Public Legal Education

Developing a community of practice

Reflections on the implications of legal theory for PLE

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At this point in my ruminations, my thoughts are focused on two themes:

  1. The constraints imposed on public legal education by its grounding in legal positivism: how it came to be so grounded, what the problems are with legal positivism, and what alternatives might be worth considering.
    I am taking HLA Hart as the reference for legal positivism because he occupied the high ground in legal theory during PLE’s formative years. I am updating my understanding of legal positivism by reading McCormick’s work, particularly on post-positivism. I’m also looking at the work of critical legal theorists to see what they might have to offer us. At this point, though, critical legal theory seems to be focusing on legal liberalism while still buying into the basic idea of the law.
  1. The social justice program for public legal education: what is meant by the term social justice, ways of achieving it, possible roles for public legal education in moving toward a more just society.

I’m focusing on the influence that legal theory has had on the development of PLE. I do so with a very full realization that the scope of PLE has been substantially defined by those who fund that work. I spent a full forty years in the trenches! Raising funding for a more radical form of PLE might be impossible. That said, I would argue that the idea of law that lies behind the decisions of funders is also positivistic, indeed perhaps more positivistic than some PLE agencies might wish. Part of the job to be done lies with getting law schools to introduce students to a broad range of insights about law so that when they become funders they will recognized that the domain of public legal education is larger than the positivist notion of law suggests. I’m not naive enough to think they’ll suddenly start funding a more radical project, but it may be possible to make some inroads into funding a more robust approach to public legal education.

My project is ambitious. I need help!!!! Please feel free to comment on any of the material I post. Consider it all a work in progress. If I don’t respond as appropriately as you might think your comment warrants. Please be patient with me. I find it often takes me some time to incorporate critiques into my thinking. I usually get there but the journey is arduous. Trust that I appreciate your thoughts. I’m just not as quick on my feet as you might wish.

Also, please feel free to suggest fruitful lines of inquiry, writers you enjoy, questions that are challenging you. I hope this blog will prove provocative for all of us.
Thanks,
Lois

Launch of the first Journal of Public Legal Education!

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The International Journal of Public Legal Education ( including Street Law) has now been launched.

The International Journal of Public Legal Education is an international peer reviewed open access journal devoted to the innovative field of public legal education (PLE).

The IJPLE publishes a range of papers including reviewed articles, practice reports, examples of good practice from the field, editorials and reviews.

The journal aims to promote and support the development of PLE and to critically examine and share best practice. For these purposes PLE is interpreted broadly encompassing a wide range of activities aimed at educating members of the public in relation to legal rights and responsibilities affecting everyday lives, including Street Law and other legal literacy programmes. ‘Public’ is defined here to encompass those studying law in a formal setting including undergraduate and postgraduate students and individuals and groups who wish to know more about the law more generally, be it with or without academic credit. The latter may consist of one-off or short courses or public information campaigns aimed at raising awareness of legal issues.

The IJPLE is primarily concerned with-

  • the role of PLE as an instrument for community empowerment, access to justice and societal change;
  • the pedagogy of PLE including design, delivery and assessment;
  • PLE in a comparative context across the civil and common law worlds; and
  • empirical and theoretical research providing an evidence base for the educational and impact claims of PLE in relation to the various stakeholders involved including students, the educational institution and community partners.