The German Sonderweg in Legal Education: Reflections for a General Debate in the Context of European Society

Abstract

This piece shall provide input into European discussions on legal education by presenting on Germany. To gauge how useful a comparison can be, similarities and differences must be calibrated. On the one hand, German legal education faces many of the same conditions, tasks, and potentials as other European systems of legal education: they all educate lawyers to serve a constitutional democracy embedded in European society. On the other hand, German legal education differs deeply from other European counterparts in many ways because it travels on a Sonderweg. Such constellations of similarities and differences often promise revealing insights. This contribution’s first step is to present the German Sonderweg, in particular the practical skills students need in the life-defining final exam. As it turns out that these skills do not require education at the university level, this contribution then shows what else the Humboldtian unity of research and education contributes to 21st-century legal orders. The last step establishes European society as a conceptual framework for comparing the discussions on reforming legal education throughout Europe.

Keywords: legal education, legal scholarship, European society, Germany