I am very impressed with my fellow students and professors (the two that I have) here at the National University of Singapore. Studying here really impresses upon me the narrow-minded approach that Americans have to the world. Yes, law school in the U.S. is probably the most challenging in the world, and no doubt prepares students more to be lawyers than schools out here (I still can't believe law degrees are an undergraduate degree in most of the world?!), but still our education is very limited to what matters in AMERICA, and no where else. We just don't look outside. Here in Singapore everyone knows about the legal systems in, at the very least, the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, India, China, and maybe even places like Sri Lanka and South Africa. It's amazing. They can tell you how the political systems are structured, how judges are selected for the highest court of the land, how international law is incorporated into the domestic laws... sometimes I feel rather small when I realize that my Singaporean professor may actually know more about the American legal system than I do.

Singapore is a very interesting country in which to study the law because Singapore intentionally look to other countries for guidance in its own courts. For example, Singapore's tax law is taken almost totally from South African tax law. Singaporeans look around the world to see who is doing things right, and then borrow and make it their own. Of course, Singapore has only been a country since 1965 and is still very much in the early years of developing its judicial system. But it's good to be in a country where people realize that they can learn something from the experiences of others....