The Ambitious Modesty of Harry Arthurs\u27 Humane Professionalism

This article revisits Law and Learning, the 1983 Report of the Consultative Committee on Research and Education in Law, chaired by Harry Arthurs. The Arthurs Report set an ambitious agenda which sought, through the reform of legal education and scholarship, the cultivation of a humane professionalism. That it met with limited success reflects a number of systemic problems with legal education, and the Report\u27s own failure to address some critical issues, notably legal pedagogy. Nevertheless, the article argues that in the context of today\u27s increasingly complex, pluralistic, and globalized environment, the law schools need humane professionalism more than ever. It thus concludes with a set of normative assumptions and ecological design principles by which law schools could develop a pedagogy more consistent with that vision