The Ambivalent Role of Experiential Learning in American Legal Education and the Problem of Legal Culture

German Law Journal, Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 615, 2009

CLPE Research Paper No. 29/2009

13 Pages Posted: 13 Oct 2009

See all articles by David Siegel

David Siegel

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: October 13, 2009

Abstract

Recent criticism of American legal education has focused on its being theory-driven rather than practice driven, which either produces or reinforces a divide or gap between theory and practice. Yet two of its prominent features expressly draw upon experiential learning, one directly by sending students into experiential learning situations (legal clinics) and the other indirectly by bringing instructors who are engaged full-time in active practice into the classroom (adjunct faculty). This article briefly reviews the ambivalent position of clinics and adjunct faculty in American legal education, to explore the degree to which these approaches to skills development can, or should, be transplanted to other systems of legal education. Drawing on accounts of efforts to develop clinical methods in countries with less adversarial systems, it concludes that legal culture is a critical element in the success, or lack thereof, in transplantation of these approaches.

Keywords: Legal Education, Experiential learning

JEL Classification: K10, K40

Suggested Citation

Siegel, David, The Ambivalent Role of Experiential Learning in American Legal Education and the Problem of Legal Culture (October 13, 2009). German Law Journal, Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 615, 2009, CLPE Research Paper No. 29/2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1488181 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1488181

David Siegel (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

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