Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:24:02.618Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Born to be Wild: The “Trans-systemic” Programme at McGill and the De-Nationalization of Legal Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Helge Dedek  and
Armand de Mestral

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Legal education is changing. What is changing is our understanding of “education”, of how we learn and how we should teach. Also changing is our understanding of how to define what is “legal” about “legal education”. Most will nowadays agree that legal education should be more than a vocational training for the practice of the profession in a particular jurisdiction. In analyzing the development of legal education in recent years, we can distinguish two trajectories. Firstly, there is the ongoing attempt of specifically the North American legal academy to make legal studies a transdisciplinary endeavour, a development closely connected to the major “paradigm shifts” in legal theory in the 20th century. Secondly, it seems that jurisdictional boundaries have lost significance in an internationalized, globalized and post-regulatory environment. This calls into question the very notion of “law” itself, at least as traditionally understood as a system of posited norms within a given jurisdiction. How should both developments be reconciled?

Type
Section 3: ‘Inside-Out?’ Towards a Transnational Legal Education?
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 6-7: Following the Call of the Wild: The Promises and Perils of Transnationalizing Legal Education , July 2009 , pp. 889 - 912
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 See, e.g., Cleveland-Innes, Martha & Emes, Claudia, Principles of Learner-centered curriculum: Responding to the Call of Change, 35 The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 85–110 (2005).Google Scholar

2 See, e.g., Maharg, Paul, Transforming Legal Education, Learning and Teaching the Law in the Early Twenty-first Century, 77–98 (2007).Google Scholar

3 See, for an introduction, Zumbansen, Peer, Transnational Law, in Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, 738 (Jan Smits ed., 2006).Google Scholar

4 See, e.g, Charles R. Lawrence III, The Word and the River: Pedagogy as Scholarship as Struggle, 65 Southern California Law Review, 2231–2298 (1991-1992), on the interplay between scholarship and teaching from the perspective of a critical race scholar.Google Scholar

5 MacCrate, Robert, Paradigm Lost – or Revised or Regained?, 38 Journal of Legal Education (J. Legal Educ.), 295 (1988); Priest, George L., Social Science Theory and Legal Education: The Law School as University, 33 J. Legal Educ, 437 (1983).Google Scholar

6 Priest (note 5) See also Thomas S. Ulen, A Nobel Prize in Legal Science? Theory, Empirical Work and the Scientific Method in the Study of Law, 2002 University of Illinois Law Review, 875, 916 (2002).Google Scholar

7 Collier, Charles W., Interdisciplinary Legal Scholarship in Search of a Paradigm, 42 Duke Law Journal, (Duke L. J.) 840, 842 (1992-1993).Google Scholar

8 Carrington, Paul, Butterfly Effects: The Possibilities of Law Teaching in a Democracy, 41 Duke L. J, 741, 789 (1992).Google Scholar

9 Reimann, Mathias, Stepping out of the European Shadow: Why Comparative Law in the United States Must Develop Its Own Agenda, 46 American Journal of Comparative Law, (Am. J. Comp. L.) 637 (1998). See also William Twining, A Cosmopolitan Discipline? Some Implications of ‘Globalisation’ for Legal Education, 8 Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education, (J. Commonwealth L. & Legal Educ.) 13, 25 (2001): “America might have been more inward-looking, but which legal culture has developed more sophistication in dealing with multiple jurisdictions and multi-culturalism?”Google Scholar

10 See, for example, Duca, Louis Del, Introduction to Educating Lawyers for Transnational Challenges, 23 Penn State International Law Review, (Penn St. Int'l L. Rev.) 741 (2004-2005).Google Scholar

11 See, e.g., Towards a European Civil Code 3rd ed, 353 (Arthur Hartkamp & Martijn W. Hesselink et. al. eds., 2004); Jan Smits, The Making of European Private Law, Towards a Ius Commune Europaeum as a Mixed Legal System (2002).Google Scholar

12 Principles, Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law, Draft Common Frame of Reference, Interim Outline Edition (Christian von Bar, Eric Clive & Hans Schulte-Nölke eds., 2008). For a recent critical assessment, see, e.g., Horst Eidenmüller, Florian Faust, Hans Christoph Grigoleit, Nils Jansen, Gerhard Wagner, and Reinhard Zimmermann, The Common Frame of Reference for European Private Law—Policy Choices and Codification Problems, 28 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 659 (2008). Cf., on the politics of European private/contract law harmonization, the “Action Plan” of the Commission: Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, A More Coherent European Contract Law, An Action Plan, COM (2003) 68 final, 12 February 2003. See also, e.g., Hugh Beale, The Future of the Common Frame of Reference, 3 European Review of Contract Law (E.R.C.L.) 257 (2007); Legrand, Pierre, Antivonbar, 1 Journal of Comparative Law, 13 (2006); Collins, Hugh et al., Social Justice in European Contract Law: a Manifesto, 10 European Law Journal, (Eur. L. J.), 653 (2004); Martijn. W. Hesselink, The Politics of a European Civil Code, 10 Eur. L. J., 675 (2004).Google Scholar

13 Larouche, Pierre, Recueils Jus Commune pour le Droit Commun de l'Europe, 3 Revue de la common law en français 99 (1999). Some scholars, however, have drawn an explicit connection between the scholarship that focuses on the “Europeanization” of law and the possibility of a “European law school”: see, e.g., Ugo Mattei & Mauro Bussani, The Common Core Approach to European Private Law, 3 Columbia Journal of European Law, (Colum. J. Eur. L.) 339, 341 (1996); Herringa, Aalt-Willem, Towards a European Law School! A Proposal for a Competitive, Diversified Model of Transnational Co-operation, in Towards a European Ius Commune in Legal Education and Research 3–13 (Michael Faure, Jan Smits & Hildegard Schneider eds., 2002),Google Scholar

14 See, e.g., Smits (note 11), 5–6; see also, on the “ius commune of family law” – focusing on Canon law rather than on Roman law – Masha Antokolskaia, The “Better Law Approach” and the Harmonization of Family Law, in Perspectives for the unification and harmonisation of family law in Europe 159, 169–172 (Katharina Boele-Woelki ed., 2003).Google Scholar

15 Glenn, H. Patrick, On Common Laws 16 (2007).Google Scholar

16 For a first introduction see, e.g., Peter Stein, Roman Law in European History 71–101 (1999). On the debate on the importance of the historical ius commune for the advent of the “new” ius commune europaeum see R.C. van Caenegem, European law in the past and the future: unity and diversity over two millennia 22–37 (2002); Zimmermann, Reinhard, Roman and comparative law: The European perspective (some remarks apropos a recent controversy), 16 Journal of Legal History (J. Legal Hist.) 21, 25 (1995); Luig, Klaus, The history of Roman private law and the unification of European law, 5 Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht, (ZEuP) 405 (1997); Zimmermann, Reinhard, Harmonisation of Private Law in Europe, in Hartkamp & Hesselink et. al (note 11), 21.Google Scholar

17 See also Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson, The rise of comparative law: a challenge for legal education in Europe, Walter van Gerven Lectures (7) 1–25 (2007); Hondius, Ewoud, The European Private Law Movement and the changes it requires in legal education and research, in Faure et al (note 13), 39–55, calling for a “fundamental shift” in legal education (id., 55).Google Scholar

18 Which is, of course, not to say that such scholarship does not exist: see, e.g., Stephan Leibfried, Christoph Möllers, Christoph Schmid & Peer Zumbansen, Redefining the Traditional Pillars of German Legal Studies and Setting the Stage for Contemporary Interdisciplinary Research, 7 German Law Journal (GlJ) 661 (2006); see also the recent essay collection Juristenausbildung in Europa zwischen Tradition und Reform (Thomas Finkenauer, Christian Baldus &Thomas Rüfner eds., 2008).Google Scholar

19 See Duxbury, Neil, English Jurisprudence between Austin and Hart, 91 Virginia Law Review 54 (2005).Google Scholar

20 See Kristoffel Grechenig and Martin Gelter, The Transatlantic Divergence in Legal Thought: American Law and Economics vs. German Doctrinalism, 31 Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, 295 (2008).Google Scholar

21 See, e.g., Frank, Jerome, Why not a Clinical Lawyer-School?, 81 University of Pennsylvania Law Review, (U. Pa. L. Rev.) 907 (1933); Frank, Jerome, What Constitutes A Good Legal Education?, 19 American Bar Association Journal, (A.B.A.J.) 723 (1933).Google Scholar

22 Blanc-Jouvan, Xavier, Bijuralism in Legal Education: A French View 52 J. Legal Educ., 61 (2002).Google Scholar

23 See, e.g., on double degree programmes Klebes-Pelissier, Anne, Double degrees in the context of the Bologna process, 4 European Journal of Legal Education (Eur. J. Leg. Educ.), 173 (2007); Guinchard, Audrey, The double degree experience between England and France: a contribution to an integrated European legal education, 4 Eur. J. Leg. Educ. 3 (2007). Examples would be the well-established partnership between universities of Cologne and Paris I, available at: http://www.mastercologneparis.info/, or the cooperation between the universities of Groningen, Bremen, and Oldenburg, available at: http://www.hanse-law-school.de/about_hls.htm. It is worth mentioning that several European law schools are also involved in innovative global initiatives such as the Center for Transnational Legal Studies, founded under the aegis of Georgetown Law available at: http://ctls.georgetown.edu/, or the ATLAS programme (“Association of Transnational Law Schools”, available at: www.atlasdoctorate.com), which is geared towards graduate students.Google Scholar

24 Maastricht University, Available at: www.unimaas.nl/default.asp?template=werkveld.htm&id=TQTGGH3RV45E65RJGTRQ&taal=en.Google Scholar

25 Another experiment in educating law students in several legal systems is the Hanse Law School Programme, see, (note 23).Google Scholar

26 See the resolution of the “European Law Faculties Association” on Strengthening the European Dimension of Legal Education, 4 Eur. J. Leg. Educ., 115 (2007), which is quite telling as to the current state of affairs:Google Scholar

“ELFA-Resolution II/06: European Law Teachers

ELFA encourages a European dimension of legal teaching that presupposes an educational experience abroad as a desirable feature of the career of a law teacher. The same should also be true for the judiciary. Law schools should be encouraged to require for newly appointed law teachers to have studied law abroad for at least one semester. Studies abroad have become possible by means of the Socrates-Erasmus Programme. To require such an experience for law teachers appears as a logical consequence.

Yes 55; No: 2; Abstentions: 3”.

27 See Twining, (note 9), 25.Google Scholar

28 On the “Bologna process” and the EHEA in general see Laurel S. Terry, The Bologna Process and its Impact in Europe: It's so much more than degree changes, 41 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, (Vand. J. Transnat'l L.) 107 (2008); Terry, Laurel S., The Bologna Process and its Implications for U.S. Legal Education, 57 J. Legal Educ., 237 (2007).Google Scholar

29 Vanistendael, Frans J., BA-AIA Reform, Access to the Legal Profession, and Competition in Europe, 21 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 9 (2002); Vanistendael, Frans J., Blitz Survey of the Challenges for Legal Education in Europe, 18 Dickinson Journal of International Law, (Dick. J. Int'l L.) 457 (2000); Vanistendael, Frans J., Curricular Changes in Europe Law Schools, 22 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev, 455 (2004); and Vanistendael, Frans J., Quality Control of Students and Barriers to Access in West-European Legal Education, 43 South Texas Law Review, (S. Tex. L. Rev.) 691 (2002).Google Scholar

30 See, e.g., available at: http://www.europeunit.ac.uk/bologna_process/10_bologna_process_action_lines.cfm.Google Scholar

31 See, for an English summary of the debate in Germany Laurel S. Terry, Living with the Bologna Process: Recommendations to the German Legal Education Community from a U.S. Perspective, 7 German Law Journal, 863 (2006).Google Scholar

32 Leibfried, et al., (note 18), 678; see also Helge Dedek, Recht an der Universität: “Wissenschaftlichkeit” der Juristenausbildung in Nordamerika, 64 Juristenzeitung, 540, 541 (2009).Google Scholar

33 Kötz, Hein, Kurzbeitrag: Bologna als Chance, 61 Juristenzeitung, 397 (2006).Google Scholar

34 Legrand, Pierre, Paradoxically: Derrida, For a Comparative Legal Studies, 27 Cardozo Law Review (Cardozo L. Rev.) 631, 632 (2005); Michaels, Ralf, The Functional Method of Comparative Law, in The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law, 340 (Mathias Reimann & Reinhard Zimmermann eds., 2006).Google Scholar

35 Kötz, Hein, Europäische Juristenausbildung, 1 ZEuP, 268 (1993).Google Scholar

36 Hein kötz and Konrad Zweigert, An Introduction to Comparative Law 3rd Ed., 21–24 (Tony Weir trans., 1998).Google Scholar

37 Strauss, Peter L., Transsystemia – Are We Approaching a New Langdellian Moment? Is McGill Leading the Way?, 56 J. Legal Educ. 161 (2006).Google Scholar

38 Available at: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2006/10/06_curriculum.php.Google Scholar

39 With the notable exception of Paul Maharg, who, reporting on developments in North American legal education, groups together curriculum reforms at Harvard, Stanford and McGill and calls McGill's innovation “perhaps one of the most radical”. He commends all these reformative efforts, pointing out that the “key to their innovation is a profound re-alignment of curriculum structure and methodology, from the most theoretical aspects to the most practical” (Maharg, (note 2), 98).Google Scholar

40 Kasirer, Nicholas, Bijuralism in Law's Empire and Law's Cosmos, 52 J. Legal Educ., 29, 30 (2002). On the broader intellectual project and philosophical imagination behind the curriculum change see also Richard Janda, Toward Cosmopolitan Law, 50 McGill Law Journal, (McGill L.J.) 967 (2005); Roderick A. Macdonald and Jason MacLean, No Toilets in Park, 50 McGill L.J., 721 (2005).Google Scholar

41 Glenn, H. Patrick, Doin’ the Transsystemic, 50 McGill L.J. 863 (2005). It is important to note that, despite the connection frequently made between the ambit of the programme and the process of “globalization”, “law”, which is still the object of study of the programme, is not just another, now “global” legal system or “world law” brought about by a process of “harmonization” or “convergence”. The programme attempts to understand global legal diversity as a cultural plurality by, for example, using the heuristic tool of the “tradition”, as most notably suggested by H. Patrick Glenn. Conceptualizing “law” as “tradition” allows, according to Glenn, for a “normative engagement” with otherness (as opposed to the hierarchic dominance of the positivist, “systemic” approach), while explaining, at the same time, the necessity to sustain diversity. See H. Patrick Glenn, A Concept of Legal Tradition, 34 Queen's Law Journal 427, 440–445 (2008); H. Patrick Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World 3rd Ed 358–365 (2007).Google Scholar

42 Kasirer, Nicholas, Legal Education as Métissage, 78 Tulane Law Review, (Tul. L. Rev.) 481 (2003).Google Scholar

43 In this context, it is interesting to contrast the approach of the McGill programme, which attempts to connect the experience of mixedness with a globalized “mindset”, with another innovative Canadian attempt to rise to the “global challenge”: cf. Craig Scott, A Core Curriculum for the Transnational Legal Education of JD and LLB students: Surveying the Approach of the International, Comparative and Transnational Law Program at Osgoode Hall Law School, 23 Penn St. Int'L L. Rev., 757 (2004-2005).Google Scholar

44 For a succinct but scholarly and well-documented overview of the origins and modern implications of this reality, see Part One of John E.C. Brierley and Roderick. a. Macdonald, eds., Quebec Civil Law – An Introduction to Quebec Private Law, 5–198 (1993).Google Scholar

45 See John E.C Brierley, Quebec's Civil Law Codification Viewed and Reviewed, 14 McGill L. J., 523 (1968).Google Scholar

46 See also Frost, Stanley B., The Early Days of Law Teaching at McGill, 9 Dalhousie Law Journal (Dalhousie L.J.) 150 (1984).Google Scholar

47 Morissette, Yves-Marie, McGill's Integrated Civil and Common Law Programme, 52 J. Legal Educ. 12, 15 (2002). Morissette also notes that the particular configuration of this mixity explains why certain commentators have raised questions about the density of the civil law tradition still present in Canada, citing Catherine Valcke, Legal Education in a ‘Mixed Jurisdiction': The Quebec Experience, 10 Tulane European and Civil Law Forum, (Tul. Eur. & Civ. L.F.) 61 (1995); Valcke, Catherine, Quebec Civil Law and Canadian Federalism, 21 Yale Journal of International Law, (Yale J. Int'l L.) 67 (1996); and Stein, Peter, Roman Law, Common Law and Civil Law, 61 Tul. L. Rev., 1591, 1602 (1992).Google Scholar

48 Brierley, John E.C., Bijuralism in Canada in Contemporary Law: Canadian Reports to the 1990 International Congress of Comparative Law, Montreal 1990 (H.P. Glenn ed., 1992).Google Scholar

49 Bédard, Julie, Transsystemic Teaching of Law at McGill: ‘Radical Changes, Old and New Hats', 27 Queen's L.J., 237, 246 (2001).Google Scholar

50 Id. Bédard comments that the situation has changed and that the Supreme Court no longer considers itself bound by its own decisions, whether they involve civil law or common law matters.Google Scholar

51 See Valcke, (note 47), 62.Google Scholar

52 Morissette (note 47), 22.Google Scholar

53 Morel, Andre, La Reaction des Canadiens devant l'administration de la justice de 1764 a 1774: une forme de resistance passive 20 La Revue du Barreau de la province de Quebec 53 (1960). As to the “uncertain status of civil law” in the years immediately preceding the Quebec Act of 1774, see, also, Brierley & Macdonald, (note 44), 14–16.Google Scholar

54 Frost, Stanley B., The Early Days of Law Teaching at McGill, 9 Dalhousie L.J., 150, 151. (1984).Google Scholar

55 Id., 153.Google Scholar

56 Cited to Edouard-Farbre Surveyer, Une école de droit a Montréal avant le Code Civil, 6 Revue Trimestrielle Canadienne, 142 (1920). It should be noted that recourse to a multitude of legal sources was not unique to the courts of Québec but was also common in the common law colonies until well into the Nineteenth Century, see, e.g., Oliver Mowat, Observations on the Use and Value of American Reports in Reference to Canadian Jurisprudence, 3 Upper Canada Law Journal, 8 (1857).Google Scholar

57 Morissette (note 47), 4.Google Scholar

58 Id. Google Scholar

59 Frederick Parker Walton, appointed Dean in 1897, was a Scottish civilian and romanist from Glasgow, while Robert Warden Lee, appointed Dean in 1915, was an English romanist from Oxford. Another influential addition to the Faculty was Herbert Arthur Smith, trained in Oxford, who had spent a number of years in the United States, and who was recruited by the Faculty in 1920 as Professor of Jurisprudence and Common Law.Google Scholar

60 For a thorough account of this period in the Faculty's history, see. Roderick A. Macdonald, The National Law Programme at McGill: Origins, Establishment, Prospects 13 Dalhousie L.J., 211, 243–260 (1990). See also John E.C. Brierley, Developments in Legal Education at McGill, 1970–1980, 7 Dalhousie L. J., 364. (1982).Google Scholar

61 As early as in 1919, Dean Robert Warden Lee made efforts to give legal education at McGill a new direction and push it beyond a training for the admission to the local bar, integrating pan-Canadian and international elements into an academic course of study. in an intellectual climate that was not quite ready to embrace such a non-insturmental view of legal education, Lee met strong resistance from the local bar. See MacDonald (note 60), 253–254. It is interesting to note the “interdisciplinary” thrust of Lee's ambitions, promoting the study of legal history and Roman law; see, e.g., Robert W. Lee, The Place of Roman Law in Legal Education, 1 Canadian Bar Review, 132 (1923).Google Scholar

62 Brierley (note 60)., 365.Google Scholar

63 Id. Google Scholar

64 Id., 369.Google Scholar

65 For a detailed discussion of the National Programme from 1968–1998 see id.; Macdonald, (note 60).Google Scholar

66 Jutras, Daniel, Two Arguments for Cross-Cultural Legal Education, in Grundlagen und Schwerpunkte des Privatrechts in europäischer Perspektive, Vol. 3, 75 (H.D. Assmann, G. Brüggemeier & R. Sethe, eds., 2001).Google Scholar

67 See Kasirer, , (note 40), 29.Google Scholar

68 Id., 3.Google Scholar

69 Morissette (note 47), 6.Google Scholar

70 See, e.g., Jukier, Rosalie, Where Law and Pedagogy Meet in the Transsystemic Contracts Classroom, 50 McGill L. J., 790. (2005); Jukier, Rosalie, Transnationalizing the Legal Curriculum: How to Teach What We Live, 56 J. Legal Educ., 172 (2006).Google Scholar

71 For a full description see Jukier (note 59).Google Scholar

72 See Kasirer (note 40).Google Scholar

73 Id., 31.Google Scholar

74 Id. Google Scholar

75 See Morissette (note 47), 21.Google Scholar

76 Id. Google Scholar

77 See Jutras (note 66), 83.Google Scholar

78 See Bédard (note 49), 279.Google Scholar

79 Blanc-Jouvan (note 22).Google Scholar

80 In McLean's ranking of Canadian law schools, McGill comes 2nd after the University of Toronto in the category “Elite Law Firm Hiring”; this survey, however, categorized McGill as a “common law school” and completely ignored its Civil Law Branch (available at: http://www.macleans.ca/education/universities/article.jsp?content=20070917_204046_1504&page=2).Google Scholar

81 Arthurs, Harry, Madly Off in One Direction: McGill's New Integrated, Polyjural, Transsystemic Law Programme, 50 McGill L.J. 707, 711 (2005).Google Scholar

82 See Strauss (note 37), 167.Google Scholar

83 See Arthurs (note 81), 715.Google Scholar

84 See, e.g., Kötz & Zweigert (note 36), 23–24; Dedek (note 32), 540, 548.Google Scholar