Contemplative practices in legal education
Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Legal Education 2025 DOI: 10.4337/9781035302932.ch27 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that contemplative practices offer transformative potential for law students, supporting well-being, personal efficacy, and reflective practice, and propose a more holistic legal education. |
Abstract
This entry explores contemplative practices in legal pedagogy. It addresses how contemplative practices are defined, rationales for their incorporation into legal education, and challenges to the utilisation of such practices in the teaching of law. Emphasis is placed on the transformative potential of contemplative practices for law students and the value added to legal education in terms of support for student well-being, personal efficacy, and the development of reflective practice. In this context, it is submitted that contemplative practices engage a depth and breadth of experience which goes beyond that conventionally associated with the study of law, creating space for a more holistic approach to legal education.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |