The Critique is on the Glass: The Extension of Museum-Presentation Techniques to Substantively Advance Law School Pedagogy

Authors

Rachel H. Smith, St. John's University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Essay

Publication Title

Stetson Law Review Forum

Publication Date

4-22-2023

Volume

6(5)

First Page

1

Abstract

(Excerpt)

In The Writing’s on the Wall: Using Multimedia Presentation Techniques from the Museum World to Improve Law School Pedagogy, Professor Cecilia A. Silver demonstrates how traditional law school teaching would benefit from embracing museum techniques. The Writing’s on the Wall offers museum presentation principles as a corrective to old-fashioned law teaching. And they certainly are. But they can be much more.

The museum techniques that the article describes are a starting point for thinking about museums as a useful analog to law schools, especially in confronting the biases, hierarchies, and injustices of the past and present. The Writing’s on the Wall starts a conversation about the many ways that museums offer a way forward for law teaching and law schools. This essay seeks to continue that conversation by identifying how the decolonization movement in museums provides a model for teaching students how to critically read cases and learn legal doctrine.