The Atlanta Lawyer January/February 2013 | Page 10

professionalism Comments on Croatia By Nicholas A. Lotito Davis Zipperman Kirschenbaum & Lotito, LLP L ast November, I completed my second teaching assignment through the Center for International Legal Studies, this time a two and a half week assignment at the University of Rijeka Law School in Croatia. In 2007, I taught at the Center of Law and Economics in Vladivostok, Russia. By comparison, this was a much cushier tour of duty. Rather than a sometimes unheated dorm, which periodically lacked power or water, or both, as was the case in Vladivostok, I rented a small apartment in Opatjia, a charming town on the Adriatic and former vacation spot of the Hapsburg royalty. It was a 15 minute ride to Rijeka, the largest Croatian port and site of the University. As in Russia, students embark on a five-year course of study in law, combining and compressing our seven-year format, but necessitating students to decide [email protected] on a specialty, such as law school, at a time when we had to decide only on a college. I taught a seminar on the legal implications of battered woman syndrome, also referred to as battering and its effects, to about 30-35 second year students. This was a much easier task than in Vladivostok where I was asked to teach on about a dozen topics, with two or more classes to each of the five grades, plus an International Relations class, with class sizes often of 100 or more students. Also unlike Vladivostok, I was able to teach without translators since these Croatian law students spoke good English. One clear advantage was that my jokes were met with spontaneous laughter, rather than a time delay, following translation. My students were about 20, the age of my son Alex, a third year student at Emory. They were bright and attentive and asked good questions. One student suggested our system is broken if a woman accused of murdering a batterer has previously complained to police and was unable to get help. Another wondered if it were inconsistent to be opposed to the death penalty, but then defend the use of deadly force in self-defense. This feedback reassured me that students followed the discussion and were interested in the issues. Unlike Vladivostok, the teaching schedule allowed ample time to sightsee, and I took advantage, visiting 10 THE ATLANTA LAWYER January/February 2013 The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association