Vico's "Ingenious Method" and Legal Education

Recent calls to reform legal education have culminated in the 2007 Carnegie Report, which is attracting substantial attention and promises to have tremendous influence on American law schools. In this article I survey these calls for reform and argue that they should be put into a broader historical, philosophical and ethical perspective. Three hundred years ago the Italian humanist, Giambattista Vico, delivered his famous oration that serves as the focal point for this symposium, On the Study Methods of Our Time. This oration lamented the rise of Cartesian critical philosophy at the expense of the cultivation of imagination, prudence, and eloquence.

I conclude that Vico's discussion of law and legal education in the oration provides an incredible resource for the contemporary deliberations regarding law and legal education in the United States.