The Models of Legal Education: Implication for Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The model of any type of education is very important for learning and every type of learning requires a different approach. This research explores the Socratic method, the Case Method, the Problem-Based Method, Clinical Legal Education and Lecture Approach for legal education. It also discusses the merits and demerits of each educational model in the legal education context. It was observed that all teaching methods were complementary to each another and that legal education requires a mix of all as per the subject matter and resource-availability of education institutions. This research also identified the legal education model in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia predominately adopted the lecture approach due to historical dependence on French-educated Egyptian professors. The lecture approach is very traditional and has more demerits as compared to merits with rote learning. Therefore, we suggest the Kingdom use a mixed approach for legal education for maximum advantage.