Critical Thinking in Legal Education: Our Journey

Abstract

The authors map the history of important changes in Australian legal education over the past 20 years, with a focus on the influence of the profession on legal education. Using Thornton's account of contemporary law schools 'jettisoning the critical' in the quest for market success as a stepping off point, they put forward a vision of what a legal education with a rich focus on critical thinking might look like. Their writing is motivated by and describes particular experiences in a particular law school. They ask where spaces for critical pedagogy might be created and argue that even in the context of current constraints it is possible for legal academics to teach in ways that are consonant with their values and pedagogical philosophies. They then set out some of the ways they are seeking to undertake this project in the environments in which they teach, in both elective and compulsory courses.

Keywords: Legal education, critical thinking, critical pedagogy