TY - JOUR
T1 - From adaptive to reflective law school socialisation
T2 - A theoretical and empirical contribution from the Netherlands
AU - Kortleven, Willem-Jan
AU - Holvast, Nina
AU - Bešić, Alma
PY - 2024/9/5
Y1 - 2024/9/5
N2 - In the empirical literature on legal education, law schools are often portrayed as rather elitist and competitive environments, dominated by authoritative law teachers, that promote a dogmatic approach to the law in which the moral and other contextual aspects of legal problems are being marginalised. We refer to legal socialisation that is marked by such characteristics as adaptive law school socialisation. This type of socialisation demands a great deal of adaptation from students whose identities do not fit well in the traditional mould of the legal profession. In this article, we argue that law school socialisation may take a different form. Reflective law school socialisation, as we term this alternative type of law school socialisation, fosters a collaborative learning environment with supportive teachers that promote contextual reflection on law and its ethical and social ramifications. We use a case study of socialisation in a law school in the Netherlands to show how various elements of reflective law school socialisation can be identified in reality, and to demonstrate the analytical function of the distinction between adaptive and reflective law school socialisation.
AB - In the empirical literature on legal education, law schools are often portrayed as rather elitist and competitive environments, dominated by authoritative law teachers, that promote a dogmatic approach to the law in which the moral and other contextual aspects of legal problems are being marginalised. We refer to legal socialisation that is marked by such characteristics as adaptive law school socialisation. This type of socialisation demands a great deal of adaptation from students whose identities do not fit well in the traditional mould of the legal profession. In this article, we argue that law school socialisation may take a different form. Reflective law school socialisation, as we term this alternative type of law school socialisation, fosters a collaborative learning environment with supportive teachers that promote contextual reflection on law and its ethical and social ramifications. We use a case study of socialisation in a law school in the Netherlands to show how various elements of reflective law school socialisation can be identified in reality, and to demonstrate the analytical function of the distinction between adaptive and reflective law school socialisation.
U2 - 10.1080/1460728x.2024.2399918
DO - 10.1080/1460728x.2024.2399918
M3 - Article
SN - 1460-728X
JO - Legal Ethics
JF - Legal Ethics
ER -