“The End of Education” and a new beginning?

Thanks to Rick for posting the essay, The End of Education, authored by Alasdair MacIntyre. I would like to offer several observations in an effort to reply to Rick’s question about whether this essay has anything to say about law schools and legal education. I think that it does, especially in the light of Archbishop Miller’s September 11 presentation at Boston College (in which he also spoke about the “fragmentation of education” and the need for Catholic colleges and universities to lead all universities in the search for knowledge and truth) and comments made by Judge Harry T. Edwards of the DC Circuit about twenty years ago.

Let me begin with Judge Edwards’ concerns. In 1992 in the Michigan Law Review he wrote a challenging essay entitled The Growing Disjunction Between Legal Education and the Legal Profession in which he argued:

“I fear that our law schools and law firms are moving in opposite directions. The schools should be training ethical practitioners and producing scholarship that judges, legislators, and practitioners can use. The firms should be ensuring that associates and partners practice law in an ethical manner. But many law schools—especially the so-called ‘elite’ ones—have abandoned their proper place, by emphasizing abstract theory at the expense of practical scholarship and pedagogy. Many law firms have also abandoned their place, by pursuing profit above all else. While the schools are moving toward pure theory, the firms are moving toward pure commerce, and the middle ground—ethical practice—has been deserted by both...This article is my response to...legal academicians who disdain law teaching as an endeavor in pursuit of professional education. My view is that if law schools continue to stray from their principal mission of professional scholarship and training, the disjunction between legal education and the legal profession will grow and society will be the worse for it.” [Italics in the original]

These are words written by a lawyer who attended prestigious universities, practiced law in a large law firm, became a public servant, was a law professor at two “elite” law schools, and was subsequently appointed to the Federal Bench in the late 1970s. Judge Edwards later went on to defend his position against critics and clarify his positions. But his words of concern tie in with those of Professor MacIntyre and Archbishop Miller: is something missing from higher education, including legal education, and is this deficiency evident in Catholic institutions as well? The point I would like to make is this: might law schools, which in some form or another, identify themselves as having a role in ethical professional education have an opportunity to respond to the challenges which Edwards, MacIntrye, and Miller have raised? I believe they do.

But, in order to meet this challenge, they have to overcome a false inferiority complex: the perceived “need” of having to be like other schools. This, of course, assumes that other schools—or, as Judge Edwards says, the “elite” ones—really are elite, really do offer superior education, really provide first-rate education, and really serve as a model for other institutions when it comes to instilling ethical values including those from the Catholic realm.

The challenge for the Catholic law school is, if I may borrow from scripture and Pope John Paul II, not to be afraid of being different from the “elites.” I realize this is hard to do since so much of the evaluation of any school is done in comparison with the “standards” established by the “elites.” Still, the desire to provide sound professional and ethical instruction, and an atmosphere conducive to both that includes public discussion and faculty scholarship, ought to remain strong for the law school which wishes to use the modifier “Catholic.” The manner in which some lawyers practice law today indicates that Judge Edwards was correct in his prediction: the profession and society are the worse for what it does because of the manner in which many lawyers were educated. I am confident that the disjunction can be overcome, but it will take the efforts of those who are not afraid to do so.  RJA sj