By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
Kevin Kennedy’s legal career has taken him around the globe.
Kennedy, a professor at Michigan State University College of Law, teaches International Trade Regulation, International Civil Litigation, International Commercial Arbitration, and Conflict of Laws.
An Illinois native, Kennedy grew up in Michigan where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan, and J.D. from Wayne State University.
“The law was attractive because of its empowerment aspects — one person could do so much with a law degree,” he says. “International law had been an avocation for a number of years.
“I’ve always felt like a citizen of the world. It’s trite but true - we live on a small planet. We don’t have to love one another, but we have to at least get along. The rule of law is one piece to solving the puzzle of how we can learn to get along. So many of today’s problems have a global dimension and are transnational in nature.”
After spending five years in private practice as a labor law attorney in Hawaii, Kennedy decided to turn his avocation in international law to a vocation; and armed with an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, he focused on international trade.
“My law clerking experience at the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York was fantastic,” he says. “From there I spent a couple of years with the Justice Department doing international trade litigation. After that it was on to full-time teaching.”
He has conducted international trade training programs in China, Egypt, Nigeria, and Uganda, has consulted the governments of Kenya, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka on international trade regulatory issues. He also was a foreign legal consultant for the law firm of Lim, Shin & Kim in Seoul, South Korea.
In addition to his teaching and scholarship work, he serves as a NAFTA Chapter 19 bi-national dispute settlement panelist. In 2008, Kennedy was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach and lecture in Sri Lanka.
“My experience in Sri Lanka was marvelous,” he says. “The people were very kind and generous to a fault. It’s a beautiful country with a very rich and long history. I highly recommend it as a vacation destination. Likewise in China, I found the people to be very friendly and generous.
“Whenever I travel abroad I always come back enriched. To quote Mark Twain, ‘Nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.’ And to quote him further, ‘Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.’ We need to keep that in mind as we tackle global problems.”
Kennedy has written more than 50 law review articles and book chapters, primarily in the area of international trade regulation. In addition to his law review articles, he has written a casebook, “International Trade Regulation,” published by Aspen Publishers in 2008; a monograph, “Competition Law and the World Trade Organization”; and co-authored an international trade law treatise, “World Trade Law.”
Kennedy joined the MSU Law College faculty in 1987, after serving as an assistant professor at St. Thomas University Law School in Miami. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Denver, the College of William & Mary, and Vermont Law School.
“I’ve always enjoyed the classroom and the interaction with students,” he says. “Naturally, the experience has been more enjoyable with some students than with others.
“After 25 years of teaching, getting ready for my classes is what gets me out of bed in the morning.”
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