Critical Curriculum Design
Legal education in the United States stands at a critical juncture. As democracy faces mounting threats both at home and abroad, law schools must grapple with their role in shaping not just competent lawyers but engaged citizens capable of safeguarding and improving democratic processes. Yet the traditional model of teaching students to “think like a lawyer” may be inadvertently undermining the very values and norms essential to stabilizing our democracy. Indeed, from Watergate to the January 6th attacks on the U.S. Capitol, lawyers have played key roles in efforts to undermine democracy. This essay reflects on this phenomenon, exploring why law schools produce lawyers so willing to thwart democracy, at times using their law licenses to do so.
Drawing insights from two theories of democracy—deliberative democracy and contestatory democracy, it instead proposes “critical curriculum design” as a method for training future lawyers not just to be skilled technicians, but also active participants in sustaining and improving our democracy. Specifically, it contends that law schools should cultivate the qualities of “engaged citizenship,” including the ability to bridge divides among people with diverse perspectives, the readiness to challenge overreach by people in positions of authority, and the capacity to imagine alternative legal frameworks. The essay then concludes by proposing concrete strategies for regularizing these democratic competencies across the law school experience.
