In the first year of the Honors
Program, students take part in the Honors
Roundtable series. Honors Roundtable
discussions provide a small collegial
setting where discussions take place with
professors and members of the Rhode Island
Bar and Judiciary.
Roundtable facilitators choose topics of interest which
can include their latest publication, cases
pending before the United States Supreme
Court, or legal issues in popular culture.
Previous Roundtable topics have included "Constitutional Issues in the Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages and Civil Unions", "Are Lawyers America's Aristocracy", "The Detention of Accused Enemy Combatants at Guantanamo Bay", and "Judging Today: Adjudication in the Era of CNN, CSI, and Court TV".
Presenters have included Superior Court
Justice Judith Savage, the Governor's Chief
of Staff Kenneth McKay, and the President
and CEO of Women and Infants Hospital
Constance Howes.
Throughout the year students are also invited
to participate in a range of academic and
social events.
First Year Summer
In the summer after the first year
of study, honors students are encouraged
to study abroad in the School of Law's programs
in Lisbon, Portugal and London, England.
In London, students are able to intern
with a barrister selected from among some
of the most successful chambers of London. In Lisbon, students study from European faculty and with law students from several European countries.
During the summer, students are strongly
encouraged to compete for Law Review. Writing
and editing for a law review are among the
most valuable and prestigious activities
available to students in American legal
education.
Our law review student editors have edited
and published works of professors from many
fine law schools including Columbia, Cornell,
Harvard, and Yale.
Second Year
Honors students
take special Honors Perspective Courses
in each semester of their second and third
years.
Roger
Williams' unique Perspective Series is a
collection of one-credit courses devoted
to reading and discussing a single book.
Books - selected to give students important
and different perspectives on the law -
have in recent years included:
Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality (Kluger)
The Bramble Bush (Llewellyn)
The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (Lessig)
Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process (Cover)
No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (Kerber)
Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France (Weisberg)
In both the second and third years, many honors students are chosen to serve as faculty research assistants, an excellent way to work one-on-one with a faculty member on his or her ongoing research.
Second Year Summer
In the summer following the second year
of study, every effort will be made to place
honors students in positions with public
and private legal organizations.
Third Year
In the final year of study, qualified honors
students are given preference to participate
in externships with state and federal judicial
officers in Rhode Island, including externships
with members of the Rhode Island Supreme
Court and the federal courts.
Upon graduation and successful completion of the honors program, students receive a special honors certificate and enjoy a special graduation reception in their honor. A note of completion is also placed on the law school transcript.
