1st Edition
The Moral Imagination and the Legal Life Beyond Text in Legal Education
What role can resources that go beyond text play in the development of moral education in law schools and law firms? How can these resources - especially those from the visual and performing arts - nourish the imagination needed to confront the ethical complexities of particular situations? This book asks and answers these questions, thereby introducing radically new resources for law schools and law firms committed to fighting against the moral complacency that can all too often creep into the life of the law. The chapters in this volume build on the companion volume, The Arts and the Legal Academy, also published by Ashgate, which focuses on the role of non-textual resources in legal education generally. Concentrating in particular on the moral dimension of legal education, the contributors to this volume include a wide range of theorists and leading legal educators from the UK and the US.
Biography
Zenon Bańkowski is Emeritus Professor of Legal Theory at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh and a community mediator. He was Principal Investigator of the AHRC Beyond Text in Legal Education Project, based at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh. Maksymilian Del Mar is Reader in Legal Theory at the Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London. He has a PhD in Law from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD in Social Science from the University of Lausanne. He is Co-Convenor of the Legal Theory and Legal History Research Group at Queen Mary.
’’Legal Education scholarship has grown and developed enormously in recent decades, and this text is a significant contribution to this continued development.’ SCOLAG Legal Journal The Moral Imagination and the Legal Life examines innovative ways to incorporate non-textual and non-legal materials such as visual art, literature, film, performing arts, and simulations into law school curricula. For those interested in how to deepen moral perception, this edited collection provides a wealth of new ideas and theoretical insights.’ Deborah L. Rhode, Stanford Law School, USA ’Together with its companion volume The Arts and the Legal Academy, this collection is essential reading for anyone concerned about legal education in these times when quantifiable student satisfaction often trumps the quality of teaching. Bankowski and his colleagues argue forcefully that there need not be a contradiction between the two: quality legal education conducted with imagination can be a deeply satisfying experience.’ Panu Minkkinen, University of Helsinki, Finland
