Amalgam in the Americas: A Law School Curriculum for Free Markets and Open Borders

Authors

Mark A. Drumbl, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

San Diego Law Review

Publication Date

1998

Abstract

Within the context of NAFTA, understanding the legal structure of other signatories requires familiarity with both common law and civil law. Although a fairly large number of civilian lawyers attend LL.M. programs in the United States, few American lawyers learn the civil law, especially the civil law of Mexico and Mexico's Latin American counterparts. Surprisingly, American and Canadian law schools have paid little attention to preparing graduates for the type of transnational legal practice that will arise under NAFTA.A lack of preparedness at the graduate college level has invariably led to “a lack of knowledge on the United States side of Mexican law [which] has appropriately been characterized as appalling.” This Article addresses this lacuna by investigating ways in which the American and Canadian common law curriculum could become more responsive to the changing realities of legal practice under NAFTA. Three modifications are envisioned. Potentially the following modifications could be introduced on a gradual basis: 1. Introduction of a course to familiarize common law lawyers with the method, principles and practice of civil law, with a directed focus on Mexico; 2. Initiation of a broader NAFTA curriculum, potentially leading to a certificate or designation; and 3. Development of a new law degree, universally recognized in all three NAFTA jurisdictions as a prerequisite to bar admission domestically as well as supra-nationally. These curricular modifications could facilitate economic and occupational harmonization within NAFTA. Implementing the changes could permit law schools in particular, and the academy in general, to play key roles in educating and guiding the lawyers who will provide the transnational services of the future.Of course, the introduction of mutual and reciprocal certification would depend on coordination between local bars and law societies.Such coordination lies beyond the scope of law schools and this Article. Nonetheless, effective licensing coordination cannot occur without proper transnational legal education. One necessary step involves detaching elements of the legal curriculum from the nation-state in which the law school is located.

Recommended Citation

Mark A. Drumbl, Amalgam in the Americas: A Law School Curriculum for Free Markets and Open Borders, 35 San Diego L. Rev. 1053 (1998).