Alternative Law Journal

Legal education in the 21st century

 'The commodification of legal education and the growth in a corporatist market-driven managerial style has led to a massive dumbing-down in law teaching in Australian universities', said Helen Brown, the editor of the December edition of the Alternative Law Journal.

The massive loss of government funding to universities since 1996 has forced law schools to return to traditional 'talk and chalk' teaching methods and exam-based assessment. This has led to a retreat from critical legal scholarship and the training of lawyers to seek social justice and law reform.

'One could be forgiven for loudly proclaiming that there is a crisis in the education of our future lawyers due to managerial obsessions with doing more than less and promoting legal education as a "product" to be consumed' says Brown.

The December edition of the Alternative Journal features five articles critiquing current trends in legal education in Australian Universities. These articles combine to form an impassioned plea to return to critical, ground-breaking legal teaching designed to train activist lawyers to seek law reform and social justice for the disadvantaged.

Also featured is a critique of the media coverage of Melbourne’s S11 demonstration outside Crown casino and a discussion of the controversy that followed the McBain case about assisted reproductive services for unmarried women. Kristen Walker examines the Federal and State responses to the McBain case, suggesting that the proposed amending legislation is a draconian step designed to further disadvantage unmarried and lesbian women who seek medical assistance to become pregnant.