corner of the island of Sardinia.
For the past 15 years, The John Marshall Law School has had a cooperative agreement with the University of Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy, that has been nurtured by Professor William Mock.
“I’ve been back and forth several times, and we’ve hosted their faculty,” he explained. This past summer, under the auspices of the Italian government, Mock was an invited professor at the university teaching “Comparative Federalism,” examining the similarities of the governments of the European Union (EU) and the United States. The US federal system is more than 200 years old, and it is an open question whether the EU is evolving towards a federal system or is designing a new governance structure altogether.
“One of the ongoing debates is whether the EU members will move closer together or move farther apart for individual identity,” he explained. “You can look at the EU countries, like Italy, France, and Germany and question how they treat their own regions, which would be much like how our states treat counties, and how they are treating members as nations, similar to how our federal government treats the states.”
The Italian students were also very interested in the upcoming presidential election and what Americans and the candidates are saying about the war in Afghanistan, the economy and unemployment, the Affordable Care Act, and international relations.
Mock was able to direct the students to various U.S. websites, including one that is a “futures market” in politics, so they can follow the ups and downs of the election.
He also joined John Marshall students in the “EU Regulation and Governance” class during their field trip to Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean. He accompanied them on visits with government officials and a court hearing, and through several regional sites, including Roman, Greek, and Phoenician ruins.
For Italians, the partnership has brought professors to John Marshall. Gianmario Demuro, a professor at the University of Caligiari, has taught at the law school several times, most recently in spring 2012. Both he and Giovanni Coinu, a Cagliari professor and former Fulbright scholar at John Marshall, will be returning in coming years as adjunct professors.
Mock was joined in June by Professor Mark Wojcik , as Professors Mock, Wojcik, Demuro, and Coinu served as co-organizers of the 2012 Mare Nostrum conference at the University of Calgiari, examining law and culture of the Mediterranean.