Law teaching for sale: legal shadow education in Denmark: from historical and current perspectives

Abstract

This study examines the use of supplementary private teaching (‘shadow education’) within the field of legal education in Denmark from historical and current perspectives. The aim is to estimate the extent of this phenomenon in a Danish context and understand why law students chose to pay for private teaching services. The study documents that practices presently labelled as shadow education are as old as the University of Copenhagen (1479) and the formal legal education (1736). During a period of around 150 years (1780-1930), the exam-oriented private teaching (manuduction) was, in fact, the backbone of legal education. Sources show that the poor state of the university education, including archaic teaching methods, was the primary reason for this: private teaching was the market’s solution to a broken public education. Educational reforms during the first half of the 20th century challenged the raison d'être of the private manuduction industry, and the Danish welfare state provided the fatal blow in 1960: free university manuduction. However, the private teaching industry was resurrected in the 21st century in a more corporate, professional, and aggressive form. The study indicates that currently around 60 percent of law students have paid for private teaching services during their legal education. Moreover, the study shows that it is no longer the quality of university teaching that is the main catalyst, but rather the appeal of very exam-oriented courses and the students’ insecurities, especially the first-years. The study links this development to the emergence of the competition state. Finally, the study recommends that the findings are taken into account in future reform endeavours and suggests directions for further research into shadow education in law, including through comparative analysis.