Claudia Bouteligier: ‘What is the purpose of legal education?’
Interview
Years of experience with Honours education have given lecturer Claudia Bouteligier a different perspective on legal education. We asked her which approach she would prioritise: ‘Students need the space to think deeply and reflect at their own pace.’
On 6 September, Claudia shared her views at the opening of the Academic Year with Ekklesia Leiden in the Hooglandse Kerk. Based on the theme ‘Relationship and the individual in legal education’, she emphasised the purpose of legal education in society, and how students can shape this themselves. She drew inspiration from Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy and anecdotes from her experience in Honours education.
The core of your reflection at Ekklesia revolves around the question of the ‘purpose’ of legal education. What exactly do you mean by this?
When it comes to designing education, my experience is we often discuss how we can motivate and engage students. This is understandable, as students often only focus on the material they need to pass their exams. In the 15 years I’ve been teaching at the university, students have frequently asked me whether certain topic would be on the exam. A ‘yes’ would result in significantly more attention and engagement than a ‘no’.
This makes sense, as students have been accustomed to a performance- and measurement-driven culture in education since primary school. The focus is on the end result. Yet, it is precisely the journey – the learning process of students – that is so important.
For me, there is a more fundamental question: what is the ‘purpose’ of legal programmes? This is closely linked to the question of what kind of society we want to create. After all, our future lawyers, criminologists, and researchers will shape society.
If we want a society that we can call a ‘community’ – one where people live with one another rather than next to one another – then we must instil in students the understanding that we are not only responsible for ourselves but also for others. And that the law should be used to promote justice, freedom, and humanity. Students should be given the space to think deeply and reflect at their own pace on these grand concepts, which have no fixed definitions. On what these concepts mean for them, as individuals.
Ekklesia Leiden
Ekklesia Leiden is an ecumenical faith community. It originated from a student organisation of Roman Catholic and Protestant students in the 1960s and 1970s but is now open to people of all beliefs. Ekklesia Leiden organises ecumenical services at the Hooglandse Kerk on Sundays, as well as other activities such as social projects, meditation, communal meals and lectures.
You reference both the philosopher Martin Buber and the pedagogue Gert Biesta in your reflection. What do you think educational professionals can learn from them?
Buber offers an extraordinarily important perspective on what a community can be and what it means for us as human beings. ‘In the beginning is the relationship’, he states in I and Thou (1923). To be human means to be in relation to another person. Biesta’s pedagogical concept of ‘subjectifying education’ also emphasises the importance of addressing students personally and reflecting on our role as educators. Both teach us that we should approach students not as numbers but as individuals. As people.
What can this alternative perspective offer in practice?
Traditional assessment methods are outdated in this day and age, especially with the rise of AI. The ability to reproduce knowledge does not necessarily mean a student truly understands the material – or that they’re personally engaged. Within the faculty, many wonderful things are already happening in terms of educational innovation, and there is increasing attention for practical applications.
At Honours College Law, we have experimented with educational and assessment formats over the past few years. For example, it is important for students to learn about the ‘Toeslagen affair’ (Dutch childcare benefits scandal), but it only becomes truly clear what injustice can be when they speak with an affected parent.
In short: treat students as individuals, and give them an active role in shaping their education, for example by letting them help design study groups. By giving them a degree of autonomy and freedom of choice, they are more engaged because they feel seen.