Education, Legal

Legal education is a contested concept that academics use functionally in at least three different ways. First, at its widest, legal education describes the teaching of law at any level to any group. Thus, it may encompass not only the academic study of law—initially for the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) or Juris Doctor (JD) or equivalent, and for higher degrees such as the Master of Laws (LLM), Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD), or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Nevertheless, it may also include continuing education for the legal and other professions, the university teaching of law for “nonlawyers,” and education in rights and citizenship, whether in high school or as part of adult education. Second, more narrowly, one may define it simply as what law schools do. This can vary both within and between jurisdictions. Some law schools will offer only some or all of the different kinds of academic education in law; others may offer only professional training or deliver a mix of academic and professional courses. Third, the most restrictive perspective views legal education purely as the preparation of legal practitioners. In this sense, legal education as a practice and discourse firmly connects to the professional project of lawyering.

Another way of defining legal education is as an educational process. Within this discourse, legal educational commentators tend to follow theories of professional education in recognizing that legal education involves three developmental components, which may or may not entirely correspond to discrete stages in training. These are, first, the development of academic knowledge and skills; second, the acquisition of vocational knowledge and the “lawyering” skills that constitute preparation for practice; and, third, a continuing component of professional development. Current educational theory, which emphasizes the importance of developing capacities for lifelong learning, stresses the need to treat this whole process as a single continuum, though this is not widely reflected in educational practice.

Legal education has emerged as an increasingly important site of law and society research during the [Page 462]last thirty years. Law schools and faculties commonly act as gatekeepers, controlling access to the legal professions. They are (arguably) an important first stage in the processes of professional socialization and formation. They constitute a site for the reproduction of social elites and hierarchies. Finally, they are a key setting in which the contests and power struggles between academic and professional cultures, and the wider political economy of law, play out.