Critical Thinking and the Law

This article traces the origins, and discusses key features of the Critical Thinking and the Law Program. In addition, this article evaluates and projects the implications of the Critical Thinking and the Law Program for legal education. The first section of the article reviews the rich literature on the teaching of thinking movement, and focuses upon those elements of the movement which have had the greatest influence on the design and execution of the Critical Thinking and the Law Program. This section also reports the findings of a survey formulated to determine the current involvement of North American law schools with the teaching of thinking/critical thinking movement. The second section of the article describes the crucial elements of the program and the specific influences of the critical thinking movement on those elements. Section two concludes by discussing the program’s evaluation plan, including the results of the two types of empirical evaluation in the program