Experiential Learning From the Continental Viewpoint. If the cap fits…

The paper can be divided into three parts. The first is a recap of the civil law mentality of jurists in Italy from a historical perspective, in order to explain why the academic learning still resists in this country, as in most legal systems belonging to the civil law tradition. Although continental legal education was certainly devoted to teaching legal science at University, it is here argued that Continental law schools were able to educate practitioners, as well as jurists. A second part is devoted to the present deep crisis affecting both legal teaching and legal professions. Such a crisis is denounced by the several reforms concerning Universities, as well as the bar bodies. Notwithstanding the continuous State interventions, neither Universities nor the bars have improved their quality and social consideration. Among the possible causes, the paper will investigate on the lack of renewal in the goals of education as well as of the legal profession, and the indifference towards new methodologies and new technologies in educating law students and future lawyers. In a third part, the Author wants to demonstrate that it is possible for professors belonging to a civil law system to concentrate on learning, instead of resting on their teaching, in order to achieve the new goals dealt with in part two through new pedagogical models: clinical teaching is considered the best example.