Duncan Kennedy

Legal Education

I have written lots of pieces on legal education designed for law students and prospective law students. The best place to start might be “Legal Education as Training for Hierarchy” in David Kairys, ed., The Politics of Law (1982, 2nd ed. 1990, 3d ed. 1998). This is a chapter in an excellent book of critical essays about law, by many authors associated with the critical legal studies movement, designed for students. There is a link to my chapter in the “Bibliography” section of this website.

The New York University Press has published a reprint of the larger pamphlet from which I took the chapter, called “Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy.” This edition reproduces the original form of the pamphlet, with an Introduction and Afterword by me, bringing the pamphlet somewhat up to date and telling the story of critical legal studies. There are also interesting commentaries by Paul Carrington, Peter Gabel, Angela Harris & Donna Maeda, and Janet Halley.

Of the pieces in this section, the short treatments of the educational experience in “The Political Significance of the Structure of the Law School Curriculum” and “A Conversation with Duncan Kennedy”, by Gerard Clark, are probably the best.

Essays on Legal Education

• The Bitter Ironies of Williams V. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co. In the First Year Law School Curriculum, 71 Buff. L. Rev. 225 (2023)
• Teaching Israel/Palestine Legal Issues at Harvard: Interview with Duncan Kennedy, by Whosam El-Coolaq, 10 Unbound 36 (2015)
• Law on the Left: A Conversation with Duncan Kennedy, by Tor Krever, Carl Lisberger and Max Utzschneider, 10 Unbound 1 (2015)
• Remembering Keith Aoki’s Casual Legal Studies: Art During Law School, 45 UC Davis L. Rev. 1817 (2012)
• Interview with Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School, Cambridge MA (USA), May 2008 (by Mauro Zamboni), 32 REFTÆRD Årgång, no. 2/125 (2009)
• Teaching from the Left in My Anecdotage, 31 NYU Review of Law and Social Change 449 (2007)
• Introduction and Afterword to the republication of Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy, A Polemic Against the System, A Critical Edition (NYU Press, Critical America, 2004)
• Introduction, in Symposium: Dismantling Hierarchies in Legal Education, 73 UMKC L. Rev. 231 (2004)
• Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System, A Critical Edition, with contributions from Paul Harrington, Peter Gabel [weblink], Angela Harris, Donna Maeda and Janet Halley (NYU Press, Critical America 2004)
• The Social Justice Element in Legal Education in the United States, the Sir Elwyn Jones Lecture, The University of Wales, March 19, 2002.
• Legal Education, Professional Ethics, and Mandatory Pro Bono: A Conversation with Duncan Kennedy, by Ed Baker, PRAXIS, University of Wisconsin Law School, Spring 2001 [weblink]
• Politicizing the Classroom, 4 Review of Law and Women’s Studies 81 (1995).
  • Spanish translation: Politizar el aula, Academia, Revista sobre enseñanza del Derecho, año 5, número 10, p. 85-94 (2007)
• A Conversation with Duncan Kennedy, by Gerard Clark, 24 The Advocate, The Suffolk University Law School Journal 2 (1994).
• A Cultural Pluralist Case for Affirmative Action in Legal Academia, 1990 Duke L. J. 706 [also in Sexy Dressing, Etc]
• The Liberal Administrative Style, 41 Syracuse Law Review 801 (1990).
• The Responsibility of Lawyers for the Justice of Their Causes, 18 Texas Tech Law Review 1157 (1987).
  • La responsabilidad de los abogados por la justicia de sus casos, 12 Academia. Revista sobre enseñanza del Derecho 135 (Año 6, núm. 12, 2008)
• Liberal Values in Legal Education, 10 Nova Law Review 603 (1986).
• L’enseignement du Droit et la Reproduction des Hierarchies Professionelles, Annales de Vaucresson, deuxième semestre 1985, no. 23, p. 191 [short version of Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy (AFAR 1983)]
• Psycho-Social CLS: A Comment on the Cardozo Symposium, 6 Cardozo Law Review 1013 (1985).
• Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System (AFAR 1983) [also published in updated book version as Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System, A Critical Edition, with contributions from Paul Harrington, Peter Gabel [weblink], Angela Harris, Donna Maeda and Janet Halley, and with a new introduction and afterword by the author (NYU Press, Critical America 2004)]
  • French translation: L’enseignement du droit et la reproduction des hierarchies professionelles (Lux, Montreal 2010)
  • Spanish translation: La enseñanza del derecho como forma de acción política (Siglo veintiuno, Buenos Aires 2012)
  • French translation: L’enseignement du droit et la reproduction des hierarchies, Une polémique autour du système, Lux Éditeur, Québec, 2010.
  • Spanish translation: La educación legal como preparación para la jerarquía, María Luisa Piqué y Christian Courtis, trans., in Desde Otra Mirada: Textos de Teoría Crítica del Derecho (Eudeba 2001); also published as La educación legal como preparación para la jerarquía, Academia, Revista sobre Enseñanza del Derecho de Buenos Aires, Año 2, no. 3, Otoño 2004 [translation of Legal Education as a Training for Hierarchy, in D. Kairys, ed., The Politics of Law (New York, Pantheon, 1990)]
  • Partial French translation: L’enseignement du Droit et la Reproduction des Hierarchies Professionelles, Annales de Vaucresson, deuxième semestre 1985, no. 23, p. 191
  • Shorter version: Legal Education as Training for Hierarchy, in D. Kairys, ed. The Politics of Law (1982, 2nd ed. 1990, 3d ed. 1998)
  • Shorter version: Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy, 32 J. Leg. Ed. 591 (1982)
• The Political Significance of the Structure of the Law School Curriculum, 14 Seton Hall Law Review 1 (1983).
• Legal Education as Training for Hierarchy, in D. Kairys, ed. The Politics of Law (1982, 2nd ed. 1990, 3d ed. 1998)
• Rebels from Principle: Changing the Corporate Law Firm from Within, 33 Harvard Law Bulletin 36 (1981).
• First Year Law Teaching as Political Action, 1 Law and Social Problems 47 (1980).
• How the Law School Fails: A Polemic, 1 Yale Review of Law and Social Action 71 (1970).