[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-595327-105":59,"doc-detail-595327-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","portia-lost-in-the-groves-of-academewondering-what-to-do-about-legaleducation","Portia lost in the groves of academewondering what to do about legaleducation","","The text examines the persistent tension in university legal education between meeting the immediate demands of legal practice and preserving traditional academic values. It contrasts law with engineering and medicine, arguing that law is often marked by self-doubt about its primary aim. Historical development is traced from Bologna and other older universities, through the Inns of Court, to modern Australian law faculties and changing staffing after World War II. Accreditation and professional deference shape curricula, producing an ongoing conflation of training and education and raising concerns about the resulting effects on scholarly rigor.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/portia-lost-in-the-groves-of-academewondering-what-to-do-about-legaleducation/595327/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/portia-lost-in-the-groves-of-academewondering-what-to-do-about-legaleducation/595327.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Blitz","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What central tension drives the discussion of legal education in the text?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The tension is between satisfying the immediate demands of legal practice and upholding traditional university values tied to academic discipline and scholarship.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the text distinguish legal education from engineering and medicine?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Engineering and medicine are described as vocational courses focused on technical excellence, whereas law is portrayed as struggling for academic legitimacy and risking reduction to trade preparation.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does accreditation and professional authority matter for law curricula, according to the text?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Australian admission and accreditation processes specify subject requirements for LLB approval, and legal profession deference influences what is taught, contributing to a blending of training and education even when accreditation is not strictly essential.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},595327,1792931965,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":19,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":52,"preview_page_count":4},24464137899374,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Portia lost in the groves of academewondering what to do about legaleducation  \nMargaret Thornton  \nLe Trobe University  \nIntrodiction:Auniversity legal education  \nThe university teaching oflaw is fraught with difficultiesbecause of the need to satisfy simultaneously the immediatedemands of legal practice and the traditional values associatedwith the university.Engineering and medicine are vocationalcourses taught within the university in which the focus is ontechnical excellence;the concern has not been with the develop-ment of a critical,independent scholarship.In contradistinction,law has become riddled with self-doubt as to the primary aim ofIegal education.On the one hand,law,like enginering andmedicine,wants to produce first-rate law graduates for practicewho are respected and admired by other practitioners.On theother hand,law wants to be respected within the academy as alcgitimate academic discipline;it does not wish to be regarded asmerely preparing graduates for a trade(Derham 1978:14).Tech-nical analysis,however artful,cannot be equated with rigorousscholarly inquiry,for it is likely tolack intellcctual depth and tobecontingent upon a predetermined standpoint.William Twininghas captured che polarity most graphically in his inaugural lectureentitled “Pericles and the Plumber”(1967)in which he contraststhe visionary leader and law reformcr,che product of liberaleducation,with che competent technocrat,the product of a skills-oriented training course.These conflicting values wichin contem-porary legal education are in danger of engendering paralysis orschizophrenia.  \nHowever,when I allude to the contemporaneity of theproblem,chis is somewhat misleading.In fact,there has been atension between the university ceaching of law and practicaltraining since law was first taught at che University of Bologna in  \nc.1100.Bologna and the other great universities which subse-quently taught law,such as Oxford and Cambridge,taught law asa liberal art(Wieruszowski 1966).Their focus was on Roman law,canon law and jurisprudence,not the rules of practice.Would-bepractitioners,who did not necessarily avail themselves of or haveaccess to a liberal arts education,went off to the Inns of Court inLondon,or somc comparable site of local practice,to learn thelawyerly art.In other words,potential tension was averted by thebifurcation of the scholarly and the skills dimensions.Thisseparation was the favoured model for the education of lawyersthroughout the Western world for hundreds of years.While thelegal profession had controlover admission to practice,its concernwith legal education tended to be unsystematic and ad hoc,aswould-be lawyers were expccted to acquire their appropriatclawyering skills through apprenticeship,leaving them vulnerableto the vagaries of individual masters.  \nThis paradigm of legal education was characteristic alse ofAustralian legal education until relatively recently(Weisbrot1990:121).The first law faculties did not appear until the latterhalf of the Nineteenth Century.The establishment of theUniversity of Sydney Law School,for example,was prcceded byextensive debate focusing on the “propricty of establishing pro-fessional courses in a university”(Martin 1986:127).Generally  \nspeaking,lectures were given in the evening by practitioners,which meant thatavocationally-orientedstandpoint was favoured.It is only since World War II that we find the law schools staffedby full-time,professionalacademics,as a result of which there hasemerged a concerted endeavour to adopt a more scholarly ap-proach towards the role of law within the academy.  \nCommendable thoughthe increasedscholarly focus mightbe,it has,in one sense exacerbated the pre-existing tensionbecause deference to the legal profession is not just a politicalreality but an integral dimension of university legal education.This is because an Australian LLB degree is accepted as aqualification for admission to practice.Admiting authorities ineach State(the Supreme Court or","cbCaidnaNp9ovOiH","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidnaNp9ovOiH","pdf",466377,"English","# Legal education’s core tension\n## Competing aims: practice vs academic legitimacy\n## Historical roots: universities and Inns of Court\n## Australian development and post–World War II shifts\n## Accreditation and professional deference\n## Comparison with the United States","[{\"question\":\"What central tension drives the discussion of legal education in the text?\",\"answer\":\"The tension is between satisfying the immediate demands of legal practice and upholding traditional university values tied to academic discipline and scholarship.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the text distinguish legal education from engineering and medicine?\",\"answer\":\"Engineering and medicine are described as vocational courses focused on technical excellence, whereas law is portrayed as struggling for academic legitimacy and risking reduction to trade preparation.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does accreditation and professional authority matter for law curricula, according to the text?\",\"answer\":\"Australian admission and accreditation processes specify subject requirements for LLB approval, and legal profession deference influences what is taught, contributing to a blending of training and education even when accreditation is not strictly essential.\"}]","Portia lost in the groves of academewondering what to do about legaleducation | PDF",1792080903]