engleski

A lawyer with character - which values to promote in legal education?

According to the recently published 2019 EU Justice Scoreboard, by which the European commission monitors the justice systems of EU Member States, 76% of Croatian citizens have a negative perception of judiciary, particularly concerning its independence and efficiency. Since court decisions have a profound social impact, because through them judges indirectly shape the judicial policy, their education background is essential in interpretation of legal norms, as well as in ethical conduct that their function incorporates. However, despite numerous reform attempts, the present legal education system continues to support a formal education without fostering values, encouraging critical thinking and active engagement of students. Thereby it cultivates fast production of legal technicians who tend to become only a 'mouth that pronounces the words of the law', as Montesquieu puts it. Education that would be reduced to the constant reproduction of 'good and obedient young generations' who would not discover, ask questions and reflect critically is the best way to become just a mere service of a modern liberal democracy in which only the profit and the absence of every value system matter. The major purpose of our paper is to set out some of the key issues and debates relating to the importance of values in legal education and of education in values. Starting from the assumption that methodology of legal education exerts a dominant influence on the creation of future lawyers and thereupon on the formation of legal culture itself, the aim of this contribution is to question the present concept of legal education and propose some suggestions on how to educate conscientious future lawyers who will be able to adopt and reflect values such as critical thinking, honesty, etc.

critical thinking, legal education, legal culture, methodology, virtues

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