UW - A short note

For any of my potentially intrepid exchange-mates to be (namely the Year 2's and the future legions of generations who will see this blog) - a short introduction to UW, which will probably be reiterated at next year's exhange talk.

[Yes, this to fill space. Complain not, eager ones.]

So what do you want to know about UW?

What's good about UW?
Generally, its IP and Comparative Masters' program, both of which have attracted students from the world over.

That said, as an exchange student, UW is a great place to

i) Learn about American Constitutional Law and its progeny.

You probably won't want to take Consti Law per se since it's a first-year compulsory course, but I took First Amendment last quarter, and am taking a Legislation and Public Policy seminar now which goes into the technical workings of the Legislative system of the U.S.A.

Prof Jay was on leave last quarter, but he's a leading constitutional teacher and is one of the best in his field. Prof Andersen is also excellent, and Prof Walsh has fascinating insights about the First Amendment issues the text brings up (though he is a little too Socratic). In short, UW features some excellent Constitution teaching - which will interest you if you like Comparative Law or want to know how the US government is supposed to run.

ii) Do Comparative Law over a wide range.

When I say this, I mean that due to the LLM on Comp Law, there's a range of Comp. Law courses available. I was a bit unlucky to miss out Conflict of Laws among others, but I did take US / EU E-Commerce Law which was a direct comparison of US and EU E-commerce law. I can't name others off-hand, but I'm convinced that the presence of the LLM means there should be sufficient Comp Law courses if that's your thing.

Ooh, ooh, link! Clickee linkee to see which comp. law courses are nominally offered. Oh right, there are international law courses which have you teleconferencing with Jap students, as well as Int'l Business Transactions by Prof Kang. So, pretty cool opportunities which I don't think NUS offers. (could be wrong)

iii) Seminars

Expanding on the theme of having leaders in their fields (and a big shout-out to Professor Rodgers who is one of THE leaders in Environmental Law in the US), UW has a heck lot of seminars and invited guests who will speak on their pet topics. There's a lot of focus on social justice, hence a litany of programs; and appellate courts sometimes hold hearings right in UW. It's like CJ Chan hearing a case in NUS! So, pretty exciting stuff.

iv) West Coast weather and travel

I cannot stress this enough - West coast weather is a literal breeze compared to the utter frigidity of the East Coast. Sure, New York's nice and Boston's famous, but West Coast weather is f-awesome in comparison. Winter here is a relative cakewalk and the comparatively milder temperatures mean good for you as a student.

Furthermore, you're 2 hours by flight to San Francisco, another hour away from Los Angeles and Vegas (by flight again), 3 hours from Vancouver by bus. LA and SF may not get the same press as grand ol' New York, but you can see New York in Vegas. :p Seriously though, SF is great and LA is nice too.

Sounds good! So what's not to love about UW?
Well, there are a couple things I should provide as due diligent notice:

a) International Law isn't quite international.

I don't believe this is purely a problem of UW, but let me not speak of other universities since I am ignorant. The 2 courses I've taken thus far about International Law (Int'l Law and Int'l Crim Law) have a very strong focus on what Prof Allen calls Transnational Law, i.e. law regarding issues across state borders, AND from a US perspective (i.e. how the US will act for an international issue e.g. me killing an american in Dubai - what happens?) So know what you're getting into - it sounds a lot nicer than it is.

AND for some reason (could be me), not all international law students are very internationally minded, a lot of them seem happily closeted in their little enclaves of American superiority. Ah well.

b) IP is chiefly off-bounds, removing a whole portion of potentially takeable courses.

This is a mix of friendly advice and practicality. I was informed before I left by a good friend that the IP regime in USA is rather different, and unless it was under the auspices of the LLM, it wouldn't make sense (in a I-wanna-sell-myself-to-a-firm way) to do IP here. Furthermore, most IP courses require you to have taken the base IP course - which as I understand is limited to the IP LLM folk and a few others, which probably will not include you within that range.

What this means is that a whole range of potential courses is removed IF you don't take the base IP course. And to be frank, it makes little sense to burn 8 credits which could be spent doing something else on one course, THOUGH it is pure papers and you have a heads-up over the other students who don't have English as a first language. You get my personal bias here, but do ask your academic advisor if you can do IP if you really think it worthwhile.

c) Wind is the enemy.

The cold may not be as biting as NY, and the weather doesn't get channelled to your bones the way NY buildings do. BUT the proximity to the fricking Pacific Ocean means strong winds. Strong wind + Cold = not good. I blame the Pacific winds for my cheeks (if my cheeks stay where they are by May, then I blame the food. :p), and as Lynn can attest, the winds are potentially fatal and threaten to blow you off your feet as you climb down the sidewalk.

So, wind sucks. And...

d) Uni Way is one of the oddest places in the world.

I don't want to slag, so I won't say much, but that I don't walk alone at night on Uni Way where possible and I try to stay on the other side of the road.

Anything else I ought to know?

Just this: You don't need to pay fees, but you do need to pay 484 every quarter for student insurance and your U-Pass, the latter which gives you free travel on Metro buses through Seattle, the former... Which is really better to buy than to go through the hassle of proving you have adequate equivalent insurance.

Oh, and books average about 500 a quarter. So be prepared to pay about 1000 in September, January and April. PLUS, taxes here are 8.9%, so be ready with some extra moolah when you think of buying whatever you want to. :)


For the moment, that's it for the rundown - buzz me to-be-exchangers with questions. Why no one post on my tagboard ah? :(