Contemplative practice in the law school: Breaking barriers to learning and resilience
Promoting Law Student and Lawyer Well-Being in Australia and Beyond
Format:
Book Chapter
Publication Year:
Submitted
Publisher:
Routledge
Place of Publication:
Vermont, USA
Sources ID:
82561
Collection:
Contemplative Pedagogy in Higher Education
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Abstract:
(Show)
In this chapter we argue that the increasing use of contemplative practices in lawschools is significant not just in relation to enhancing resilience and diminishing
stress and depression, but that they also have major benefits in the development of
traditional legal roles. However, there is an attitudinal barrier that needs to be
overcome as law students and legal academics have commonly been resistant to the
use of these practices. It is interesting and somewhat ironic, therefore, that just as
we are developing some level of openness to practices that often seem alien to
those in the law, we also find evidence that they indeed enhance capacities for legal
and educational practice such as level of focus, ability to prioritise, the optimisation
of objectivity, higher order thinking and so on. Further, the management of ethical
issues of professional practice, which are frequently triggers for depression, may
also be improved by contemplative practices as they enhance students’ and lawyers’
ability to articulate their personal and professional ethics. In turn, this knowledge can
be used to help break down remaining barriers to the use of contemplative practices
within the legal academy. To reiterate, until recently the supposition was that the
remedial benefits of contemplative practices ameliorated negative aspects of legal
education and practice. However, now it appears that the enhancement may also be
linked to a direct correspondence between contemplation and the law.