Doctoral Studies in Law: From the Inside Out
Forthcoming in the Dalhousie Law Journal - Vol. 39 No. 1 (Spring 2016)
38 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2015 Last revised: 5 Feb 2016
Date Written: September 1, 2015
Abstract
This article explores the purpose, structure and experience of doctoral studies in Canadian law schools. Relying on an auto-ethnographic methodology, where we draw on our personal experience as doctoral students, we identify three tensions in doctoral studies in law. We explore how these tensions — between practice/theory, structure/space, and supervisory/other relationships — emerge from the structure of doctoral studies in law and how they manifest themselves in the lived experience of doctoral students. We detail how these tensions are product of the ambiguous and underexplored nature of doctoral studies in law. By making these tensions explicit, we encourage doctoral students, law professors and administrators to reflect more critically on the place of doctoral studies in Canadian law schools.
Keywords: legal education, doctoral studies, legal methodology
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