LL.M. Program Features New Electronic Classroom

Law professors from the US and Europe and the University of Prishtina Law Faculty teaching in the new LL.M. Program in Contract and Commercial Law met virtually for the first time in a distance-learning classroom designed and equipped by the USAID Kosovo Systems for Enforcing Agreements and Decisions (SEAD) Program. The SEAD-supported master’s program begins this fall, offering seven required courses and six electives, including International Commercial Contracts, Company Law, Contract Negotiation and Drafting, Arbitration, Bankruptcy Law, English for Lawyers and a commercial arbitration moot court competition. International instructors will deliver their lectures via the video-conferencing technology Skype, in coordination with senior and junior law professors in Pristina.

“This is the first time such a master’s program has been offered with this approach,” said Bajram Ukaj, dean of the University of Pristina Law Faculty. “This teaching methodology is unique and will truly benefit students.” Assistant professor Luljeta Plakolli will facilitate lectures, student discussions and assignments with a law professor from the University of Utah Law School who is teaching Intellectual Property Law. “Students can achieve a master’s program in commercial law without leaving Kosovo,” said Plakolli, who herself has studied in the US. “This is an international legal education in Pristina.”

The one-year LL.M. Program recently was accredited, and will accept up to 50 students in its first class. Ten international instructors will lecture in English for one hour per week, with an additional hour alongside assistant law professors leading student discussion sessions and assignments. Students will be required to participate and complete assignments in English. Senior professors will offer their local perspective, teaching contract and commercial law currently evolving in Kosovo, as the draft Law on Obligations is now under consideration by the Assembly of Kosovo.

The Law Faculty was pleased to meet its international counterparts, with instructors introducing themselves via Skype from the American states New Mexico, Indiana and Utah and from London and the Netherlands. SEAD equipped the distance-learning lab with a dedicated internet connection, laptop and projector, video camera, sound system, networked printer and two desktops.

Assistant Professor Korab Sejdiu was happy to meet his international counterpart from New Mexico. Sejdiu will team-teach the course “Business Economic and Accounting for Lawyers” with a retired Dean and professor from the University of New Mexico Law School, who has taught and practiced company and commercial law for more than 40 years. Upon hearing the professor earned his law degree at Temple University, Sejdiu, who attended law school in Philadelphia in the mid-1990s, was thrilled. “You must be an Eagles fan,” Sejdiu said. “I can’t wait to get started and to work with you.”