Comparative legal education and legal culture: Trasplants and resistance

Abstract

In early 19th century the legal education in England and United States was in charge of the profession and the method was apprenticeship. On the contrary, the university law schools were in charge in continental Europe and Latin America. In 1870 Harvard Law School established a curriculum addressed to teach law as a science, as it was done in Germany. Dean Langdell designed a structure and invented the case method and class discussion as part of this project. The transplant had severe difficulties, the number of students dropped and the method was considered abominable, but 50 years later most law schools have adopted it in United States and later in other common law countries. By mid 20th century, Latin American law schools started looking at their United States counterparts and tried to transplant the case method. The transplant found stiff resistance, but by late 20th century many schools and professors have adopted a modified version of the case method and active class, but the resistance is still present. The article analyzes these histories, and the reason for resistance or success of these transplants.