Abstract
In order to re-make the world in its own image, neoliberal expansionism is predicated on the dominance of a particular regime of reason. The dominance of economic-juridical rationality relies in no small part on education to reproduce itself. In this sense, how and why a populace is educated in the law becomes a locus of struggle and of alternative and competing constructions of normative and political orders. Over the last decade the United Kingdom’s justice policy has become more attentive to the role of citizens’ knowledge of the law in the context of a reinvigorated drive toward competition in the legal services market. Reformism in legal services thereby emerges as a strategy geared toward the economisation of the state by propagating specific types of legal knowledge. This reorientation of legal education is considered through, on the one hand, the insights of recent theories of neoliberalism and, on the other, a wider lens relating the intersection of legal education to the juridical-political realm. Finally, the paper outlines alternative strategies of community-based educational practices rooted in resistance to legal and economic orthodoxies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Bildung carries a range of meanings in German including personal and cultural education and formation.
References
Adorno, Theodor W. 1998 (1959). Theorie der Halbbildung. In Gesammelte Schriften, Band 8, 93–121. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Adorno, Theodor. W., and Hellmut Becker. 1999. Education for maturity and responsibility (trans: Robert French, Jem Thomas, and Dorothee Weymann). History of Human Sciences 12(3): 21–34.
Benjamin, Walter. 2004. Critique of Violence. In Selected writings Volume I, 1913–1926, eds. Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Biesta, Gert. 2002. Bildung and modernity: The future of bildung in a world of difference. Studies in Philosophy and Education 21(4–5): 343–351.
Biesta, Gert. 2005. Against learning. Reclaiming a language for education in an age of learning. Nordisk Pedagogik 25: 54–66.
Biesta, Gert. J.J. 2016. Beyond learning: Democratic education for a human future. London: Routledge.
Bowcott, Owen. 2017. Senior judge warns over ‘shaming’ impact of legal-aid cuts. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/oct/13/senior-judge-warns-over-shaming-impact-of-legal-aid-cuts. Accessed 11 November 2018.
Briggs, Michael L.J. 2016 Civil Court structure review: Final report. Her Majestic Court and Tribunal Service. https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/civil-courts-structure-review-final-report-jul-16-final-1.pdf. Accessed 15 January 2019.
Brown, Wendy. 2015. Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth revolution. New York: Zone Books.
Clementi, Sir David. 2004. Review of the regulatory framework for legal services in England and Wales, final report. http://www.avocatsparis.org/Presence_Internationale/droit_homme/PDF/Rapport_Clementi.pdf. Accessed 9 April 2019.
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). 2016. Legal services market study. Final report, Competition and Markets Authority. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5887374d40f0b6593700001a/legal-services-market-study-final-report.pdf. Accessed 9 April 2019.
Dardot, Pierre, and Christian Laval. 2007. The new way of the world: On neoliberal society (trans: Gregory Elliott). London: Verso.
Foucault, Michel, Michel Senellart, and Graham Burchell. 2008. The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Garth, Bryant. 1980. Neighborhood law firms for the poor: A comparative study of recent developments in legal aid and in the legal profession. Alphen aan den Rijn. Amsterdam: Sijthoff and Noordhoff International Publishers.
Hayek, Friedrich. 2006. The Constitution of Liberty. Oxford: Routledge.
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, Fifty-Sixth Report of Session 2017–2019 ‘Transforming Courts and Tribunals’, HC 976 July 2018 https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmpubacc/976/976.pdf Accessed 9 April.
Jaeger, Werner. 1967. Paideia: The ideals of Greek culture, Volume I. Archaic Greece; the mind of Athens (trans: Gilbert Highet). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 1991. What is Enlightenment? In Kant: Political writings, ed. H.S. Reiss, 54–60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Legal Services Act. 2007. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/29/contents. Accessed 9 April 2019.
Legal Services Board. 2016. Evaluation: Changes in the legal services market 2006/07–2014/15—Main report. An analysis of market outcomes associated with the delivery of the regulatory objectives. https://research.legalservicesboard.org.uk/wp-content/media/2015-2016-FINAL-Market-Evaluation-Main-report1.pdf. Accessed 15th January 2019.
Ministry of Justice and Her Majesties Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS). 2016. Transforming our justice system—Joint statement. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-our-justice-system-joint-statement. Accessed 9 April 2019.
Pleasence, Pascoe, Nigel J. Balmer, and Rebecca Sandefur. 2013. Paths to justice: A past, present and future roadmap. Nuffield Foundation. https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/PTJ%20Roadmap%20NUFFIELD%20Published.pdf. Accessed 15 January 2019.
Schütz, Anton. 2000. Thinking the law with and against Luhmann, Legendre, Agamben. Law and Critique 11(2): 107–136. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008939323404.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2008. Making the law work for everyone. Report of the Commission on legal empowerment of the poor. New York: UNDP. https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/blog/document/making-the-law-work-for-everyone-vol-1-report-of-the-commission-on-legal-empowerment-of-the-poor/. Accessed 9 April 2019.
Wintersteiger, Lisa, and Tara Mulqueen. 2017. Decentering law through public legal education. Oñati Socio-Legal Series 7(7): 1557–1880.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wintersteiger, L. Legal Education Beyond the Academy: The Neoliberal Reorientation of Public Legal Education. Law Critique 30, 123–129 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-019-09244-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-019-09244-9