Elizabeth Mertz, The Language of Law School: Learning to 'Think Like a Lawyer'. (Book Review)

Abstract

In 'The Language of Law School,' Professor Elizabeth Mertz analyzes the classroom dialogues in eight different first-year contracts courses from the perspective of a linguistic anthropologist and legal scholar. Mertz criticizes the dialogues for normalizing narrow, legalistic evaluations of disputes and sheltering them from rigorous critique. The review recommends the book to all classroom teachers and all who are interested in legal education and curriculum. Even if one disagrees with Mertz's conclusions, her analyses of the classroom dialogues are illuminating.

Keywords: legal education, critical theory, linguistics, legal language, legal rhetoric

JEL Classification: I22, P12