Is Jurisprudence essential in legal education?
Jurisprudence is a subject that is vastly different to the so-called traditional topics that have by and large formed the basis of legal education, such as tort law or contract law. These topics have a recognised content and consist mostly of statute and case law judgments. Jurisprudence on the other hand is a melee of intermingling ideas and the boundaries traditionally placed around law subjects are nowhere to be seen. Indeed the notion of what constitutes jurisprudence is obscure. It can be said to consist of all that has been promulgated about the law. It shares a common ground with other fields of the social sciences including ethics, politics, history, theory and philosophy. Many jurists may have a background in or have been influenced by one or more of these areas. Jurisprudence is an expansive subject and as R.W.M Dias observed "...no delineation of its scope can be regarded as final."Therefore if jurisprudence is such a broad and undefined subject, does it have an essential role in a system of legal education, which has conventionally comprised of black-letter law subjects? This essay proposes to address that question by examining whether knowing 'the law' is sufficient for a comprehensive legal education or does the
It is rare for the focus of study to turn to the fundamental nature of law even though law is not a static system of rules. K Sam Banks has argued that "[o]ne of the fundamental principles of education, then, is that it is a means to an end (developing life long intellectual skills) rather than an end in itself. It may be useful for the student to be able to analyse the law from this perspective considering that studies have shown that fewer than half of all law graduates go on to become practising lawyers. As aforementioned law has been treated as and taught as existing on its own and bearing little or no relation to history or the social sciences. If presented properly the study of jurisprudence may equip the student with a deeper understanding of the law and she may become familiar with disciplined thinking for its own sake. Jurisprudence is also important in legal education in order for the student to form her own intellectual opinion of the law and to be able to criticise and analysis the law. The student may be inclined to accept the author's views as given when she should be thinking independently for the benefit of her own overall education. "The study of jurisprudence is essential in understanding what constitutes law and what influences its development. the rigidity of legalistic categories of thought. It is necessary that jurisprudence become established at the core of legal education. Indeed knowledge of such law is required by the bodies of legal professions, but an overemphasis on this type of law can result in an increased conformity in legal education which students will defer to for fear of 'upsetting the apple-cart' and endangering their future prospects. law student need to have sense of 'what is law?' for her legal education to be complete? It is usually at undergraduate level at university that the student begins to study law.
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