For several years now, the International Summer Language School (ISLS)has been offering a special course in Legal English for law students, practicing attorneys, and even legal English instructors. This course is part of  the summer school that has been held annually since 1990 by the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, the Czech Republic.
 

• The Legal English course is designed to improve both language ability and basic legal knowledge of the Anglo-American system. Since we mainly use the American legal system to illustrate the use of language, we use American Legal English, 2nd ed. (Lee, Hall, and Barone, 2007) as our basic text that will be provided to the students as part of the course fee.
• We will also be working with new modules created for the innovative, multimedia e-course Language4Law that is being developed by experts in both language and law from several European universities with the support of the U.S. Department of State. 
• The instructors are Americans with years of experience in the legal field or legal education.

If you are a student, attorney, or legal English instructor who might be interested in joining us this summer, go to the school's English site for general information about the school and applications for the Legal English course.

It’s really an exciting adventure as almost 700 people from the entire world learn English, Russian, Portuguese, German, French, Spanish, French, TEFL, and of course Czech! The school is held in Pilsen [Plzen] a small, friendly city that is very safe and easy to navigate. During the ISLS, the city opens its doors to us and makes everyone feel at home. Of course, this is the home of some of the most famous beers in the world.

Since English is the common language, you will have a chance to interact with native speakers, fluent non-native speakers, and of course, many at all levels of English from countries all over the world. Additionally, you can practice their other languages in the dorms, pubs, and restaurants in Pilsen.

The instructors are Americans with years of experience in the legal field or legal education.

The price for international students includes breakfast, tuition, several social events and 2 excursions in the Czech Republic weekly  (beginning Sunday, July 12, 2008). Students should arrive in Pilsen (about 2 hours west of Prague) on Saturday 11, July  and plan on leaving Saturday, August 1.

 Prices for the 2009 course will be posted soon. For illustration purposes only, we list the prices from last year as a rough estimate.

The normal price for international students for 2008 was

• 24,000 CZK (about  €960) per person in a single room of a two-room suite 

As in years past, there is a special price for students from Eastern and Central Europe:

• 19,500 CZK (about €775) in a double room (two people to a room) per person

If you hold a passport from country that requires a visa to visit the Czech Republic, you should begin the application process as soon as possible!

You can contact me with questions (charleshall@rocketmail.com), but you might want to contact the Coordinator of International Students for the ISLS directly at the University of West Bohemia:

Ing. Petra Taušl Procházková
Tel.: +420 377 635 775   Fax: +420 377 635 722   e-mail: pprochaz@rek.zcu.cz

We look forward to meeting you in Pilsen.

Charles Hall, Ph.D., dr.h.c. charleshall@rocketmail.com
Co-author, American Legal English and Co-coordinator, Language4Law e-course