Reply Paper to ‘Multicultural Law-Related Education in the Humanities’ by Dr. Carlos E. Cortes

Abstract

Multi-ethnic (or bicultural) legal education is a superior way to teach law as a social process within an everchanging American legal culture. By stepping out of one's own legal tradition or culture and into another's, it is possible to see how law really operates without blinders of ethnocentricity. Ethnic minority students can use their own legal tradition as a basis for contrast and comparison with American legal culture. Elementary school is the best place to explore the values which underlie legal traditions. Teachers must discover differences and refrain from indoctrination. Curriculum that is bicultural should focus upon common problems, borne out of relationships, and common approaches to problem solving. A team approach in curriculum development has produced instructional material which treats common problems comparatively where more than one legal tradition operates.