12/02/02--Professor Robert Bloom recently returned from a prestigious six-week appointment as a visiting professor at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan, where he taught graduate law students about the American legal system.

While in Japan, Bloom lectured before the Hyogo-ken Bar Association in Kobe regarding American legal education. Japan is about to implement a three-year graduate program in law similar to that in the United States. This change is significant for the country, as law education has traditionally been an undergraduate education based exclusively on a lecture format.

Bloom also gave a lecture to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations in Tokyo about the country's new mixed jury system (to be implemented in 2004), where judges deliberate with citizens. One of the concerns of the Japanese government is how to encourage citizens to participate in the new system. "Japanese people are excessively dependent on the government," Bloom said, "so the challenge of the new system is for ordinary citizens to find their own voice, with a judge remaining a part of the deliberation process."

During the lecture Bloom drew examples from the American jury system and made recommendations on how to achieve truly autonomous citizen participation.

Photos from Professor Bloom's trip