The Current State of Legal Education Reform in Latin America: A Critical Appraisal

Despite its rich and numerous resources, Latin America faces the huge challenge of overcoming the highest ratio of inequality (Cimadamore & Cattani, 2008) and social exclusion in the world (Kliksberg, 2005). In this region, where education, and especially higher education, is the privilege of a few, lawyers play a crucial role in shaping society and its institutions (Lista & Brigido, 2002). But there is general acknowledgment that traditional legal education leaves lawyers ill-suited to confront those challenges (Peña González, 2000). This article will assess efforts to tackle this problem, examining efforts to reform legal education in Latin America. To put this scrutiny in context, it will be necessary, first, to explore the general characteristics of legal education in the region and of the larger university systems. I will next outline the recurrent criticisms of legal education that have motivated prospective reforms. In the second section of this article, I focus on seven law schools in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela that opened recently or have attempted major reforms. Their curricula demand detailed examination for their innovative potential, along with thoughts about what is needed to improve the quality of legal education in Latin America.