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70 U. Cin. L. Rev. 137 (2001-2002)
The Ideology of the Case Method/Final Examination Law School

handle is hein.journals/ucinlr70 and id is 147 raw text is: THE IDEOLOGY OF THE CASE METHOD/FINAL EXAMINATION LAW SCHOOL Philip C. Kissam I. INTRODUCTION The case method/final examination system of law schools remains the predominant method of legal education despite dramatic changes in modern legal practices, powerful criticisms of the case method and final examinations, and challenges from new ideas and new forms of legal education such as clinical education and the legal writing movement. The case method/final examination system is grounded in both material and ideological factors that produce an apparent consensus about the necessity, if not also the wisdom, of the system. The ideological forces that sustain the traditional system of legal education require examination in order to establish a fair and open evaluation of the system and of proposals that would change the system. This article analyzes these forces and then concludes its critique by sketching a fanciful but realistic utopia of legal education that would decenter the case method/final examination system and install diverse alternative methods throughout the law school curriculum. Legal education has been essentially the same for the past 100 years. Most courses study particular legal doctrines by employing some version of the law school's case method.' Law students typically are evaluated by end-of-the-semester, time-limited, problem-solving final examinations that are graded in ways that help establish a class ranking system based upon comparative average grades.2 To be sure, clinical legal education and writing programs have developed in the past half * Professor of Law, University of Kansas. I wish to thank Rex Hwang for his helpful research assistance and Rick Levy, Ben Sax, Peter Schanck andJohn Henry Schlegel for their perceptive comments on this project and drafts of the essay. This project originated a long time ago as a presentation to a faculty workshop on legal scholarship at Washburn Law School, and subsequently as a paper for a faculty seminar on ideology at the University of Kansas. I thank the participants in the workshop and seminar for their stimulating discussions of these ideas. 1. See, e.g., ROBERT STEVENS, LAW SCHOOL: LEGAL EDUCATION IN AMERICA FROM THE 1850S TOTHE 1980S (1983); Edmund M. Morgan, The CasetMethod, 4J. LEGAL EDUC. 379 (1952); Russell L Weaver, Langdell's Legacy: Living with the Case Method, 36 VIL.L L. REV. 517 (1991). 2. See, e.g., Robert C. Downs & Nancy Levit, If t Can't Be Lake Woebegone: A Nationwide Suwcy of Law School Grading and Grade Nonnalization Practces, 65 UMKC L. REV. 819, 822-23 (1997); Steve H. Nickles, Examining and Grading in American Law &hools, 30 ARK. L. REV. 411,413-15 (1977); Steve Sheppard, An Informal Histoy of How Law Schools Evaluate Students, With A Predictable Emphasis On Law School Final Exams, 65 UMKC L. REV. 657, 657-58 (1997).

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