Intercultural Competence in Legal German Teaching: A Didactical Implementation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v25i48.97425Abstract
On the basis of a qualitative needs analysis conducted among Finnish jurists, cultural competence was found to be one of the most important skills required in legal occupations. This finding raises the question of how to teach ‘cultural competence’ to law students. In this study, culture is principally conceived of as a way of life and how we construct meanings from the world surrounding us. Intercultural competence is, in the context of this study, constituted through cultural knowledge, which in turn enables us to understand other cultures. This article discusses the didactical implementation of cultural competence in legal German courses at the law faculty of the University of Turku. The didactical approach presented sees culture in relation to legal texts, as juridical work is always text-based and because texts contain cultural phenomena, which are relevant to understanding legal contents. In this study, legal texts are dealt with from a hermeneutic-constructive perspective to interpret systematically their cultural content. Correspondingly, an ethnological-hermeneutic interpretation model forms the core of the theory-conducted interpretations of cultural phenomena. Hence, intercultural competence is acquired through those interpretations.
After a few introductory remarks, the article briefly presents a needs analysis, and then proceeds to the theoretical framework of the interpretation model, followed by a case study and its didactic realisation.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).