An Old Model Adapted for a New Era: Preparing Law School Graduates for the Global Legal Profession
China-EU Law Journal Volume 3 Number 1-2 March 2014
25 Pages Posted: 1 Jul 2016
Date Written: March 2014
Abstract
In this essay the increasingly transnational nature of law practice and in turn legal education is viewed through the lens of a new law school – Peking University School of Transnational Law. It describes the efforts of this law school, which was expressly created to prepare its students for modern law practice and the special challenges that working across boundaries present.
It describes why the law school decided to follow the American J.D. model of legal education, why and this old model seemed well suited for a modern environment, how it was adapted to the school’s transnational orientation, opposition that the school encountered from the leadership of legal profession and legal education, and the success of the initial graduates in the marketplace.
Though the paper focuses on a single law school, larger and broader issues regarding the future of the legal profession and legal education are examined and explored in the context of this legal education experiment, which has received considerable worldwide attention.
Keywords: American legal education, Chinese legal education reform, Peking University School of Transnational Law
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