Rule of Law Perceptions of Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) Graduating Law Students

Law students studying in Gulf Cooperative Council’s (GCC) comparative law programs will provide excellent candidates for legal employment in the Middle East in the next couple of years as long as the students have high educational achievements, are functionally literate in both English and Arabic and have a firm belief in the Rule of Law. As many comparative law programs now exist in the GCC, programs conducting the instruction in English to students whose native language is Arabic and with high academic performance gauged by grades, the only true question comes down to the fundamental understanding of the Rule of Law and the optimistic belief that the Rule of Law will lead to changes in the employment of law students after graduation. To measure this knowledge and belief, a survey was given to a pool of law students at a GCC institution to gauge their understanding of the Rule of Law and their belief in the concept as a force of change in their own personal situations. The results and analysis are contained within this paper. Purpose Statement: The purpose of this project suggested by Dr. Thomas Corbin and supported by Dr. Richard Maguire is to gauge the personal belief in the Rule of Law as a concept of significance in the advancements of career goals in male and female law graduates. This project’s initial review will act as a sounding board for future review of the belief of the Rule of Law in other groups of students.