The bologna process and its implications for U.S. legal education

Journal of Legal Education

Volumn 57, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 237-252

  Terry, Laurel S ^a  

^a PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 38349178428     PISSN: 00222208     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (77)

1. See Laurel S. Terry, The Bologna Process and the Dramatically Changing Nature of Legal Education in Europe, 41 Vand. J. Transnat'l L. _ (Jan. 2008) (forthcoming). See also Laurel S. Terry, Living with the Bologna Process: Recommendations to the German Legal Education Community from a U.S. Perspective, 7 German L. J. 863 (2006).
2. Four Ministers in Charge for France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, Sorbonne Joint Declaration: Joint Declaration on Harmonisation of the Architecture of the European Higher Education System, May 251998, available at flast visited July 17, 2007) (hereinafter Sorbonne Declaration).
3. London Communiqué: Towards the European Higher Education Area: Responding to Challenges in a Globalised World, May 18, 2007 (hereinafter London Communiqué), available at (last visited July 17, 2007).
4. See, e.g, infra note 17; Terry, The Bologna Process, supra note 1.
5. See London Communiqué, supra note 3, at 1
6. Sorbonne Declaration, supra note 2.
7. Joint Declaration of the European Ministers of Education, The Bologna Declaration of 19 June 1999, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
8. Towards the European Higher Education Area: Communiqué of the Meeting of European Ministers in Charge of Higher Education in Prague on May 19, 2001, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
9. Realising the European Higher Education Area, Communiqué of the Conference of Ministers Responsible for Higher Education in Berlin on September 19, 2003, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007) (hereinafter Berlin Communique).
10. Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education, The European Higher Education Area-Achieving the Goals 6 (Bergen, May 19-20, 2005), available at (last visited July 17, 2007).
11. London Communiqué, supra note 3.
12. Bergen Bologna Website, Work Programme Action Lines, available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007). These ten "action lines" are: 1. Adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees; 2. Adoption of a system essentially based on two cycles; 3. Establishment of a system of credits; 4. Promotion of mobility; 5. Promotion of European co-operation in quality assurance; 6. Promotion of the European dimension in higher education; 7. Lifelong learning; 8. The partnership of higher education institutions and students; 9. Promoting the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA); and 10. Doctoral studies and the synergy between the EHEA and the European Research Area (ERA). Id.
13. Berlin Communiqué, supra note 9, at 8 (creating the Secretariat). A Secretariat is an administrative unit or headquarters. Norway held the first secretariat, the UK held the second Secretariat; the Benelux countries hold the current Secretariat. See Benelux Bologna, Welcome to the Bologna Process Website, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007) (current Secretariat website; also contains links to older Secretariat websites).
14. London Communiqué, supra note 3, at 5 ("We adopt the strategy The European Higher Education Area in a Global Setting' and will take forward work in the core policy areas: improving information on, and promoting the attractiveness and competitiveness of the EHEA; strengthening cooperation based on partnership; intensifying policy dialogue; and improving recognition. This work ought to be seen in relation to the OECD/NESCO Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education."). See also infra note 37.
15. Bologna Process Stocktaking Report from a Working Group Appointed by the Bologna Follow-up Group to the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education 25, 27, 33, 36 Bergen, May 19-20, 2005, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007) (hereinafter 2005 Stocktaking).
16. Council of Europe/UNESCO, Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications Concerning Higher Education in the European Region (Lisbon, 1997), available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007) (hereinafter Lisbon Convention).
17. See European Commission, ECTS - European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 3007).
18. The Diploma Supplement is a standardized form that higher education institutions attach to each diploma to explain its meaning to those from other countries. See UNESCO, Diploma Supplement, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
19. Bologna Process Stocktaking London 2007, at 1, 6-10, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007). The 2007 Stocktaking Report modified some of the 2005 benchmarking items and added two new benchmarking items-recognition of prior learning and establishment and recognition of joint degrees (hereinafter 2007 Stocktaking).
20. See, e.g., CCBE Training Committee, CCBE Comparative Table on Training of Lawyers in Europe (Sept. 2005), available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007) (hereinafter CCBE Survey). The CCBE is the officially recognized representative organization for the legal profession in the European Union, representing over 700,000 lawyers. CCBE, Introduction, available at (last visited July 19, 2007).
21. CCBE Survey, supra note 20, at 26-29. The CCBE data is not entirely clear and requires interpretation. For information about the countries that I have interpreted as having provided an unequivocal affirmative to the question about degree change, see Terry, The Bologna Process, supra note 1, at Appendix 3. Because there were a large number of ambiguous answers, the change may be even more pronounced than these numbers indicate.
22. CCBE Survey, supra note 20, at 74-77. See also Terry, The Bologna Process, supra note 1, at Appendix 3 (listing countries).
23. UK Bologna Process Secretariat, BFUG WORK PROGRAMME 2005-2007 (May 2007), available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007); Benelux Secretariat, Bologna Process, Work Programme 2007-2009, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
24. See London Communiqué, supra note 3, at 7.
25. See, e.g., National Science Foundation, Science and Engineering Indicators 2006, Global Higher Education, Higher Education in Science and Engineering 2-36 , available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007); NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Restoring U. S. Competitiveness for International Students and Scholars (2006), available at (last visited May 8, 2007); The National Academies, Policy Implications of International Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars in the United States (2005), available at (last visited May 8, 2007); National Education Association, A Unified European Higher Education Area in 2010: What Does it Mean for Europe and for U.S. Higher Education?, II NEA Higher Education Research Center Update I (Nov. 2005); Daniel Denecke, The Three-Year Degree, The Bologna Process, and U.S. Graduate Admissions, in Council of Graduate Schools, Findings from 2005 CGS International Graduate Admissions, Survey III: Admissions and Enrollment 6 (Nov. 17, 2005), available at (last visited May 8, 2007) (hereinafter 2005 CGS Enrollment Findings); Paul Tate, Graduate Education and American Competitiveness, 38 CGS Communicator I (June 2005), available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
26. See, e.g., Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education (CIRGE), Forces and Forms of Change: Doctoral Education Internationally (Sept. 6-10, 2005), available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
27. Council of Graduate Schools, About CGS, available at (last visited May 8, 2007).
28. See, e.g., Heath Brown, Data Sources: Pressing Issues Survey and Carnegie Classification, 39 CGS Communicator 3 (May 2006), available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007) ("Forty percent of respondents indicated some concern about international applications, enrollment, or visa processes.... Unlike previous years, however, the issue of international admissions and the Bologna Process, rather than visa delays and the SEVIS program, seemed to dominate concerns.")
29. Tate, Graduate Education and American Competitiveness, supra note 25, at 3.
30. Sybille Reichert, The Bologna Process: European Universities on their Toes (March 2005), available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007).
31. Id.; Tate, Graduate Education and American Competitiveness, supra note 25, at 2 (quoting Reichert). Reichert observed that the list included more European than U.S. instiutions, although twenty-five U.S. institutions were in the top third, compared to nineteen European universities.
32. See also 2005 CGS Enrollment Findings, supra note 25, at 7.
33. Id.
34. Id. at 6. See also Council of Graduate Schools, A Policy Statement: An Essential Guide to Graduate Admissions (2005), available at (last visited Sept. 14, 2007).
35. See supra notes 17 and 18.
36. Tate, Graduate Education and American Competitiveness, supra note 25, at 8.
37. See supra note 14 (citing five core areas for the global strategy). A U.S. Department of Education representative addressed the implications of the Bologna Process for U.S. institutions during a 2007 Bologna Process conference. See Dr. E. Stephen Hunt, Bologna and the World, or Bologna vs. the World? Transatlantic Progress and Challenges Transatlantic Progress and Challenges in a Global Context (Riga, Jan. 25-26, 2007), available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007).
38. See Lisbon Convention-What is It?, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007). The United States has signed but not ratified the Lisbon Convention. See Lisbon Convention Signatories, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
39. Starting in 2000, the AALS organized several conferences to discuss cooperation among global legal education institutions. See, e.g., Association of American Law Schools, International Conferences, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007). These conferences contributed to the formation of the International Association of Law Schools or IALS, whose webpage is housed on the AALS webpage and whose first president is Carl Monk, Executive Director of the AALS. See International Association of Law Schools (IALS), available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
40. See, e.g., Final Text of U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement, available at (last visited May 8, 2007).
41. Id. at Annex 10A, ¶ 1.
42. See Agenda, U.S.-Australia Legal Services Meeting, Australian Embassy, Washington, D.C., May 17, 2006 (on file with author).
43. See e-mail from Richard Van Duizend, Consultant, International Agreements Committee of the Conference of Chief Justices, to author (June II, 2006) (on file with author); Conference of Chief Justices, Feb. 2007 Resolution 7 Regarding Authorization for Australian Lawyers to Sit for State Bar Examinations, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007). See also Conference of Chief Justices, Feb. 2007 Resolution 8 Regarding Accreditation of Legal Education in Common Law Countries by the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007).
44. U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, Side Letter on Legal Services, available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007). For additional information on this free trade agreement, see the webpage of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007).
45. 69 Fed. Reg. 71095-01 (2004).
46. Letter from David E. Van Zandt, Dean, Northwestern University School of Law, to Janice Shields, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (Dec. 27, 2004)(on file with author).
47. For information about the states in which a lawyer must have attended an ABA-accredited law school, see National Conference of Bar Examiners and ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements 2007, Chart III.
48. There already have been calls for such standards. See, e.g., Tom Latrup-Pedersen, International Accreditation of Law Schools-An Inevitable Corollary of Globalization? 43 S. Tex. L. Rev. 435 (2002). At the time the article was written, the author was the dean of the law school of Aarhus University, Denmark.
49. European Quality Assurance Standards, available at (last visited May 8, 2007); London Communique, supra note 3, at 4 (endorsing proposed Register).
50. See London Communiqué, supra note 3, at ¶2.12-13 (calling for annual meetings of the Quality Assurance Forum); infra notes 56-58 regarding ELFA's activities.
51. See, e.g., Tuning: Educational Structure in Europe, What is Tuning? Background, available at (last visited May 8, 2007).
52. Tuning, Subject Area Groups, available at (last visited July 16, 2006) (hereinafter Tuning Project Subject Areas).
53. Tuning Project, Competences, available at (last visited July 16, 2006).
54. Tuning Project, Teaching, Learning and Assessment, available at (last visited July 19, 2007).
55. See Tuning Project Subject Areas, supra note 52.
56. See ELFA, Activities, Projects, Tuning Project, available at (last visited May 19, 2007).
57. See QUAACAS-Tuning, Newsletter 2 (September 2005), available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007).
58. CCBE, Improving Legal Education and Training in a Converging Europe, Warsaw 25-27 Sept. 2007, available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007).
59. See Mary Kay Kane, An American Perspective on the Bologna Declaration, ELFA Newsletter 2001/1, at 63, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007).
60. See NAFSA: Association of International Educators, The Economic Benefits of International Education to the United States of America for the 2005-2006 Academic Year: A Statistical Analysis, available at http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/
61. See World Trade Organization Council for Trade in Services, Background Note by the Secretariat: Education Services, S/C/W/49 at 6-7 (Sept. 23, 1998).
62. Id.
63. Maria Borga and Michael Mann, U.S. International Services Cross-Border Trade in 2001 and Sales Through Affiliates in 2000, Survey of Current Business 77 (October 2002), available at (last visited September 12, 2007) (noting an II percent increase in 2001 and an 8 percent increase in 2000 for U.S. receipts for education, which represents foreign students coming into the United States, compared to an increase in education payments of 16 percent in 2001 and 14 percent in 2000, which represents U.S. students outbound to other countries).
64. Id.
65. See, e.g., Daniel Obst and Joanne Forster, Perceptions of European Higher Education in Third Countries Outcomes of a Study by the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), Country Report: USA, available at (last visited Sept. 12, 2007). Although there recently has been increased enrollment by foreign graduate students in the United States, by 2005, enrollment had not yet reached pre-2002 levels. See 2005 CGS Findings, supra note 25, at 5.
66. Id.
67. See, e.g., Tate, Graduate Education and American Competitiveness, supra note 25 (describing March 2005 competitiveness conference); 2005 CGS Enrollment Findings, supra note 25.
68. See Laurel S. Terry, U.S. Legal Ethics: The Coming of Age of Global and Comparative Perspectives, 4 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. 463, 517-18 (2005).
69. Remarks of Meredith M. McQuaid, Associate Dean of Administration and Director of International and Graduate Programs, University of Minnesota Law School at the 2005 AALS Annual Meeting, Jan. 6, 2005, Program entitled Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes: The Future of Graduate Programs for Foreign Lawyers in a Changing Environment 27 (comments on file with author). The perceived increase is based on anecdotal evidence from law school webpages indicating an increase in LL.M. statistics.
70. This comment is based on my impressions listening to those involved in foreign LL.M. programs. Although the ABA will not approve an LL.M. program if it detracts from the J.D. program, nothing prohibits an LL.M. program from enhancing the J.D. program, both financially and otherwise. See ABA, Section of Legal Educ., Standards for Approval of Law Schools and Interpretations, Standard 308 (Chicago, 2007).
71. In July 2007, the ELFA database listed 243 law masters' programs in 32 ELFA countries. See ELFA, Legal Education in Europe, Master Programmes, available at (last visited Aug. 18, 2007).
72. ELFA, Information Note For ELFA Members Regarding the Development of European Higher Education and its Possible Impact on Law Studies in Europe, available at (last visited July 19, 2007).
73. See The Global 100, Am. Lawyer, Oct. 2006 ("Most Lawyers" Chart); see also Terry, U.S. Legal Ethics, supra note 68, at 495, Table 4; but see Partria Bose, The Tragic Circle? Am. Lawyer, Nov. 2005, at 102.
74. The Conference of Chief Justices recently called upon the ABA to accredit common law programs outside the U.S. See Resolution 8, supra note 43. See also information on the GATS and its application to legal services and legal education, available at (last visited May 10, 2007).
75. See European Commission, What Is Erasmus Mundus?, available at (last visited May 10, 2007).
76. Id.
77. See, e.g., Erasmus Mundus, Masters Course, European Master in Law and Economics, available at and and (last visited July 19, 2007).