Legal education and the rule of law in Arab countries: broken connections

Origin: The Tang Prize is awarded on a biennial basis, each with a cash reward of NT$40 million. Projects proposed by the laureates also receive a grant of up to NT$10 million. The 2020 grant for Rule of Law is shared between Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, Dejusticia: The Center for Law, Justice and Society and The Legal Agenda.

Project Summary: The project will investigate legal education and training in two Arab countries where the Legal Agenda are active, Lebanon and Tunisia. This research effort intends to better understand what is the situation on the ground in these countries’ law schools and training facilities: how are they training students and professionals, and what kind of lawyers, judges and civil servants are they producing at the end? Once the Legal Agenda understand what is happening inside the black box of legal training institutions, they intend to engage in a more proactive approach where they will initiate and engage in public debate, in a way to help emerge alternative legal training methods and curricula, and an alternative model to be implemented in the future in law schools and judicial institutes.