A Problematic First Year at Harvard Law School: Problem-Based Learning's Role in Meaningful Curricular Reform

Abstract

This paper, which I wrote as a third-year law student at Harvard Law School in the spring of 2004, summarizes critiques of the traditional first-year curriculum, and it puts forth a number of suggestions for reform. Many of the proposals in this paper were subsequently adopted in some form by the Harvard Law School faculty, including (1) introduction of a regulation or legislation course requirement, (2) introduction of international perspectives, and (3) a course involving problems. The paper was distributed to a number of Harvard faculty in the spring of 2004.