School of Law Professor Christopher Kelley Teaches Legal Writing to Distance-Learning Students in Ukraine

Every Wednesday, Professor Chris Kelley, like so many university professors, begins his Legal Writing in English class be asking, "do we have any questions about what we went over last time?" The difference, however, is that Professor Kelley is teaching from the LL.M. study in the University of Arkansas School of Law, and his 57 students are at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, in Ukraine. The LL.M. study recently underwent extensive renovations with enhanced technology that allows faculty and students to connect with audiences and experts around the world. Students in the LL.M. program have utilized the technology to discuss food industry regulations with Helena Bottemiller Evich, a Washington D.C.-based journalist with Politico, and debate policy with Michele Simon, author of the EatDrinkPolitics blog.

Professor Kelley's international teaching history makes him both an obvious choice and an asset to the distance-learning program. Professor Kelley was a Fulbright Scholar in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 2005 and in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, in 2011. He frequently teaches negotiations and legal writing in English variously at universities, law firms, nongovernmental organizations, and business in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and Lithuania. He has also taught in Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation. Notably, he was the first American law professor to teach at the Belarusian State University Law Faculty in Minsk, Belarus.

In addition to his international work, Professor Kelley teaches in the Agricultural & Food law LL.M. program, as well as the general J.D. program. His courses include Agriculture & the Environment, Regulation of Agricultural Markets, Issues in International Agricultural Law, Administrative Law, Transnational Negotiation, International Commercial Arbitration, Law & Development, and Rule of Law.

Professor Kelley, along with other School of Law faculty, hopes to increase the number of distance-learning opportunities available in the future.