What is the law school for in a post-pandemic world?1

Abstract

University law schools have been beset with a sense of schizophrenia ever since first established in the nineteenth century. They have been unsure as to whether they are free to teach and research like the humanities and the social sciences or whether they are perpetually constrained by the presuppositions of legal practice. More recently, this uncertainty has been overshadowed by the impact of neoliberalism and disinvestment by the state in higher education. As a result of reliance on a proliferation of fee-paying students, academic capitalism has arguably become the raison d’être of the law school. Drawing on the literature of neoliberalism, this chapter shows how the Law degree has become not only a source of capital accumulation for the state but also a source of human capital for law students. Consumer power has enabled them to influence both the curriculum and pedagogy to prepare to be job-ready new knowledge workers. The chapter draws on the Australian experience, which was in the vanguard in neoliberalising higher education, although it shares similarities with other parts of the world. The impact of COVID-19 is also addressed to show how the number of job-ready graduates has been increased to reduce the cost to the state.