Turning the Curriculum Upside Down: Comparative Law as an Educational Tool for Constructing Pluralistic Legal Mind
German Law Journal, Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 913, 2009
19 Pages Posted: 13 Oct 2009
Date Written: October 13, 2009
Abstract
The argument in this paper draws inspiration from the pedagogical theory of so-called constructivism. An effective law curriculum is one which can stimulate students to learn legal thinking. The constructivist approach suggests that the learner is more actively involved in a joint enterprise with the law teacher of constructing new legally relevant, and perhaps competing, meanings. Comparative law and/or foreign law and even approximate knowledge of different foreign approaches to similar types of questions may be regarded as a valuable tool for the construction of a primary pluralistic legal mind.
Keywords: Legal education, Constructivist approach
JEL Classification: K10, K40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation