Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Law
Legal Education: Rethinking The Problem, Reimagining The Reforms, Deborah L. Rhode
Legal Education: Rethinking The Problem, Reimagining The Reforms, Deborah L. Rhode
Pepperdine Law Review
Whether or not law schools are in a crisis, it is certainly true that legal education currently faces a number of significant challenges. The fundamental problem is a lack of consensus over what the problem is. Legal educators and regulators are developing well-intended but inadequate responses to the symptoms, not the causes of law school woes. In addition to identifying the problem, this Article discusses potential reforms. Financial issues represent a significant source of much of the current criticisms face by law schools today. Tuition rates have increased at a pace far outstripping the steep hikes seen at universities as …
Environmental Law And Three Economies: Navigating A Sprawling Field Of Study, Practice, And Societal Governance In Which Everything Is Connected To Everything Else, Zygmunt J.B. Plater
Environmental Law And Three Economies: Navigating A Sprawling Field Of Study, Practice, And Societal Governance In Which Everything Is Connected To Everything Else, Zygmunt J.B. Plater
Zygmunt J.B. Plater
The vast sprawl of the environmental law field makes it a bemusing and confounding puzzle even to those who pursue it as their primary academic vocation. The amorphous breadth and intricate depths of environmental law present special challenges to anyone who tries to navigate the field. This Article addresses several of these challenges, briefly analyzing how environmental curricula are designed, and then suggests a potentially useful new way to conceptualize the realm of environmental law.
Maccrate's Missed Opportunity: The Maccrate Report's Failure To Advance Professional Values Symposium, Russell G. Pearce
Maccrate's Missed Opportunity: The Maccrate Report's Failure To Advance Professional Values Symposium, Russell G. Pearce
Faculty Scholarship
The 1992 Report of the Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap (the "Task Force"), Legal Education Professional Development - An Educational Continuum, popularly known as the MacCrate Report (the "Report"), was the most ambitious effort to reform legal education in the past generation. Some commentators have described the Report as "the greatest proposed paradigm shift in legal education since Langdell envisioned legal education as the pursuit of legal science through the case method in the late 19th century.” Although the Report sought to promote education in both lawyering skills and values, its major influence has …
Legal Ethics Must Be The Heart Of The Law School Curriculum Symposium: Recommitting To Teaching Legal Ethics- Shaping Our Teaching In A Changing World, Russell G. Pearce
Legal Ethics Must Be The Heart Of The Law School Curriculum Symposium: Recommitting To Teaching Legal Ethics- Shaping Our Teaching In A Changing World, Russell G. Pearce
Faculty Scholarship
Despite what seems to be far greater attention paid to the teaching of legal ethics than to any other law school subject, legal ethics remains no better than a second class subject in the eyes of students and faculty. This essay suggests that all efforts at innovation in legal ethics teaching are doomed to a marginal impact at best. Only recognition that legal ethics is the most important subject in the law school curriculum will lead to real and significant changes in the teaching of legal ethics. If the commitment of the legal profession and of legal academia to producing …
Lawyers In The Public Service And The Role Of Law Schools, Frank J. Macchiarola, Joseph Scanlon
Lawyers In The Public Service And The Role Of Law Schools, Frank J. Macchiarola, Joseph Scanlon
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Law schools should recognize and maximize their opportunity to work in public service. Law schools have an obligation to recognize a causal link between legal education and value learned through the law school experience and the tremendous effect that this training can have on the community. This essay examines the history of the traditional law school curriculum and poses practical and philosophical suggestions for the improvement of existing course work towards the public good. Next, the essay examines the community beyond the walls of the school as a source of instruction and finally, argues that a more expansive definition of …
Theory And Practice In Legal Education: An Essay On Clinical Legal Education, Mark Spiegel
Theory And Practice In Legal Education: An Essay On Clinical Legal Education, Mark Spiegel
Mark Spiegel
In this Article, the author argues that where clinical education fits within the law school curriculum does not have to be viewed as simply a question of whether more skills training is needed to balance the theory of the traditional curriculum. The author posits that stating the question this way obscures the choices already made, as most types of legal education have elements of both theory and practice. However, how the terms “theory” and “practice” are defined strongly influences how various aspects of legal education are perceived. Therefore, the way we view clinical education depends as much upon the viewpoint …