UC First Amendment enthusiast shares love of the law abroad

Long-time University of Cincinnati College of Law Professor Ronna Schneider is also a well-known First Amendment enthusiast.  This past fall, her enthusiasm for and deep knowledge of the law brought her to Bordeaux, France.

Professor Schneider was a guest lecturer at the University of Bordeaux, sharing her knowledge about the law.  Schneider applied for and received an Erasmus+ grant from the EU.  These grants pay for visiting professors from around the world, and Schneider is the first professor from Cincinnati Law to receive one.  With the grant secured, she was able to spend a week teaching American law at the French university.

“I mostly taught graduate law students, and I did held a faculty workshop with some other professors there.  I was teaching on the American first amendment, so I taught religion and speech,” Schneider recalls.  She was asked to give a special focus on how hate speech is viewed and dealt with in the American legal system.

“The United States has a very different approach from European countries—actually, from everyone else.  Our philosophy is: the answer to bad speech, which hate speech clearly is, is to counter it.”  Throughout Europe, and particularly in France, the approach is instead to make hate speech illegal.

The consequences of different approaches caught some students off guard.  “I can still see this one student who kept saying to me, ‘wait, you can just buy Mein Kampf?!’.  Such a thing is unthinkable in France.”

Schneider also taught students about the role of religion in American law, discussing things like the Establishment Clause.  She insists that students taught her as well, given that France is a more actively secular society, with a civil law system, not a common law system.

Schneider especially enjoyed the hospitality of French colleagues and the intellectual discussions she had with them.  “They really integrated me into meeting the people of Bordeaux, which was really appreciated and really interesting.”

The trip was not all work, course.   “The city is absolutely beautiful.  It’s a wonderful combination of historic France with beautiful public buildings, but also a very modern college town.”

Schneider’s time abroad was a highlight in her distinguished academic career.  She is now teaching the First Amendment to the students who can exercise the rights it protects.