The Pentalectic Sphere as Means for Questioning Legal Education: Towards a Paradigm Shift

Vol. IX Arizona Summit Law Review (Forthcoming)

Arizona Summit Law School Research Paper

82 Pages Posted: 31 May 2015 Last revised: 19 Oct 2016

See all articles by Yael Efron

Yael Efron

Zefat Academic College - School of Law; Mitchell Hamline School of Law; Hebrew University - Faculty of Law; University of Missouri

Date Written: September 30, 2014

Abstract

This paper stems from the constant attempts of legal educators to keep up with the fast growing transformation of the law, the legal profession and society in general. Whereas most scholarship concerned with legal education concentrated on specific elements lacking from the process, this paper suggests that a new paradigm for understanding legal education is called for. This new paradigm is essentially a framework for questioning the educational processes in legal academy, shaped holistically in order to meet the changing world of law, of academia, and of the legal profession. This new questioning model claims that legal education today must be regarded through lenses that are appreciative of this era's increasing velocity of change, globalization, interdisciplinary knowledge and complexity. The law student of the 21st century has different capacities and is expected to endure different challenges then the law student of the 1990s, when many of the canon critiques on legal education were published. Understanding legal education towards the mid-21st century entails a multi-dimensional perspective. What is needed is a framework that incorporates multidisciplinary thinking, including neuroscience, complexity and dynamism, as well as reflecting current and future conditions for legal practice and work into legal education.

The new paradigm suggested in this paper is illustrated by a Pentalectic Sphere. The sphere encompasses five elements of legal education that are believed to be essential to the process: knowledge, skills, values, capacity-buliding and cultural fluency. These are illustrated as nodes within the sphere and are interconnected to one another. The Pentalectic Sphere is also surrounded by a membrane, representing technology, which touches on each one of the nodes, thus significant to every element in the educational process. The Pentalectic Sphere is hovering in a space, representing the socio-political context, which according to this new paradigm, always affects the law school environment.

The paradigm illustrate by the Pentalectic Sphere is inquiry based, and therefore focuses on the questions produced by each node, the relationship of each node to another, as well as the effects of technology and the socio-political context. This paper fleshes out some of these questions, although many more may be thought of. The answers to these questions differ of course from one law school to another, as well as from on educator to another. This signifies the diversity of institutions, faculty and students, and thus honors a pluralistic, flexible and dynamic approach to legal education. Therefore, any attempt to prescribe comprehensive answers to the questions produced by the elements and their interconnectivity contradicts the purpose of this paper. Any answers suggested here are merely an exemplification of the relevance of the questions asked, and should be regarded as such. The Pentalectic Sphere framework invites different scholars to suggest different answers to these questions.

Keywords: Legal education, law schools, legal knowledge, professional skills, values, capacity-buliding, cultural fluency, complexity theory, systems theory, Pentalectic Sphere

Suggested Citation

Efron, Yael, The Pentalectic Sphere as Means for Questioning Legal Education: Towards a Paradigm Shift (September 30, 2014). Vol. IX Arizona Summit Law Review (Forthcoming) , Arizona Summit Law School Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2611119

Yael Efron (Contact Author)

Zefat Academic College - School of Law ( email )

11 Jerusalem St.
Zefat, 13206
Israel

Mitchell Hamline School of Law ( email )

875 Summit Ave
St. Paul, MN 55105-3076
United States

Hebrew University - Faculty of Law ( email )

Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905
Israel

University of Missouri ( email )

307 Hulston Hall
820 Conley Avenue
Columbia, MO 65211
United States

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