Legal Education and the Reproduction of the Profession

Critical scholarly responses to the crises of legal education in the United States in the 1930s and 1960s–1970s, and in Finland in the 1960s–1970s

Authors

• Juhana Salojärvi

Keywords:

legal education, jurisprudence, lawyers, legal history, comparative law

Abstract

This article examines the criticism that legal education faced in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s and again in the 1960s and 1970s, and in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s. !e purpose is to demonstrate that the criticism of legal education reflects broader social currents as well as changes in scholarship in general. Although no fundamental change ever occurred, the criticism, when it is as widespread as it was during the periods under examination, always pushes forward some ideas and contributes to the changes in legal education. Thus, persistent critical analysis of legal education as well as its relationship with society is important in order to reveal problems in law and society and to keep legal education up to date.