A. Introduction

Starting with the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 and the establishment of the European Economic Community by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 with only 6 member states, Europe has since become a political and economic union of 27 Member States that has wide law-making competences and thus considerably affects daily life in Europe. With the overall aim of creating a common market for economic activities, borders are largely disappearing and people are free to travel to other Member States and stay, study or work.

The European Union (EU) also has its own court – the European Court of Justice (ECJ) – that watches over the uniform and effective application of European Law across the Member States. The body of European Law, which is an own legal order besides the national laws, is increasing. Its source of inspiration lies in comparative studies of the laws of the Member States. Therefore, not only European, but also Comparative Law should be a crucial part of the curricula of national law programs. Transnational legal education is indispensable for the attainment of the skills to engage in successful legal comparisons, and in the making and application of European Law.

In the ambit of facilitating student mobility – we have recently celebrated 20 years of Erasmus - 29 European Ministers of Education in 1999 jointly declared to construct a European area of higher education by 2010 with the Bologna Declaration, foremost characterized by easily readable and comparable degrees, and a uniform grading system. Many years after the Bologna declaration, large parts of the German university landscape have been changed to the Bachelors and Masters structure - as in the majority of signatory states - but a reform of the German legal system is still hotly debated.[10] Transnationalising legal education is particularly crucial due to the essential part that law obviously...