Harold Berman on Legal Education

Harold J. Berman, Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ'g Co. 1993).

Overall, David Caudill describes Faith and Order as "a 'greatest hits' collection by one of the best law-and-religion scholars of the late twentieth century." His review can be found in the Journal of Law and Religion, pp. 713-17 (Vol. 16, No. 2 (2001)).

Part Three of Faith and Order explores "Theological, Prophetic, and Educational Themes." Two articles, chapters seventeen and eighteen, are worth highlighting for their focus on legal education.

Professor Berman's seventeenth chapter, The Crisis of Legal Education in America, discusses his view that "[l]aw teachers and law students . . . are more one-sided, and more mistaken, in their view of the nature of law than were their predecessors in any other period of American History." He continues by stating that "[w]e have been overwhelmed by the belief that law is politics . . . not in the sense that Aristotle meant when he said law is politics, but more in the sense that Max Weber and V.I. Lenin meant when they said that law is politics, namely, domination." We have forgotten that "law is also morality" and "history." Berman attributes this shift to "[t]he triumph of the positivist theory of law—that law is the will of the lawmaker." This has led to "a deep cynicism about the law."

To counteract this shift, Berman recommends that we recognize the importance of "the ancient Judaic and Christian foundations of our legal tradition." And "we must restore the integrity of our jurisprudential heritage" by joining together again the separate strands of positivism, natural-law theory, and historical jurisprudence.

The eighteenth chapter, Is There Such a Thing—Can There Be Such a Thing—as a Christian Law School?, explores the idea of a Christian law school by examining Notre Dame's history and distinctiveness. Regardless of the law school you attended (or are attending), Berman's description of the prophetic and priestly aspects of being a Christian lawyer are worth considering.

Publication information for Faith and Order can be found at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion website. And here's their blurb:

This book argues that despite the tensions existing in all societies between religious faith and legal order, they inevitably interact. In the course of his discussion Berman traces the history of Western law, exposes the fallacies of law theories that fail to take religion into account, examines key theological, prophetic, and educational themes, and looks at the role of religion in the Soviet and post-Soviet state.

You can also read portions of Faith and Order at GoogleBooks.