Culture of law at Arab universities. Issue 3 (3rd July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Amine, Adnan El
• Is Part Of: Contemporary Arab affairs. Volume 10:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 392
• Page End: 407
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03
• Subjects: Arab universities -- rule of law -- culture of law -- curriculum -- discourse; Arab countries -- Periodicals; Arab countries -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 909.0974927
• DOI: 10.1080/17550912.2017.1350368
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1755-0912

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The prevalence of a culture of law at a sample of 36 Arab universities is studied in this study. It examines four dimensions of the culture of law: reference to law and its related terms in the universities discourse; teaching of law programmes and law courses; activities practised at the university that raise legal topics; and perceptions of faculty and students on the existence of a culture of law at the university. The results showed that the culture of law is fair to weak. There was not a single university in the sample that was classified as 'above average' in terms of the four dimensions. Five universities – all private – were classified as 'below average', one of which was religious and the others for-profit. Both expressions 'rule of law' and 'culture of law' were absent from the discourse. Unlike the discourse, there was not a single university lacking in the law curricula, be it programmes or courses. The existence of a college of law at a university contributes to the expansion of the culture of law at the university. The culture of law is further expanded as well at private not-for-profit universities in comparison with for-profit ones. Public universities in Tunisia lag behind other Arab universities in discourse due to their lack of interest in developing websites, whereas they are ahead in curricula and perceptions. Paradoxically, almost nothing has been written about the issue of culture of law (and the rule of law) in Arab universities. Although there is an abundance of writing on academic freedom, it does not fill the gap. It is not the remit of this paper to investigate the rule of law at Arab universities; that would require data collection on facts, practices and stories, although such a project is badly needed. Instead, it investigates the culture of law, since the author believes it is a reliable indicator of the status of the rule of law.