Almost at the finishing line and things on this Law and Humanities module are finally beginning to make sense!\u00a0 After studying the history of the relationship between law and humanities vis-\u00e0-vis the interpretation of law through literary texts and traditions, examining the critical possibilities of contemporary scholars in certain projects, especially through the mechanism of rhetoric, we are now looking at the responsibility and ethos of scholarship of scholars, lawyers and critics.<\/p>\n
In \u2018Educating the Total Jurist?\u2019 W. Wesley Pue examines the role of legal education and how they shape future aspiring lawyers, or in his words, \u2018citizen formation\u2019.\u00a0 He describes the image of lawyers as one of \u2018gentlemanliness\u2019 as befitting the \u2018well-rounded barrister\u2019.\u00a0 By using the thoughts of eminent lawyers and scholars across the globe, he provides evidence of what he describes as the notion of the total jurist.\u00a0 One such eminent lawyer includes our UK\u2019s infamous Lord Denning; he talked about the \u2018spirit of the profession\u2019 which embraces values as \u2018frankness, fairness, honesty, courage and the recognition of one\u2019s duty to the Court and client.\u2019<\/p>\n
However, the values of ethics, morality and \u2018gentlemanliness, I believe, have diminished over time and empathise with Pue\u2019s view.\u00a0 In today\u2019s climate of globalisation, it appears that the legal profession is \u2018all about the money\u2019 (taken from Jerry Maguire), \u2018success\u2019 and what Margaret Thornton suggests as \u2018the real danger of returning legal education to the \u2018trade school\u2019 mentality of the past\u2019.\u00a0 It is an uneasy thought to think that law schools are churning out \u2018mere half-lawyer\u2019 as Pue advocates.\u00a0 If this is true, then legal education and the educating of a \u2018total jurist\u2019 is doomed.<\/p>\n
However, later in his article, Pue suggests that not is all lost.\u00a0 Even if legal education is being promoted in universities as value-free, there is the hope that law schools will return \u2018to a more self-aware legal education\u2019.\u00a0 Furthermore, he hopes that we, as humans, will take on the responsibility, or \u2018ethos\u2019, to instil our own values, not just education and profession, but in everything we do in life!<\/p>\n
Pue\u2019s article resonates what I have been thinking about legal professionals and its values since embarking on a career in law, but am I wrong?\u00a0 Are we, as students of law and humanities, not taught how \u2018to rise above self-interest and the narrow view\u2019 thus becoming \u2018mere half-lawyers\u2019 or are we resistant and\/or responsible enough to return to becoming the total jurist of the past?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Almost at the finishing line and things on this Law and Humanities module are finally beginning to make sense!\u00a0 After studying the history of the relationship between law and humanities vis-\u00e0-vis the interpretation of law through literary texts and traditions, examining the critical possibilities of contemporary scholars in certain projects, especially through the mechanism of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39897,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[136347],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39897"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lawandthehumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}