Louisiana Law Review Volume 81 Number 4 Summer 2021 Article 9 6-2-2021 Legal Education in Argentina: A Plea for Comparative Law in a Multicultural Environment Agustín Parise Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev Repository Citation Agustín Parise, Legal Education in Argentina: A Plea for Comparative Law in a Multicultural Environment, 81 La. L. Rev. (2021) Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol81/iss4/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Legal Education in Argentina: A Plea for Comparative Law in a Multicultural Environment Agustín Parise TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction................................................................................ 1275 I. Legal Education.......................................................................... 1280 A. Challenges............................................................................ 1287 B. Historical Evolution............................................................. 1290 C. Legal Framework................................................................. 1293 II. Diversity and Contrast................................................................ 1296 A. Awareness of Cultural Backgrounds ................................... 1296 B. Expansion of Perspectives ................................................... 1301 III. Post-Graduate Studies as a Laboratory for Multiculturalism and Comparative Law..................................... 1308 Conclusion.................................................................................. 1313 INTRODUCTION** The presence of comparative law in multicultural classrooms extends an invitation to explore the challenges and opportunities of the Copyright 2021, by AGUSTÍN PARISE. Associate Professor, Maastricht University, Faculty of Law (The Netherlands); LL.B., LL.D., Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina); LL.M., Louisiana State University (USA); Ph.D., Maastricht University. The author is indebted to Julieta Marotta de Parise for her suggestions and constructive criticisms. ** References to Argentine legislation include amendments and modifications, even when the original numbers of legislation are preserved for citation purposes. When available, references are provided also to electronic sources, where readers, beyond the borders of Argentina, can easily retrieve the official texts of the referred legislation. Page numbers in the pin cites of some footnotes refer to electronic versions of the sources, due to a lack of access to hard copies. 353878-LSU_81-4_Text.indd 167 5/26/21 11:50 AM 1276 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 81 internationalization of legal education.1 After all, law is a social, cultural, and vital phenomenon that operates in a given reality.2 Nevertheless, as a result of globalisation, law graduates deal more with transnational relationships and need to adapt to the interplay of different legal systems and cultures: they need to acquire more interdisciplinary knowledge.3 Further, knowledge should not be exclusively of law, because graduates should know other disciplines and learn to interact with them (e.g., economics, political science, psychology, and technology).4 Lawyers will know the rules, yet they will need to adapt their interpretation to new situations to be gestated in a globalised social context5 and will need to be aware of other ways that regulate human behaviour.6 They will be lawyers sans frontières!7 Legal education merits attention, because universities offer an optimal environment to bring together different peoples, local and from beyond.8 Werner Goldschmidt correctly pointed out that challenges in teaching are “always current, because there will always be teachers and students, and 1. On the internationalization of legal education, see THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF LEGAL EDUCATION (Christophe Jamin & William van Caenegem eds., 2016). 2. José M. Abram Luján, La enseanza del derecho. La necesaria consideracin de los problemas concretos de la comunidad a la luz de los derechos fundamentales. Objeto de la formacin de los hombres de derecho, 202 EL DERECHO [E.D.] 627, 6 (2003). 3. Rogelio Pérez Perdomo, Introducción, in LA FORMACIÓN JURÍDICA EN AMÉRICA LATINA: TENSIONES E INNOVACIONES EN TIEMPOS DE LA GLOBALIZACIÓN 11, 22–23 (Rogelio Pérez Perdomo & Julia Rodríguez Torres comp. 2006); Jorge Horacio Alterini, La enseanza del derecho, 1988-C LA LEY 687, 4 (1988). 4. Rosalía Muñoz Genestoux & Daniela Vetere, El impacto del derecho internacional de los derechos humanos en la enseanza del derecho de familia: desafíos actuales, 74 DERECHO DE FAMILIA. REVISTA INTERDISCIPLINARIA DE DOCTRINA Y JURISPRUDENCIA 285, 2 (2016). 5. Horacio H. Brusa, Diseo de la enseanza del derecho, 2003-E LA LEY 1006, 11 (2003). 6. Wibo M. van Rossum, Resolving Multicultural Legal Cases: A Bottom Up Perspective on the Internationalization of Law, in THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF LAW AND LEGAL EDUCATION 113, 113 (Jan Klabbers & Mortimer Sellers eds., 2008). 7. Walter F. Carnota, La enseanza del derecho, 2011-D LA LEY 1296, 1–2 (2011). 8. Máximo Pacheco Gmez, Historia y misin de las universidades, in GABRIEL AMUNÁTEGUI: MEMORIA Y HOMENAJE 89, 101 (Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales ed., 1961). 353878-LSU_81-4_Text.indd 168 5/26/21 11:50 AM 2021] LEGAL EDUCATION IN ARGENTINA 1277 they are normally placed in a reciprocal relationship of dissatisfaction.”9 Studies on legal education have gained momentum in the Republic of Argentina during the past decade,10 because scholars had alerted the legal community of the need to restate many aspects of that area of knowledge.11 Argentine legal education was subject to constructive criticism, and pedagogical techniques called for change.12 Scholars study the Argentine curricula and its pedagogical traits, in which positivism clearly prevails,13 for some even as a matter of “religion.”14 Empirical studies reveal enriching results on self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses,15 even 9. Werner Goldschmidt, El análisis de casos como elemento imprescindible de la enseanza jurídica, 43 LECCIONES Y ENSAYOS 197, 197 (1971) (translated to English by author). 10. Silvina Pezzetta, Ejercicio sobre las opiniones y expectativas de los estudiantes de Derecho. Entre la conformidad y la crítica, 12:24 ACADEMIA 211, 217 (2014). 11. Enrique Mariscal, Volviendo a pensar sobre el ensear y el aprender, 1:1 ACADEMIA 67, 94–95 (2003). 12. Julio César Cueto Rúa, El ‘Case Method’: Observaciones sobre la enseanza del Derecho en los Estados Unidos, 71 LA LEY 847, 1 (1958); see also Primer Encuentro entre Profesores y Alumnos sobre la Enseanza del Derecho, 77 LECCIONES Y ENSAYOS 285, 288 (2002) [hereinafter Primer Encuentro]; VI Encuentro de profesores y alumnos: “La enseanza y el aprendizaje del derecho,” 83 LECCIONES Y ENSAYOS 319, 320 (2007). 13. Pezzetta, supra note 10, at 218. 14. Juny Montoya, The Current State of Legal Education Reform in Latin America: A Critical Appraisal, 59 J. LEGAL EDUC. 545, 548 (2010). 15. See, e.g., HORACIO M. LYNCH ET AL., LA EDUCACIÓN LEGAL Y LA FORMACIÓN DE ABOGADOS EN LA ARGENTINA (2d ed. 1988); FELIPE FUCITO, EL PROFESOR DE DERECHO DE LAS UNIVERSIDADES DE BUENOS AIRES Y NACIONAL DE LA PLATA: UN ESTUDIO COMPARATIVO (2000); Ana María Brigido & Carlos Alberto Lista, Orden social y socializacin en la carrera de abogacía de la UNC: la perspectiva de los alumnos, 2:3 ACADEMIA 199 (2004); Carlos A. Lista, Legal Education in Argentina: From Ideals of Justice to a Value-free Conception of the Law, 2 WEB JOURNAL OF CURRENT LEGAL ISSUES [J.C.L.I.] (2011), available at http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/2011/issue2/lista2.html [https://perma.cc/2HEA-NGDZ]; Nancy Cardinaux, Las investigaciones sobre educación legal universitaria en la Argentina: diagnósticos y perspectivas, 2:1 REVISTA PEDAGOGÍA UNIVERSITARIA Y DIDÁCTICA DEL DERECHO [R.P.U.D.D.] 13 (2015); Carola Bianco & María Cecilia Carrera, La enseanza del derecho desde las representaciones sociales de los docentes de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales de la UNLP, 38 ANALES DE LA FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS JURÍDICAS Y SOCIALES 685 (2008). 353878-LSU_81-4_Text.indd 169 5/26/21 11:50 AM 1278 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 81 though an increase of studies of the sociology of law would be beneficial in order to fully grasp the status of legal education.16 Argentina may be deemed a multicultural and multi-ethnic jurisdiction that invites dialogue amongst members of society.17 Already the Preamble of the Argentine Constitution welcomes immigration and states that the constitutional text aims “to form a national union, guarantee justice, secure domestic peace, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves [i.e., Argentines], to our posterity, and to all men of the world who wish to dwell on argentine [sic] soil.”18 The final passage, especially, creates an open social contract for those who want to subscribe to it, and ultimately fosters the progress of social diversity.19 Argentina is traditionally considered an “immigration” country.20 It has welcomed immigration for more than 200 years, though the origins of immigrants to Argentina changed throughout all those years. Immigrants arrived, at different time periods, from Europe, from the Americas, and to 16. María Inés Bergoglio, Argentina,