The best of two worlds: Multidisciplinary co-teaching of legal ethics

Abstract

Hungarian legal education is rarely discussed from a pedagogic perspective, especially in English. This paper would like to fill a gap in the academic literature on this topic by presenting a unique multidisciplinary co-teaching initiative, aiming to mix ‘the best of two worlds’: developing a legal ethics course which is an amalgam of philosophical/theoretical and legal/practical elements. Describing how a compulsory Legal Ethics course was delivered at the István Széchenyi University of Győr in a case study format, the main aim of the authors is to contribute to the international academic discourse on law school pedagogy in general, and on legal ethics education in particular. First, we provide an overview of professional ethics education in law schools, focusing on the origins of the course in the United States of America. Then, after a review of the academic literature on multidisciplinary co-teaching, the context of this Legal Ethics course is presented: the situation of legal ethics education in the Hungarian law curriculum. Then the course particulars, especially the content and the assessment, will be described in detail, based on the personal experiences and observations of the authors.