The Case of the Common Law in European Legal Education

Abstract

The journey across the Channel Tunnel is not far, but the distance that divides systems based on the Napoleonic code from the precedential basis of the Common Law is considerable. The Common Law countries of Europe suffer an extra set of difficulties in relation to European Legal Education. They must contemplate, consider and discuss the development, integration and harmonisation of European law, as well as absorbing a completely different judicial system. The adjustment involved in trying to keep up with massive political change in the growing coverage of the European Union is exacerbated by the absence of a set of shared assumptions that exist between jurisdictions from the same juridical family. The UK can seriously wonder whether the Common Law approach will have a long-term future in Europe or whether it will be subsumed within the Civil Law culture of its multiple European colleagues. However, globalisation is having its effect and this paper considers the English model of legal education, training and qualification, the impact of the judicial family divide between European law and Common Law education and the impact of changing legal professions and professionalism on the future of legal education across Europe.