Abstract
The article addresses the role of legal theory in legal education. Today, a multitude of perspectives is present within legal theory and, as a subject, it is not as distinct as it is sometimes claimed to be. It is evident when considering syllabuses in the Nordic countries that nearly all LLM programmes have ambitions to teach legal theory as embracing a multitude of theoretical and methodological perspectives. This multitude of perspectives promises adaptable content for the subject of legal theory in various legal contexts, and could facilitate a reflection on how knowledge is acquired and why. The challenge addressed in the article is the presence of explicit or implicit ideas from the subject of legal theory as comprising a coherent “legal method” and a specific list of accepted theories. The persistence of such ideas is scrutinised in this article with help of the concepts of “professional knowledge” and “scholarly knowledge”. In order to navigate the complex field of legal theories, students need meta-reflective skills, which means the ability to reflect upon the underlying complexity and multitude of the subject. This is shown by a case study from the Department of Law at the University of Gothenburg, together with examples from curricula and textbooks from legal theory courses across the Nordic countries.
Highlights
The role of the subject of legal theory3 in legal education is the focus for this article
Posing the why and how questions leads to further questions about what kind of theories and methodologies should be included. It leads to questions such as: Is legal theory in legal education about finding suitable models and methods that students can use as legal practitioners in spe? Is it a chance to make the LLM programme more of an academic education and not just a professional education for future practicing lawyers? Is legal theory in legal education focused on scholarly or on professional knowledge ideals? Regardless of whether it is professional and/or scholarly knowledge that is sought, what kinds of theories and methodologies are worth exploring within the subject of legal theory? These questions about legal theory as a component of legal education are marred with tensions and not easy to answer
The ambition with the course legal theory in the Gothenburg law programme was from the start to move beyond what we in this article have named as tension between professional and scholarly knowledge
Summary
The role of the subject of legal theory in legal education is the focus for this article. The learning objectives included in the Swedish Higher Education Ordinance (Högskoleförordningen 1993:100) focusing on knowledge, skills, and attitudes that the student should acquire have not changed for a long time This is accurate for the law programmes in other Nordic countries. The students are trained to present arguments in specific discourses that imitate their future profession In this endeavour, rules and principles are systematised and connected to cases, real or constructed; and decisions are suggested where a balancing of conflicting legal norms is performed within a certain legal context (Pihlajamäki and Lindblom-Ylänne 2003). The documentation of the situated experiences from the LLM programme in Gothenburg is in itself a research contribution It is evident from studying syllabuses and literature lists that the content of legal theory is difficult to assess without more indepth knowledge of specific learning environments in legal theory. Discussion will be informed by examples from a 2018 overview of legal theory courses across the Nordic countries (Kakaee, Annex, in this special issue)
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