Legal training in São Paulo: continuities and changes in the age of professionalisation and academic expansion

Abstract

Throughout Brazilian history, legal training has always enjoyed a preeminent position thanks to its pioneering role both in higher education and in the shaping of bureaucratic and intellectual fields. Nowadays, despite the fact that legal training still reproduces, to some extent, features of the termed bacharelismo imperial - as the number of teachers who still hold other legal-related occupations besides teaching proves -, continuous professionalization of higher education compelled Law teachers to invest in the acquisition of further academic titles and actively engage with research activities. In this context, this research project seeks to comprehend the extent of a series of ongoing transformations alongside with the reproduction of specific features commonly regarded as historically constitutive of legal training. For that end, we plan to study some of the most renowned Law colleges in the city of São Paulo in order to assess the question of their relative autonomy in relation to external interferences - from the political, economical, and juridical fields - when it comes to legal training. In terms of methodology, this study will be structured in two central axes: firstly, the study of the pedagogic outlines (projetos pedagógicos) adopted by the selected Law courses, taking into account how they relate to the recommendations conveyed by the Ministry of Education and the Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil (OAB) regarding legal training; secondly, the examination of social recruitment, academic training, representations, and practices of teachers, by drawing on the analysis of their CVs (Currículo Lattes) and in-depth interviews. (AU)