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Embracing Diversity Through a Multicultural Approach to Legal Education, 1 Charlotte L UIC School of Law UIC Law Open Access Repository UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship 1-1-2009 Embracing Diversity through a Multicultural Approach to Legal Education, 1 Charlotte L. Rev. 223 (2009) Julie M. Spanbauer John Marshall Law School, [email protected] Katerina P. Lewinbuk Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.uic.edu/facpubs Part of the Law and Race Commons, Legal Education Commons, Legal Profession Commons, and the Legal Writing and Research Commons Recommended Citation Julie M. Spanbauer & Katerina P. Lewinbuk, Embracing Diversity through a Multicultural Approach to Legal Education, 1 Charlotte L. Rev. 223 (2009). https://repository.law.uic.edu/facpubs/56 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UIC Law Open Access Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of UIC Law Open Access Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EMBRACING DIVERSITY THROUGH A MULTICULTURAL APPROACH TO LEGAL EDUCATION Julie M. Spanbauer* and Katerina P. Lewinbuk** If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so we weave a less arbitrarysocial fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.*** INTRODUCTION As a result of globalization,1 the English language is fast becom- ing "a global lingua franca,"' 2 and is in increased demand by foreign lawyers for U.S. LL.M or J.D. degrees.3 On a superficial level, U.S. * Professor of Law, The John Marshall Law School, Chicago. ** Associate Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law. The authors wish to thank Georgetown Law Center and Professor Craig Hoffman for supporting this project and for hosting the Global Legal Skills IV Conference at which this topic was presented. The authors would also like to thank Glen Weissenberger, Professor, DePaul University College of Law, and Carole Silver, Visiting Professor and Executive Director, Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, Georgetown Law Center, for their thoughtful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Professor Lewinbuk wishes to thank her research assistants, Gisele Davila and Kate Marinacci. *** MARGARET MEAD, SEX AND TEMPERAMENT IN THREE PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES (1935). 1. Globalization has been defined as "the closer integration of the countries and peoples of the world which has been brought about by the enormous reduction of costs of transporta- tion and communication, and the breaking down of artificial barriers to the flows of goods, services, capital, knowledge, and (to a lesser extent) people across borders." JOSEPH E. STIG- LITZ, GLOBALIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS 9 (W.W. Norton & Company 2002). For other definitions of globalization, see Barbara Stark, Theories of Poverty / The Poverty of Theory, 2009 BYU L. REV. 381, 405 n.124 (2009). 2. Cristina M. Rodriguez, Beyond Citizenship: American Citizenship After Globalization, 103 AM. J. INT'L L. 180, 185 (2008) (book review). English is frequently described "as the lingua franca of international commercial activity." Asa Markel, American, English and Jap- anese Warranty Law Compared: Should the U.S. Reconsider Her Article 95 Declarationto the CISG?, 21 PACE INT'L L. REV. 163, 204 n.198 (2009). 3. A small number of international students enroll in U.S. J.D. programs-approximately 5% of J.D. students are international students, but this number is increasing. Julie M. Spanbauer, Lost in Translation in the Law School Classroom: Assessing Required Cour- sework in LL.M. Programsfor InternationalStudents, 35 INT'L J. LEGAL INFO. 396, 397 n.5. (citing David E. Van Zandt, Globalization Strategiesfor Legal Education, 36 U. TOL. L. REV. 213, 217 (2004)). The majority of international students enroll in LL.M. programs. Id. at 398; see also Carole Silver, InternationalizingU.S. Legal Education:A Report on the Education of Transnational Lawyers, 14 CARDOZO J. INT'L & COMP. L. 143 (2006). The ABA has esti- mated that 50% of all students enrolled in LL.M. programs are international students. And that "[i]n the past few years, there has been a large increase in the number of graduates from HeinOnline -- 1 Charlotte L. Rev. 223 2008-2009 Charlotte Law Review [Vol. 1:223 popular culture is similarly becoming "a global popular culture."'4 Although the U.S. exports a uniform language and popular culture, recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics establish that the U.S. is, in reality, a multicultural society. 5 In fact, there are more than thirty- seven million foreign-born U.S. residents and more than fifty-five million U.S. residents who speak a language other than English in 6 their homes. The law school classroom is similarly multicultural. 7 More than 20% of the J.D. student population consists of students who are members of ethnic or racial minority groups. 8 Research documents that although many of these students do not speak English as a sec- ond language, they often experience feelings of isolation as they prepare to enter a largely white profession. This is often due to the fact that they are not a part of the dominant culture and are instead surrounded by a largely white student body, with few faculty role models.9 schools located outside the United States enrolled in advanced degree programs (such as the LL.M.)." American Bar Association, A Note to Graduates of Law Schools Located Outside the United States: Degrees Other Than a J.D. and Bar Admissions, http://www.abanet.org/ legaled/postjdprograms/postjdc.html (last visited Nov. 4, 2009). 4. Rodriguez, supra note 2, at 185. Popular culture has been defined "as the commodities and experiences produced by the culture industry for mass consumption." David Ray Papke, 12 Angry Men is not an Archetype: Reflections on the Jury in Contemporary Popular Culture, 82 CHI.-KENT L. REV. 735, 736 (2007). "Varieties of American popular culture are available almost everywhere on the planet, and consumers in the majority of foreign countries are familiar with American movie stars, cartoon characters, and pop singers." Id. 5. Sanford Levinson, Thomas Ruffin and the Politics of Public Honor: Political Change and the "Creative Destruction" of Public Space, 87 N.C. L. REV. 673, 685 (2009). "Another constant of almost all contemporary societies, including the United States, is that they are becoming ever more truly multicultural, which means by definition the inclusion of many more groups within a social order." Id. 6. Barbara M.G. Lynn, The Unique Challenges of Cross-CulturalJustice, 92 JUDICATURE 190, 190 (2009) (citing U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, http://fact finder.census.gov (last visited Nov. 4, 2009)). 7. The most recent ABA statistics for the academic year, 2008-2009, reveal that 21.9% of all students enrolled in J.D. programs are members of racial and ethnic minority groups. American Bar Association, Legal Education Statistics, http://www.abanet.org/legaled/statis- tics/stats.html (select "First Year J.D. and Total J.D. Minority Enrollment [PDF]") (last visited Nov. 4, 2009). 8. Eli Wald, The Rise and Fall of the Wasp and Jewish Law Firms, 60 STAN. L. REV. 1803, 1857 (2008) (quoting David B. Wilkins, From "Separate Is Inherently Unequal" to "Diversity Is Good for Business": The Rise of Market-Based Diversity Arguments and the Fate of the Black Corporate Bar, 117 HARV. L. REV. 1548, 1584 (2004)). 9. Spanbauer, supra note 3, at 443 n.194. It is far from unusual to find students who speak English as a second language (ESL) in the J.D. classroom. SoURCEBOOK ON LEGAL WRITING PROGRAMS 202-03 (2d ed. Section of Legal Educ. & Admission to the Bar 2006). It is critical to acknowledge all of the cultural values represented in the law school classroom and thereby validate differing cultural perspectives. Rachel F. Moran, Bilingual Educationas a Status Conflict, 75 CAL. L. REV. 321 (1987). HeinOnline -- 1 Charlotte L. Rev. 224 2008-2009 Fall 20091 Embracing Diversity It is, therefore, not surprising that just beneath the surface of this superficially unified U.S. culture and emerging common global culture lie deep cultural differences. 10 These cultural differences occur because language and culture are socially and reciprocally constructed, and language cannot be understood in isolation from culture.11 Law too "is so deeply embedded in the particularities of each culture that carving it out as a separate domain and only later making note of its cultural connections distorts the nature of both '12 law and culture. For decades, anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists have conducted research on the acculturation process. 13 The first part of this article introduces into legal scholarship for the first time this body of research on "biculturalism. '' 14 This social science liter- ature defines a bicultural individual as someone who has internal- ized more than one culture and language due to migration, mixed cultural heritage, or frequent travel to-or living for a time in-a different culture. 15 The research in this area indicates that individu- 10. Rodriguez, supra note 2, at 185. It is these historical points of reference, in particular, through which our core values have been contested and instantiated-the Revolution, west-ward expansion, the anti- slavery movement and free labor ideology, Gettysburg and Antietam, Jim Crow, Selma and the March on Washington-that give American identity a substantive content. Ro- bust individualism, a customer-is-always-right mentality, the suspicion of government, and a peculiar-to-outsiders conception of race relations and civil rights drive our political culture. Id. 11. Researchers in the field of contrastive rhetoric have long asserted that the link between language and culture is reciprocally and socially constructed. The link or connection is one of interdependence: "language reflects and affects culture" as cul- ture reflects and affects language; just as "language serves as the construct that aids [our] cultural development" as we learn to communicate in our first language, the cultural context associated with the second language is an integral part of mastering that language.
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