Lost in Translation? : Latin American Lawyers-Students in American Law Schools: Transplants and Globalization

Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo

doi:10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1082

Authors

Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo Universidad Metropolitana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1082

Keywords:

Legal education in the U.S., Latin American legal education, globalization of law

Abstract

In the 1960s, law graduates from Latin American and other civil law countries started flocking to American law schools. Comparative law scholars have discussed the wide differences between American and civil law systems of legal education and predicted trials and tribulations for students going to the United States. This article argues that such students do not experience the predicted shock mainly because American law schools have undergone major changes themselves and legal education in civil law countries has also changed. These changes are part of globalization. The article also speculates about other possible consequences of the globalization of legal education.

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Author Biography

Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, Universidad Metropolitana

Studies of law at Universidad Central de Venezuela (1959-64), philosophy and sociology of law at Paris (1964-66) and Harvard (1971-72). L1M (Harvard, 1972) and Dr. Ciencias/Derecho (SJD), Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1976. Professor of law and former dean, Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas. Frequent Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School since 1998. Professor at Universidad Central de Venezuela (1967-1988) and Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (1988-1998). Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex (1977), Visiting Professor at University of the Basque Country (1991-1992), CIDE and Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas of UNAM, Mexico (2010). Florida International University College of Law, 2012. Academic Director of Stanford Program for International Legal Studies (1999-2001), Scientific Director of Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (1991-92). President of the Research Committee on Sociology of Law, International Sociological Association (1992-1995). International Scholarship Prize. Law and Society Association. 2011. Premio a la Investigación y Creación Intelectual. Universidad Metropolitana, 2005-2006. Many academic publications. The most recent books are Justicia e injusticias en Venezuela (Academia de la Historia and Universidad Metropolitana, 2011) and Law in many societies (co-editors: Lawrence Friedman and Manuel Gómez, Stanford University Press, 2011). Present research lines: legal scholarship and legal culture.

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