Education
The mission of The Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) is to "provide high quality education and a neutral forum for the generation of ideas and discussion of law and public policy for its legal, policy and regulatory communities." And in line with this mission as a not-for-profit education entity, FDLI has an obligation to the academic community to assist with the expansion and support of food & drug law.
In the past, FDLI has offered a number of academic programs, such as (1) a grant program that gave stipends to schools offering food & drug law as part of their curricula; (2) a fellows program that provided scholarships to law students furthering their education beyond the J.D. level in food & drug law; (3) the H. Thomas Austern Writing Awards program, and (4) the Summer Internship Program, a week long intensive educational program for law, pharmacy, food science, and nutrition students, and employees at the PHS, FDA, and NIH to learn more about food and drug law. Because of financial cutbacks, all programs except the Writing Awards Program were discontinued. However, FDLI continues its commitment to work closely with law schools, providing desk copies of textbooks, as well as academic pricing for books purchased for classes.
FDLI has a standing committee that focuses on academic programs. Dan Dwyer currently chairs this committee. The committee is currently evaluating the possibility of revising the program formerly known as the Internship Program for its utility as a recruitment tool for students interested in food and drug law.
FDLI also hosts a meeting during the Annual Conference for food & drug law professors for sharing and comparing classroom experiences. At the request of this Committee, FDLI has designed and implemented a law professors' web site which is password protected and is designed for sharing curricula, text materials, exams, and the like. FDLI is currently seeking materials for this web site. Please contact the Publications Department to submit materials.