Reflections on U.S. Law Curricular Reform

Abstract:     
This paper explores recent – and somewhat less recent – critiques of U.S. legal education and ongoing curricular changes to U.S. legal education. It then explores some changes to U.S. legal education in recent years. Noting some of the institutional barriers to transformative changes to legal education, the article discusses some of the most important modifications in recent years, including specialization, globalization, experiential learning, the integration of theory and practical skills, and teaching ethics and professionalism more pervasively. Although these (and other) changes are significant, legal education in the United States remains fundamentally much the same in many respects as it has been for the past century.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 39

Keywords: Legal education, Curricular changes, U.S. Legal Education

JEL Classification: K10, K40

working papers series