Prospects and Challenges of Legal Education: Jordanian Experience
| Date | 01 July 2014 |
| Published date | 01 July 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2322005814530329 |
| Subject Matter | Essays |
Military-Madrasa-Mullah Complex 115
India Quarterly, 66, 2 (2010): 133–149
A Global Threat 115
Essay
Prospects and Challenges
of Legal Education:
Jordanian Experience
Nisreen Mahasneh
Abstract
Legal education reform in Jordan has recently emerged as a pressing need, especially with the advent
of globalization coupled with the development of the legal profession, whereby particular skills have
become vital in order to perform the diverse range of tasks required from legalists. This essay is
divided into four sections. First section contains an introduction to the main characteristics of the
legal system in Jordan. Second section examines the challenges faced by legal education in Jordan,
which can be classified into three categories. Third section sheds some light on the role played by the
American Bar Association (ABA) in relation to legal education reform in Jordan. Following a thorough
analysis and discussion of the current challenges of legal education in Jordan, some possible solutions
and recommendations will be presented in Section four.
Legal education reform in Jordan has recently emerged as a pressing need, especially with the advent
of globalization coupled with the development of the legal profession, whereby particular skills have
become vital in order to perform the diverse range of tasks required from legalists. Law schools play an
imperative role in preparing students for the legal market, the question being: Are law schools in Jordan
heading in the right direction which will enable them to produce competitive graduates?
This article is divided into four sections. The first section contains an introduction to the main char-
acteristics of the legal system in Jordan. Then, the current situation of the law students and law schools
in Jordan is dealt with. Historically, the Ministry of Higher Education has been playing the role of a
regulator for universities and higher education in Jordan. However, this role has now been shifted in
part to a newly created body called the Higher Education Accreditation Commission. The role of each
entity will be discussed in this section. Last, this section will explore the relationship between law
schools in Jordan, on the one hand and the Bar and the Judiciary, on the other hand.
Nisreen Mahasneh, Professor at the Law School in Yarmouk University, Jordan; Senior Legal Education
Specialist, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), Jordan.
She holds LL.B and LL.M from the University of Jordan and a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, U.K.
Asian Journal of Legal Education
1(2) 115–125
© 2014 The West Bengal National
University of Juridical Sciences
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/2322005814530329
http://ale.sagepub.com
Acknowledgements: This article is a shorter version of the author’s chapter titled Legal Education in Jordan: Prospects and
Challenges in Legal Education in Asia (Shuvro Prosun Sarker ed., Eleven Pub, 2014). The permission from Eleven International
Publishing is acknowledged hereby.
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