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

CLPE Research Paper No. 35/2009

19 Pages Posted: 13 Oct 2009

See all articles by Jaakko Husa

Jaakko Husa

University of Helsinki - Faculty of Law

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

Husa, Jaakko, Turning the Curriculum Upside Down: Comparative Law as an Educational Tool for Constructing Pluralistic Legal Mind (October 13, 2009). German Law Journal, Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 913, 2009, CLPE Research Paper No. 35/2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1488266 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1488266

Jaakko Husa (Contact Author)

University of Helsinki - Faculty of Law ( email )

Porthania 5th Floor
P.O. Box 4
Helsinki, FIN-0001 4
Finland

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