Speech prof. Koskenniemi graduation LLM programme 2020-2021

Professor Koskenniemi discusses the concept of "Law as an academic discipline". He does this by comparing it with the other "high faculties" that were offered at the first universities from their inception, namely (in addition to law) medicine and theology.
Some interesting quotes...
“(…) these faculties were designed for practical effect. 'Practical' in the original Aristotelean sense of being directed at human flourishing. Medicine was about the flourishing of the human body, theology about the flourishing of the human soul. (3:30) Law, for its part, was meant to realise the happiness or the flourishing of the human community. Law is the science of the happiness of the human community.”
He then further analyses this against the current international context, and after discussing the Oxfam report on poverty, he says (7:41): “If law were medicine, we would say that the community is sick. If law were theology, we would say it has lost its soul. As lawyers, those numbers compel us to recognize the extreme injustice of the world, but it also provides universities and faculties with a mission to cure the world, to repair its soul. Therefore, dear graduates, law is an academic discipline. It is not about managing bureaucratic processes or deciding even less winning cases. It is to reflect upon the ideal futures that contrast with the present practice.”
And further also: 8:40: “What would it be for a global community to flourish? It is to answer that question that - law has a rightful place in the academy. Equality and justice are large and abstract words, easily misunderstood and misused. Therefore, we receive high level education that we will receive in places like Ghent. That education is a privilege, and having this privilege - although it might be a cliché - comes with a responsibility. There is much to do in practice in order to make the world a better, a more just place. That is the purpose for which we have received our education, for which you have received your master’s degrees”.