American University Washington College of Law Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law Working Papers Works 1-1-2010 Clinical Legal Education in Dutch Legal Culture: Clashes of Tradition, Tolerance, and Progress in Global Law's Capital Richard J. Wilson American University Washington College of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/fac_works_papers Part of the Legal Education Commons Recommended Citation Wilson, Richard J. October 20, 2010. Clinical Legal Education in Dutch Legal Culture: Clashes of Tradition, Tolerance, and Progress in Global Law's Capital. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1695137 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Works at Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Working Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. DRAFT October 19, 2010 CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION IN DUTCH LEGAL CULTURE: CLASHES OF TRADITION, TOLERANCE AND PROGRESS IN GLOBAL LAW’S CAPITAL Richard J. Wilson* Abstract This paper examines the current context of legal education within Dutch legal culture as a case study focusing on the growing role of clinical legal education in the Netherlands, a progressive country in Western Europe, where traditional legal education has held sway for centuries. The Dutch experience with clinical legal education, though limited, is expanding even as the traditional apprenticeship phase of law training there is undergoing major reform, responsive to the growth of “big law.” These reforms are largely attributable to a history of innovation and openness in Dutch legal culture, one dimension of which is the general acknowledgement that the Netherlands has become the international law capital of the world.