Law in action applies legal principles to real-world situations, examining the impact of laws on society. It is taught at the University of Wisconsin Law School and some other law schools through clinical experiences. The approach aims to produce skilled lawyers who understand the practical implications of laws.
Law in action is a legal theory that applies the principles of law, as found in court cases and statutes, to real-world situations. It is often associated with legal realism, which refers to the law in action, and asks how a particular law or legal concept applies in practice. Rather than focusing on the theory behind a law, law in action examines the actual impact of a law on society at large.
The concept exists primarily today at the University of Wisconsin Law School, but also exists in some form in select courses at other law schools around the world. Law studies in the United States normally focus on appellate court cases as a basis for learning and studying the principles of law. In a law-in-action approach, however, the study of a particular court case goes beyond the facts of the specific case. The discussion centers on the impact of the court’s decision on the parties and on society as a whole, the public response to the decision, and the intersection between the decision and other existing laws.
Another method that law schools could use to incorporate theory is to provide real-life clinical experiences to law students that expose them to the more practical side of practicing law. Most law schools offer elective courses that require students to practice their legal skills through law clinics. During these experiences, students under the supervision of a licensed attorney could actually perform work on real legal cases and represent clients in court in order to better prepare them for practicing law after graduating from law school.
The thinking behind the legal theory of law in action is that students will be better at representing clients in the future if they learn more than just the laws and rules. Learning the rules is certainly important and necessary for a successful legal career, but knowing the practical implications of those rules is also an essential skill for a lawyer. From the perspective of the law in action, then, learning the law is simply not enough to produce a competent lawyer. Memorizing the rules is not the same as practicing law, so requiring students to practice law while still in law school is more likely to produce an experienced and skilled lawyer.
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