Report on French Law Teaching at University Law Faculties in the United Kingdom
By: Hamish Adamson OBE
(FBLS Director of Academic Relations)
Background
When the Management Committee of the FBLS first began to look for ways of promoting the involvement of the academic legal community in its work, we asked a number of academics in the UK for their ideas. One suggestion, put forward by Professor Brice Dickson of the University of Ulster, was that we should undertake an "audit" of the various courses and programmes relating to French law at present offered by UK law faculties.
Although we knew that many law faculties offered French law in some form as part of their degree courses, and had exchange programmes and other links with French universities, there seemed to be no comprehensive collection of information about them. We therefore agreed that it would be an appropriate task for the FBLS to collect and maintain this information for the benefit of law teachers, students and practitioners on both sides of the Channel. We decided to undertake a survey on the subject, in the first place among UK law faculties, but with a view to considering whether it may be appropriate to extend the survey to cover the teaching of UK law in French law faculties at a later stage.
We accepted Professor Dickson's offer to conduct the survey on our behalf. With the assistance of Eva Steiner of the School of Law at King's College, London (whom we thank for her continuing help on this project), he prepared a questionnaire for circulation to all law faculties in the UK. Unfortunately, from our point of view, he was prevented from completing the project himself by his appointment to the important post of Chief Commissioner of the newly created Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. However, we are very grateful to Professor Dickson for taking the trouble to arrange for the circulation of the questionnaire in March 1999, just before taking up his new duties, in which we wish him every success.
Preparation of Report
I then assumed the task of collecting the responses to the questionnaire and compiling a report on the results. In September 1999 I circulated for comment a draft report with a table showing in condensed form the information provided by those faculties which said that they offered French law or law with French. As a result of this exercise a few of the entries in the table have been corrected and some new entries have been added.
Altogether 61 replies to the questionnaire have been received. This represents about 75% of all recipients. Only 14 respondents reported no French law teaching at all. It is perhaps likely that most of those institutions which have not replied have no French law teaching to report, but there may still be a few relevant courses or programmes which have gone unreported.
All the generally positive responses, totalling 47, are summarised in tabular form in the Annex to this Report. Although it cannot be guaranteed to be completely exhaustive, it can be regarded as a reasonably comprehensive overview of the current state of French law teaching in UK law faculties.
More detailed comments on the results of the survey will be made in the next section of this Report. At this point it should be said that the contents of the Annex are based as closely as possible on the replies given by respondents to the questionnaire. This was designed to be completed quickly and simply, to maximise the response and also to enable replies to be tabulated in a way which would be easy to read and compare. Inevitably, however, some replies were more detailed than others and not all information has been given in the same form.
I have made some effort to summarise the replies in a consistent form in the Annex but I did not feel able to go too far in this direction for fear of misinterpretation. It would be impracticable to undertake more detailed research at this stage without unduly delaying publication of the Report. I therefore apologise in advance to those who may find obscurities, ambiguities or inconsistencies in the summary of replies. I hope that in any future updating of the Report it may be possible to improve its format so as to achieve greater clarity and consistency in the information provided.
Comments on Responses to the Questionnaire
The questionnaire asked eight substantive questions:
1.
Is French law taught at your institution?
2.
If not, for what reason?
3.
If
so, at what level?
4.
Do you provide a degree in the title of which French law features?
5.
If so, what is the title of the degree?
6.
Do you have a specific link with a law department in a French
university?
7.
If so, which?
8.
Please list the subjects/modules in which you teach French law, with
numbers of staff contact hours involved.
Annexed to this Report is a summary in tabular form of
the positive replies to these questions from each law faculty, with contact
names.
The 14 respondents who reported no relevant French law teaching are not included in the table, but their answers to Question 2 may be of interest. The reason most often cited for not teaching French law is inadequate student demand (9); one respondent reported having recently dropped a French law course for this reason. The absence of adequate teaching expertise is also mentioned by 8 respondents, and inadequate room in the curriculum and inadequate library materials by 6 each. In respect of two of the faculties included in the Annex it has been reported that the French law courses offered in previous years are not currently available but they have still been included as it does not appear to be intended to drop French law teaching permanently.
For an organisation like the FBLS, which exists to promote Franco-British legal co-operation, the fact that over half of UK law faculties do provide courses or programmes in French law in some form is good news. Included among these positive responses are those who report that, although they do not themselves teach French law, they offer courses such as "Law with French", which usually include a period at a French university where some French law is taught.
Some 13 respondents report that they award Ll.B. degrees
(or their equivalent) "with French law" (a few being in the form
"with French law and language").
8 respondents mention Ll.B. or Ll.M. degrees expressly referring to
European law, which includes French law.
About 13 respondents report awarding degrees in "Law with
French", including either some direct teaching of French law as well as
language or, if not, a period at a French law faculty where some French law is
taught. 6 responses also refer to
the possibility of taking a diplôme, licence or maîtrise in French law at a
partner faculty in France.
On the question of the level of teaching of French law, there are various permutations among undergraduate years 1-4 and/or postgraduate. The largest number of respondents (9) report that the teaching takes place in undergraduate year 2. The other most frequent replies are undergraduate years 1-3 (7 respondents), undergraduate years 2-3 (5 respondents), undergraduate years 2-4 (5 respondents) and undergraduate years 1 and 2 (4 respondents). In addition, 11 respondents mention teaching at postgraduate level.
40 replies mention links with French universities, mostly with law faculties. Some respondents have links with two or more different French universities. There is a certain amount of duplication: in some cases different respondents report links with the same French universities. But the contacts reported are very widespread, covering a range of law faculties both in Paris and throughout the provinces. In at least 11 cases the response expressly indicates that the content includes a year of the relevant course studying at a partner faculty in France. Unfortunately the format of the questions may not have brought out all the cases where this applies. There is also room for fuller information about the form taken by other contacts. This is an example of an area which could usefully be clarified in future updating of this Report.
The replies to the question about subjects/modules of French law and language teaching, and the teaching hours involved, are difficult to synthesise. The reader is referred to the summaries of each reply appearing in the Annex. This is the question where it has been most difficult to present the responses in a consistent form and where an improvement in the format would be desirable when the Report is updated.
Conclusion
This report is being circulated to all the law faculties who provided positive responses to the Questionnaire and to the other respondents who asked to see it. We are grateful to all respondents, without whose help it would have been impossible to compile what we believe to be a unique source of information. The report will also be made available to members of the FBLS and others interested in the subject.
Although it is satisfying to be able to report that such a wide range of French law and language teaching and contacts with French universities is available in the UK, it may be as well to sound a note of caution. The Report is no more than an imperfect snapshot of the position as it was in 1999. It does not show whether the range of teaching and contacts, or the number of students availing themselves of it, is increasing or decreasing. This can only be shown if we repeat the exercise in a few years time by circulating an improved questionnaire in order to update and refine the information in this Report and reveal any significant trends.
It may be worth noting that one respondent reported (in October 1999) experiencing a significant drop in demand for law and French courses in the last year. The respondent attributes this to three causes. One is greater competition among universities offering these courses, which is hardly a matter for complaint. The other two, which are more important and disturbing, are the cost of fees for the extra year required for a law/French degree and the fact that fewer students study French at "A" Level. If these observations ring a bell with other law faculties, then there is a problem which should concern the FBLS as a whole.
A final suggestion is that, after this Report has been circulated, it might be appropriate to arrange a meeting, under the auspices of the FBLS, of those concerned with the teaching of French law and language in the UK (and their French counterparts) to discuss matters arising from it. I would welcome comments on this idea from recipients of the Report so that we can gauge the extent of likely support for such a meeting.
(March 2000)