Notes on a New Humanism in Legal Education

In Pursuit of Virtue and Knowledge, Catholic Law’s Center for Law and the Human Person Hosts Inaugural Conference | Tuesday, March 14, 2023:
Marc O. DeGirolami, Cary Fields Professor of Law, St. John’s University School of Law, provided the conference’s first presentation, “Notes on a New Humanism in Legal Education.” Reflecting on his experience as a law professor, DeGirolami argued that law schools should offer their students opportunities to study humanistic studies such as philosophy and theology. “About five years ago, I began to notice something in my students,” he remarked. “They have their intuitions. They know, or think they know, what they think, but they keep quiet because they don’t know how to approach disagreement.” Humanism and the study of law can and should co-exist, he explained. Law should facilitate human flourishing, and the humanities advance that goal by providing law students with opportunities for shaping themselves and becoming more fully human. DeGirolami posited that legal education could better challenge its students by using the humanities to prompt further exploration of human nature.