Legal education and judicial training in Europe

Menu for Justice is the first European project that takes seriously the issue of how the new generation of Europeans should be trained in law and legal matters and how experts in law and the judicial process can develop new skills and competences to effectively face the challenges of a common judicial space. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The project takes up a major issue in contemporary judicial politics: to what extent and by which means can legally relevant expertise be supported to ensure an efficient, effective, and legitimate judicial system? This, of course, is not only a matter of policies and of organisation of judicial administrations. It is also a matter of how lawyers and for more specific functions, judges, are trained considering the current, rapidly changing societal circumstances. By devoting three years to joint working among fifty partners in Europe, this project aims to assess the key gaps in legal and judicial education in all European countries at all stages of education: from undergraduate to graduate and PhD programs in universities to vocational training of lawyers and judges. By assessing the state of the art of education for law students, lawyers and judges in Europe, Menu for Justice aims to provide vital information to policy makers considering the development of an innovative curriculum studiorum in judicial studies. It will also provide European institutions and the public with basic guidelines for monitoring the way legal and judicial training are changing in Europe.