Dr. Ryan Rowberry of Georgia State University’s College of Law offered insight into the inner workings of the United States’ legal system in a two part lecture series in honor of Constitution Day.
While Constitution Day is recognized on Sept. 17, Rowberry gave his lectures on Sept. 20, the first called “The History, Structure and Challenges of the U.S Legal System,” which was held at 1 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre. Rowberry discussed the system’s history and structure and also other topics, such as lawyers, judges, juries, litigation and ended with legal issues in the news; specifically the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act commonly known as “Obamacare.”
“From my experience, many of us know more about it than we think we do,” said Rowberry after his lecture. “Understanding the structure and where the pieces do fit together, or not, and the tensions that exist can help people take a look at the legal system access it and use it positively and teach other people. I do think that one of the main problems is that we don’t know about our civics; hopefully this talk inspired students to want to learn a little bit more.”
The early lecture drew a large audience, including Hammond Mayor Mayson Foster, though the larger portion was made up of students.
“I came to the lecture because I’m interested in our legal system and how the Constitution formulates into it,” said Kirk Taylor, a social studies education senior. “It was really a great insight, one that only a particular person like Ryan who has traveled the world, could give.”  
The second lecture was held at 5 p.m. in the Alumni Center, where Rowberry showed the differences between the U.S.’s legal system and those of other countries. Prior to joining the College of Law at Georgia State, Professor Rowberry was a Supreme Court Fellow at the Federal Judicial Center, where he collaborated with foreign judges and academics on judicial independence and rule-of-law matters. Rowberry shared some of his experiences with judges from countries such as Rwanda, Kosovo, Japan, Iraq and Togo, a small country in Western Africa. Rowberry pointed out that many of the judicial systems in these countries, with the exception of Japan, are young and are still controlled by the executive branch of government.
“The executives have unbelievable power over the courts in some of these countries,” said Rowberry. “We should be grateful for our tri-part system of government that has grown up, but it is our culture, and we can appreciate it more. But it takes time for changes to happen, and it’s the people behind these changes that give me the faith that one day they will come.”

Dr. William Robison, department head of history and political science, introduced Rowberry to the audiences at both lectures and expressed his envy of Rowberry’s accomplishments several times. After the second lecture, Robison described the 37 year-old’s list of achievements as “amazingly ridiculous.”
Rowberry is an Assistant Professor at the Georgia State University College of Law.  As a member of the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth, he teaches Property Law, Environmental Law and Legal History.  Professor Rowberry’s research concentrates on the historical development of property and natural resources law.  He also examines legal issues facing Coptic Christians in Egypt.  
Professor Rowberry graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was an Islamic Legal Studies Fellow, a Cravath International Fellow and received the Irving Oberman Award in Legal History.  Following graduation, he practiced environmental and natural resources law at Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C.  Before attending law school, Professor Rowberry worked as a historian and an educator.  He transcribed and collated all extant medieval manuscripts for three of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; he began his second lecture in Middle English, much to the delight of the crowd.  He also taught 7th grade at a charter school and lectured in English and History at Peking University in Beijing, China.  He holds a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar.  At Oxford University he earned a M.Sc. in Comparative Education Policy and a M.St. in Medieval British History.