Vico, Llewellyn and the Task of Legal Education
2008; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1556-5068
Autores Tópico(s)Legal Education and Practice Innovations
ResumoHow does legal education fail students? This question invites a book, but this Article focuses on a particular pedagogical deficiency. Put simply, legal education is too text-bound, and it approaches texts in a manner that is far too circumscribed and simplistic. This Article argues that legal education suppresses law’s rhetorical roots and that this failure leaves students unprepared for the rhetorical demands of legal practice. Students do not learn that legal texts are rhetorical instruments, nor do they learn that legal rhetoric encompasses more than just textual expression. Legal education fails students because it is insufficiently rhetorical. This Article draws inspiration from an oration delivered by Giambattista Vico three hundred years ago and from an aside in a short, provocative essay published seventy-five years ago by Karl Llewellyn. In the wake of the recent Carnegie Report on the legal profession and legal education, the time is ripe to renew the unheeded calls by Vico and Llewellyn for a legal education that is rhetorical in nature.
Referência(s)