How global should legal education be?

Recommendations based on the compulsory teaching in international aspects taught at Swiss law schools

Abstract

International aspects play an immense role in the work of most lawyers today. Accordingly, knowledge of how to deal with these aspects is of fundamental importance for the goal-oriented and high-quality training of lawyers. Ideally, these aspects should always be an essential part of the training, but this is only possible if sufficient basic knowledge and skills are guaranteed. The main finding of this article is that most universities (in Switzerland - and this probably applies elsewhere) offer a good choice of courses covering international aspects of law but do not ensure that all their students get the minimum necessary. In addition, the language skills so necessary on the (Swiss) job market are too often left to the student and not guaranteed by the university when delivering a degree. A third finding is that it is not easy for students to find out which universities are more diligent regarding the adequate teaching of international aspects. Without a thorough introduction to the basic foundations and the skills necessary to find and apply non-domestic sources legal education in all areas of law is inadequate.