The Role of Practice in Legal Education

Abstract

This document is one of several general reports presented at the 18th International Congress on Comparative Law, held in Washington, DC in July 2010. The report covers the topic of The Role of Practice in Legal Education, and includes the text of the general report, as well as the original questionnaire to national reporters and two charts, one on general law school organization and one on how practice is taught in the legal academy. The report synthesizes information received from the reporting countries - Australia, Belgium, Canada (Quebec Province), Czech Republic, England and Wales, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and Venezuela – as well as the author’s own knowledge about legal education in the United States and the Netherlands. Efforts were made to identify a wide range of structures, courses and methods that encourage the teaching of law practice within the academy, from foreign language skills to clinical legal education, as well as other techniques such as legal rhetoric, ethics, problem based learning, moots, role plays, gaming and externships. Because the reporting countries were largely limited to developed countries of Europe, North America and Australia, the author has added information on the growth of clinical legal education throughout the world during the last decades.

Keywords: legal education, comparative law, clinical legal education