Aspiring lawyers now have the opportunity to study law with a Chinese perspective thanks to a new program offered by the University of Sherbrooke in collaboration with the Confucius Institute of Quebec.
The two masterminds behind this program are law professors Henri Arslanian and Jerome Beaugrand-Champagne. They currently work in Asia, but come back regularly to teach the courses in Sherbrooke.
“The 21st century will be China’s century,” said Arslanian in an email interview. “China is now awake but instead of shaking, we should all try to take advantage of numerous opportunities that this awakening presents.”
“There has been a traditional lack of interest in Quebec about China," he said, speaking about student enrolment. "However, things have changed in the last couple of years . . . especially from the younger generation.”
He remembered when he first moved to China, “a lot of people made fun of me and thought that I was crazy.”
Arslanian's plans to study in China were motivated by a report on Radio-Canada which talked about “the Chinese economic miracle,” he said in an interview with Quebec Lawyers Abroad.
Arslanian said after months of studying Mandarin, which he now speaks fluently, he managed to graduate from one of China’s top schools, Tsinghua University, with a master's in Chinese law.
“Ironically, these same people [who made fun of me] are now studying Chinese,” he said.
As a professor, he said “teaching Chinese business and law is "very challenging.” Because of China’s recent modernization and economic developments, he said “everything changes so quickly that we need to spend a substantial amount of time refreshing our class material before each new class or conference.”
Arslanian said he finds China “a fascinating country with 5000 years of history but that is currently undergoing tremendous changes. This makes it a very interesting place to live and work.”
"The more I learn about China, the more I realize I still have a lot to learn,” he said.