In most countries and universities, few legal scholars pursue their academic careers in a country that is different from their home jurisdiction. However, the UK is a rare exception, as its universities have shown a great willingness to appoint legal scholars from any legal tradition and any part of the world. As the topic of foreign-trained legal scholars is underexplored in the current literature, this paper aims to fill the gap. It identifies 539 foreign-trained legal scholars at Russell Group universities, which amounts to 36.69% of their academic staff in law. Subsequently, the paper presents the results of a survey which explored how respondents deal with the challenges of being based at UK universities, such as the possible expectation to assimilate to the UK legal environment, and considering the impact of the result of the Brexit referendum. Overall, the paper finds that foreign-trained legal scholars should not be regarded as (negative) ‘irritants’ to UK legal scholarship and education, but that they can be rather be seen as (positive) ‘change agents’ in their universities.

中文翻译：

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英国受过外国培训的法律学者：“刺激物”还是“变革推动者”？

在大多数国家和大学中，很少有法律学者在与其本国司法管辖区不同的国家从事学术生涯。然而，英国是一个罕见的例外，因为它的大学表现出非常愿意任命来自任何法律传统和世界任何地方的法律学者。由于在当前文献中对受过外国培训的法律学者的研究不足，本文旨在填补这一空白。它确定了 539 名在罗素集团大学接受过外国培训的法律学者，占其法学学术人员的 36.69%。随后，本文介绍了一项调查的结果，该调查探讨了受访者如何应对在英国大学工作的挑战，例如可能期望融入英国的法律环境，并考虑英国脱欧公投结果的影响。总体而言，该论文发现，受过外国培训的法律学者不应被视为对英国法律学术和教育的（消极）“刺激物”，而应将他们视为其大学中的（积极）“变革推动者”。