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Bergmans, B --- "Interdisciplinary Business Law Programs in Germany" [2005] LegEdDig 21; (2005) 13(4) Legal Education Digest 6

Interdisciplinary Business Law Programs in Germany

B Bergmans

[2005] LegEdDig 21; (2005) 13(4) Legal Education Digest 6

38 Law Teacher 3, 2004, pp 326–340

During the last decades, the need for jurists with a particular expertise in business affairs or economic matters has constantly grown. And the ever growing ‘juridisation’ of life, its complexity, dynamics and internationalisation all indicate that this evolution has not reached its end yet. Their field of activity is very broad and cannot be associated with a typical profession or specialisation. Solicitors specialising in business matters, legal advisers in the private sector and legal experts employed in the public administration of the economy all deal with similar problems from different perspectives. Despite these needs, there has not been any specific training opportunity in this field in Germany until recent years. ‘Business jurists’ could only complete ordinary law studies that did not allow any specialisation in business law, the latter being acquired by training on the job after having received a law degree.

Despite several reforms, legal education indeed remains unilaterally directed towards furnishing the qualification legally required for judicial activities, the ideal being the perfectly trained judge. The essential legal subjects tested in the state exams cover civil and commercial law, public and administrative law, criminal law and all aspects of procedure. Subjects not required for the state exams are taught in various degrees, but the student’s participation is entirely voluntary. As a consequence, the law of capital markets, of industrial property, social and labour law, and tax law, as well as private and public international law, will typically constitute terra incognita for most German lawyers.

Methodologically, legal education is based upon the model of judicial decision-making, whereas such aspects as conflict prevention, consultation, alternative dispute resolution, planning, drafting of contracts are not taken into account, even though most law students do not become judges or public prosecutors, but lawyers or legal counsel.

The universities have hardly been able to influence this situation because the prerequisites for the state exams are legally defined and the students usually limit their efforts to the strictly necessary. In summary, the typical law curriculum is not really adapted to the needs of the private labour market. While judges and public prosecutors, civil servants and to a somewhat lesser extent solicitors and notaries are adequately prepared for professional life by the end of their studies, this is not the case with ‘business jurists.’ In addition, law schools offer practically no opportunities for postgraduate specialisation. If graduates want to acquire a supplementary qualification in economics or business management, they have to take courses in the economics department or business school, which are not credited in the law curriculum. A small number of them get a second final degree in economics or an MB degree. Only very few law schools offer an explicit complementary program in economics for law students, which is recognised by a certificate.

The German Fachhochschulen are institutions of higher education which at their origin were designed to teach engineers and technical professionals. As a consequence of several reforms of higher education during the last years, the Fachhochschulen now are treated formally like universities, their specificity residing in their closeness to practice and a focus on applied research. The intended strengthening of the position of the Fachhochschulen since the beginning of the 1990s, in particular through a broadening of the studies offered and a partial transfer of university programs, has led certain of the 16 Federated States, which are essentially competent to regulate this matter on the basis of federal law assuring basic uniformity, to envisage transferring a part of the law studies to the Fachhochschulen.

Considering the market needs for general managers competent in legal as well as in business affairs, the education offered is intended in the first place to close the gap between higher education in law and management in the private as well in the public sectors. The students will become competent in analysing and managing complex situations from a legal as well as from an economic point of view. As a consequence, the programs concentrate on business law, business management, micro- and macro-economics, as well as on relevant soft skills.

The new programs are not intended to compete with the university legal education, but, on the basis of new objectives, to implement a different type of it. This position of these programs outside the corresponding narrow legal framework has indeed permitted the creation of a situation whose characteristics all constitute strengths when compared to the traditional model: (1) interdisciplinarity resulting from the combination of law and economics; (2) intensity of the teaching and of the general follow-up through small groups and easy contacts with the professors; (3) shorter actual duration of the studies and earlier access to professional life; (4) regular contacts with practice through teaching staff with professional experience and the mandatory semester of internship; (5) international orientation on the basis of a thorough knowledge of foreign languages and the opportunity to spend part of the study time abroad; and (6) integration of relevant soft skills.

Despite these strengths, the social prestige of diplomas delivered by the Fachhochschulen is still, due to historical reasons, not yet equivalent to that of classical university diplomas. At the interface of legal and management tasks in business, there is indeed a vast array of job opportunities for the new business law graduates. Thus, it appears that this mixed qualification opens up a broad spectrum of job opportunities because, not only positions typically reserved to jurists, but also others generally occupied by economists can be filled by the new graduates.

Taking into account the experience to date, it may be concluded that the coexistence of both systems with their respective peculiarities is possible and desirable. The diversity of the programs offered is best able to serve the diverse needs of the labour market, and it is this that finally decides to what extent the respective models are needed and possibly will have to be optimised. In summary, the introduction of interdisciplinary business law programs has clearly improved the opportunities for an adequate preparation to a demanding profession, and it has shown the German universities that it is possible to teach law differently than in the traditional way.


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