Legal Education in an Era of Globalisation and the Challenge of Development

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Published date: 16 August 2019
• Date: 16 August 2019
• Citation: (2014) 1(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 1
• Pages: 1-24
• Author: Muna Ndulo

LEGAL EDUCATION IN AN ERA OF

GLOBALISATION AND THE CHALLENGE

OF DEVELOPMENT

MUNA NDULO

Professor of Law,Cornell Law School, and Director of Institute for African

Development, Cornell University, USA

The article examines the challenges legal education faces as a result of globalisation with

specif‌ic reference to African law schools. It considers the challenges and ways of meeting

them. The practice of law in a globalised world requires a body of knowledge which is both

complex and interdisciplinary.It requires the acquisition of a broad range of new skills and

techniques of solving legal problems. To equip lawyers with the needed skills to practise

law in a globalised world will require changes in the traditional law school curriculum. It

will require a curriculum which trains lawyers for the practice of law in a dynamic and

rapidly globalising world. African law schools lack adequate resources to implement the

necessary changes in their curricula to meet the needs of a globalised legal education.

African law schools also have to deal with the retention of highly experienced law teachers

and scarcity of teaching materials. The retention of law teachers and the availability of

teaching materials are essential to meet the challenges of legal education in a globalising

world.

[L’article examine les déf‌is que doit relever l’éducation juridique à cause de la

mondialisation, avec une référence spécif‌ique aux facultés de droit en Afrique. Il examine

les déf‌is et les moyens de relever ces déf‌is. La pratique du droit dans un monde globalisé

nécessite un ensemble de connaissances qui est à la fois complexe et interdisciplinaire. Elle

nécessite l’acquisition d’un large éventail de nouvelles compétences et techniques de

résolution des problèmes juridiques. Pour équiper les avocats avec les compétences

nécessaires à la pratique du droit dans un monde globalisé il sera nécessaired’apporter des

changements dans les programmes traditionnels des facultés de droit. Il faudra un

programme qui forme des avocats pour la pratique du droit dans un monde dynamique et

de mondialisation rapide. Les facultés de droit africaines n’ont pas de ressources suff‌isantes

pour mettre en œvre les changements nécessairesdans leurs programmes pour répondre aux

besoins d’une formation juridique globalisée. Les facultés de droit africaines doivent aussi

chercher de retenir les meilleurs professeurs de droit, l’insuff‌isance du matériel

d’enseignement. La rétention des professeurs de droit hautement qualif‌iés et la disponibil-

ité de matériel pédagogique est essentiel pour répondre aux déf‌is de l’éducation juridique

dans un monde globalisé.]

Keywords: legal education, law in society, globalisation, development

practice of law, international and comparative law

Introduction

This paper discusses challenges in legal education in the context of globalisa-

tion, increased complexity and the interdisciplinary nature of the legal

problems faced by legal practitioners with specif‌ic reference to developing

countries, especially those of Africa. Worldwide, there has been signif‌icant

expansion in both the amount of knowledge and the number of new

specialised f‌ields with which lawyers have to deal. There has, for example,

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(2014) 1(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 1

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been a rapid expansion in international regulation of trade and f‌inancial

transactions in such areas as payment systems, natural resources contracts,

licensing, franchising, intellectual property, establishing and operating a

foreign investment, and the resolution of international disputes to name a

few areas.

1

Lutz argues that in the era of globalisation, legal education faces two

challenges:

2

(a) how to respond to the paradigmatic changes related to legal

practice itself, brought about largely by the revolution in electronic commu-

nication and information technologies; and (b) the globalisation of national

economies and growing standardisation of professional requirements involv-

ing legal services. He makes an important observation that changes to legal

education to respond to the needs of the practising profession are not new in

history. Courses like administrative law were developed in the 1940s to

provide students with an understanding of the role of administrative agencies

as governmental activity grew and became central in many kinds of practice.

Many law schools, beginning in the 1970s, introduced environmental law as

a subject warranting separate treatment. The study of international commer-

cial arbitration, international investment law, f‌inancial markets, environ-

mental law, human rights law and international criminal law and many other

subjects responded to the needs of the time. What is different today is the

rapid pace of the changes driven by technological advances and globalisation

of the world economy.

Both legal and non-legal professions have the following characteristics in

common:

• a highly complex body of knowledge combined with the ability to use

intellectual processes which are, at least to some extent, particular to the

profession

• certain practical skills and professional techniques without which this

knowledge cannot be applied in the profession’s practice

• the capacity to use such knowledge day to day in the service of other

people’s interests to solve, or to help solve, practical problems arising

within the sphere of the profession

• a client relationship arising from the complexity of the subject matter

which severely limits the client’s ability to make informed judgments and

so renders him or her, to a large extent, dependent upon the profession.

3

This article is organised into four sections beginning with a look at

traditional approaches to legal education and its capacity to meet the

challenges of development; secondly, an examination of the challenges

1

Folsom, Ralph H et al (2012) International Business Transactions: A Problem-

Oriented Coursebook 11 ed at 1999; Reimann, Mathias W et al (2013) Transnational

Law: Cases and Materials.

2

Lutz, Robert E (2012) ‘Reforming Approaches to Educating Transnational

Lawyers: Observations from America’ 61(3) Journal of Legal Education 449.Available

from:

3

Gower, LCB (1967) Independent Africa: The Challenge to the Legal Profession102.

(2014) 1 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA2

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