Internationalization of Studies and Research – The Example of the Integrated French-German Law Curriculum at the University Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense

Abstract

Legal experts of international firms need a sound knowledge of national law systems and international law. In view of decision-making processes that assume a global per- spective rather than the perspective of one centralized headquarters, they need appro- priate human resources from many countries with employees who can combine legal, technical and economic advice. The requirement is a knowledge of methods to cope with new and unknown law systems. The role of the law faculty is to put students in the position to understand what law is, to train their abilities of being able to identify legal problems and find appropriate solutions to them. Faculties should aim at equip- ping their students with the tools and methods that will later put them in a position to achieve these goals. Law faculties have to adapt law curriculums to the requirements of education of inter- national legal experts. For this reason, the teaching of intercultural skills and judicial terminology in foreign languages takes an important part in the law curriculum. These special programs begin at an early stage of law studies.