Two Arguments for Cross-Cultural Legal Education

Abstract

The author argues that law students should be trained in more than one legal tradition or more than one legal culture as part of their formal legal education. In the article, two arguments supporting this claim are presented, each corresponding with a particular model of legal education. From a professional perspective, the first model of legal education is that of an institution defining itself through its links with the profession of law, and through its contribution to the training of its members. The second model treats legal education as a university discipline, where the institution defines itself through its contribution to the study of law as a topic of higher learning within a university education. For a cross-cultural legal education in both models, there is a need for a thicker, better understanding of law as a dynamic phenomenon of social ordering.