Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:28:35.944Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Evolution of Legal Education: Internationalization, Transnationalization, Globalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Simon Chesterman

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.

This article examines the evolution of legal education as it has moved through international, transnational, and now global paradigms. It explores these paradigms by reference to practice, pedagogy, and research. Internationalization saw the world as an archipelago of jurisdictions, with a small number of lawyers involved in mediating disputes between jurisdictions or determining which jurisdiction applied; transnationalization saw the world as a patchwork, with greater need for familiarity across jurisdictions and hence a growth in exchanges and collaborations; globalization is now seeing the world as a web in more ways than one, with lawyers needing to be comfortable in multiple jurisdictions.

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. 877 - 888
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Langdell, Christopher Columbus, The Harvard Law School, 3 L.Q. Rev. 123, 124 (1887).Google Scholar

2 Frank, Jerome, Why Not a Clinical Lawyer-School?, 81 U. Pa. L. Rev. 907, 912 (1932).Google Scholar

3 National Conference of Bar Examiners & the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education & Admission to the Bar, Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements 2005 (2005), available at: http://www.abanet.org/legaled/publications/compguide2005/chart3.pdf, 10–13, last accessed, 14 March 2009. Note that the requirement to attend law school in most other states is a comparatively recent phenomenon. In 1922, no state required a law degree as a condition of admission to practice and law school was seen by many as an unnecessary delay in a legal career. Alberto Bernabe-Riefkohl, Tomorrow's Law Schools: Globalization and Legal Education, 32 San Diego L. Rev. 137 (1995).Google Scholar

4 See generally McAlinn, Gerald Paul, Reforming the System of Legal Education: A Call for Bold Leadership and Self-governance, 2 Asian-Pac. L. & Pol'y J. 15 (2001); Miyazawa, Setsuo, The Politics of Judicial Reform in Japan: The Rule of Law at Last?, 2 Asian-Pac. L. & Pol'y J. 89 (2001); Kawabata, Yoshiharu, The Reform of Legal Education and Training in Japan: Problems and Prospects, 43 S. Tex. L. Rev. 419 (2002); Kamiya, Masako, Structural and Institutional Arrangements of Legal Education: Japan, 24 Wis. Int'l L.J. 153 (2006).Google Scholar

5 Directory of Commonwealth Law Schools, 1999/2000 3 (John Hatchard ed., 1999); Mary Keyes and Richard Johnstone, Changing Legal Education: Rhetoric, Reality, and Prospects for the Future, 26 Sydney L. Rev. 537 (2004).Google Scholar

6 Such a practice is hardly unique to Singapore. See, e.g., Juwana, Hikmahanto, Legal Education Reform in Indonesia, 1(1) Asian J. Comp. L. (2006).Google Scholar

7 See, e.g., Ministry of Education (Singapore), Establishment of the Singapore Management University School of Law (5 January 2007), available at: http://www.moe.gov.sg/press/2007/pr20070105.htm, last accessed, 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

8 It is beyond the scope of this article to consider in detail the various transformations in education within Europe, through programs such as Erasmus and the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). For a discussion, see Norbert Reich, Recent Trends in European Legal Education: the Place of the European Law Faculties Association, 21 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 21 (2002).Google Scholar

9 TAN Cheng Han, Change and Yet Continuity — What Next After 50 Years of Legal Education in Singapore?, [2007] Singapore J. Legal Stud. 201, 203 (2007).Google Scholar

10 See, e.g., Manitta, Lana M., Broken Barriers in Legal Education: How Immigration and Integration Have Shaped the Way We Learn the Law, 12 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 361 (1998); Silver, Carole, Internationalizing U.S. Legal Education: A Report on the Education of Transnational Lawyers, 14 Cardozo J. Int'l & Comp. L. 143 (2006).Google Scholar

11 This schema broadly corresponds to that presented in by Alex Aleinikoff at a panel at the American Society of International Law annual meeting in 2007 and subsequently published as T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Remarks on the Globalization of the American Law School, 101 Proc. Am. Soc'y Int'l L. 184 (2007).Google Scholar

12 Schweber, Howard, Langdell, We Hardly Knew Ye, 17(1) Law and History Review 145 (1999).Google Scholar

13 White, James P., Rethinking the Program of Legal Education: A New Program for the New Millennium, 36 Tulsa L.J. 397, 400 (2000).Google Scholar

14 Konrad Zweigert and Hein Kötz, Introduction to Comparative Law (3rd ed. 1998).Google Scholar

15 Mather, Henry, The Medieval Revival of Roman Law: Implications for Contemporary Legal Education, 41 Cath. Law. 323 (2002)Google Scholar

16 Croft, Colin, Reconceptualizing American Legal Professionalism: A Proposal for Deliberative Moral Community, 67 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1256, 1296 (1992).Google Scholar

17 Compare George A. Reimer, A State of Flux: Trends in the Regulation of the Multijurisdictional Practice of Law, 64 Oregon State Bar Bulletin 19 (August-September, 2004).Google Scholar

18 Again, a contrast may be made with civil law education, which had a far richer tradition of exchanging faculty and ideas based on a shared heritage.Google Scholar

19 Koskenniemi, Compare Martti, The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870–1960 (2001).Google Scholar

20 Singapore, unusually, has included the study of comparative law as a compulsory subject at both its law schools. Harvard has added this more recently. Tan, supra note 9 at 204.Google Scholar

21 Until the early 1960s, for example, most of Anglophone Africa's lawyers were trained in Britain. Many of the national programs that developed subsequently emphasized preparation for practice at the expense of critical analytical skills. Though such a criticism might also be made of American and European legal training, graduates typically begin work with more experienced colleagues. This was not always possible when starting up a domestic legal profession in the period of decolonization. Muna Ndulo, Legal Education in Africa in the Era of Globalization and Structural Adjustment, 20 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 487 (2002).Google Scholar

22 Jessup, Philip C., Transnational Law (1956).Google Scholar

23 From 2004, the University of Michigan began requiring students to complete a course in “Transnational Law” prior to graduating. See Mathias Reimann, Taking Globalization Seriously: Michigan Breaks New Ground by Requiring the Study of Transnational Law, 82 Mich. B.J. 52 (2003).Google Scholar

24 Skadden, , Arps opened its first office outside of New York in 1973; Allen & Overy opened its first office outside of London in 1978. Today Clifford Chance has 28 offices in 21 countries. About Clifford Chance (2008), available at: http://www.cliffordchance.com/about_us/about_the_firm/?LangID=UK&, last accessed, 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

25 White, James P., A Look at Legal Education: The Globalization of American Legal Education, 82 Ind. L.J. 1285, 1287 (2007).Google Scholar

26 Id. Thirty years later, Tulane University also proposed to house students on a cruise ship, though this was part of the response to devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans the previous year. Piper Fogg, At Tulane, Living on a Cruise Ship Is No Luxury Vacation, 52(20) Chron. Higher Educ. A14 (2006).Google Scholar

27 For a discussion of how the National University of Singapore's approach to education has evolved, see Alexander Loke, Forging a New Equilibrium in Singapore Legal Education, 24 Wis. Int'l L.J. 261 (2006); Tan, , supra note 9.Google Scholar

28 See generally Sexton, John E., “Out of the Box”: Thinking About the Training of Lawyers in the Next Millenium, 33 U. Tol. L. Rev. 189 (2001).Google Scholar

29 See Stiglitz, Joseph E., Globalization and Its Discontents 9 (2002).Google Scholar

30 Morris, John E., The Global 50, Am. Law., November 1998, 45.Google Scholar

31 See generally Benedict Kingsbury, Nico Krisch, and Richard B. Stewart, The Emergence of Global Administrative Law, 68 Law & Contemp. Probs. 15 (2005); Chesterman, Simon, Globalization Rules: Accountability, Power, and the Prospects for Global Administrative Law, 14 Global Governance 39 (2008).Google Scholar

32 TAN Cheng Han, Law School Has to Keep Up with the Times, Straits Times, 26 April 2007.Google Scholar

33 Daly, Mary C., Tourist or Resident?: Educating Students For Transnational Legal Practice, 23 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 785 (2005).Google Scholar

34 One study estimated that lawyers beginning in small U.S. firms move once every eight years; another found that within six years of graduating from law school, almost half of lawyers in private practice and almost two-thirds of those in government were no longer working with their first employer. Ronit Dinovitzer and Bryant G. Garth, Lawyer Satisfaction in the Process of Structuring Legal Careers, 41 Law & Soc'y Rev. 1 (March 2007).Google Scholar

35 Cornell University Law School, Dual Degrees, available at: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/admissions/degrees/dual_degree.cfm, last accessed, 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

36 Columbia Law, Foreign Double Degree Programs, available at: http://www.law.columbia.edu/center_program/intl_progs/Double_degrees, last accessed, 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

37 New York University School of Law, available at: http://www.law.nyu.edu, last accessed, 14 March 2009. (This refers to the LL.B.-J.D. and LL.B.-LL.M. double-degree programs. The dual degree program taught together with NUS will be discussed below.)Google Scholar

38 American University Washington College of Law, Admissions, available at: http://www.wcl.american.edu/admissions.cfm, last accessed 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

39 A different model can be seen in the Temple University and Tsinghua University LL.M. Program based at Tsinghua University, primarily intended for Chinese-educated students. See, Graduate Masters Law Beijing, available at: http://www.law.temple.edu/servlet/RetrievePage?site=TempleLaw&page=Graduate_Masters_Law_Beijing, last accessed 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

40 The NYU@NUS program is the foundation for increasingly close cooperation between the two law schools, which recently launched combined LL.B.-LL.M. and LL.B.-J.D. programs. In addition to degree programs, greater faculty collaboration in teaching and research will enrich the intellectual life of both institutions.Google Scholar

41 Dorsen, Norman, Achieving International Cooperation: N.Y.U.'s Global Law School Program, 51 J. Legal Educ. 332 (2001).Google Scholar

42 Harvard: A Global Law School (interview with Bill Alford), available at: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/today/2002/11/5alford.php, last accessed 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

43 Yale Law School, International Law, available at: http://www.law.yale.edu/internationallaw.htm, last accessed 14 March 2009, (describing Yale as a “first-class global law school”).Google Scholar

44 Lewin, Compare Tamar, U.S. Universities Rush to Set Up Outpost Abroad, N.Y. Times, 10 February 2008.Google Scholar

45 See, e.g., Moran, Rachel F., Of Doubt and Diversity: The Future of Affirmative Action in Higher Education, 67 Ohio St. L.J. 201 (2006).Google Scholar

46 Tan, , supra, note 9 at 206–207.Google Scholar

47 See, supra, note 30.Google Scholar

48 Morris, , supra, note 30; Silver, supra note 10 at 146.Google Scholar

49 A loose measure is to look at the highest level degrees held by the different levels of academics on the faculty: Professors and above (6 Oxbridge, 4 U.S.); Associate Professors (11 Oxbridge, 13 U.S.); Assistant Professors (1 Oxbridge, 7 U.S.). (This excludes faculty on long-term secondment.)Google Scholar

50 Ginsburg, Tom, Transforming Legal Education in Japan and Korea, 22 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 433, 437 (2004); Ahn, Kyong-Whan, Law Reform in Korea and the Agenda of “Graduate Law School”, 24 Wis. Int'l L.J. 223 (2006); Kim, Chang Rok, The National Bar Examination in Korea, 24 Wis. Int'l L.J. 243 (2006). For a discussion of similar debates in Taiwan, see Chang-fa Lo, Driving an Ox Cart to Catch Up with the Space Shuttle: The Need for and Prospects of Legal Education Reform in Taiwan, 24 Wis. Int'l L.J. 41 (2006).Google Scholar

51 See Melbourne Law School <http://jd.law.unimelb.edu.au>..>Google Scholar

52 See Chinese University of Hong Kong, available at: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/law/prospectiveStudents/jd.html, last accessed 14 March 2009; City University of Hong Kong, available at: http://www.cityu.edu.hk/slw/english/programmes/courses/jd.htm, last accessed 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

53 Ateneo Law School, available at: http://law.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=32&PHPSESSID=97d98dc928359b3878cd843fd362e354, last accessed 14 March 2009; Far Eastern University Institute of Law, available at: http://www.feu.edu.ph/il.php last accessed 14 March 2009.Google Scholar

54 Kritzer, Herbert M., The Future Role of “Law Workers”: Rethinking the Forms of Legal Practice and the Scope of Legal Education, 44 Ariz. L. Rev. 917 (2002).Google Scholar

55 Compare Max Planck's observation that “a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it”. Quoted in Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 151 (3rd ed. 1996).Google Scholar

56 See Mahbubani, Kishore, The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East (2008).Google Scholar

57 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Lecture I, in The Common Law 5 (Mark DeWolfe Howe ed., 1962).Google Scholar