Top Law Schools

To what extent does a law school's (or university's in general) religious affiliation influence or affect it's curriculum, approaches, and so forth?

In the context of law and teaching the law, I hope (and like to think) it doesn't affect it at all, but I'm probably wrong.

lolschool2011 wrote:To what extent does a law school's (or university's in general) religious affiliation influence or affect it's curriculum, approaches, and so forth?

In the context of law and teaching the law, I hope (and like to think) it doesn't affect it at all, but I'm probably wrong.

IMO this would depend on the school. If you look at places like ND, BYU, Pepperdine, etc. it seems pretty entrenched. ND's "a different kind of lawyer", BYU's affiliation with LDS, Pepperdine's conservative Christian views...

On the other hand you have places like Georgetown that were founded and are affiliated with a certain religion but that religion doesn't seem as pervasive. (Though I did read someplace that GULC's med center doesn't dispense birth control? Guh).

krad wrote:

lolschool2011 wrote:To what extent does a law school's (or university's in general) religious affiliation influence or affect it's curriculum, approaches, and so forth?

In the context of law and teaching the law, I hope (and like to think) it doesn't affect it at all, but I'm probably wrong.

IMO this would depend on the school. If you look at places like ND, BYU, Pepperdine, etc. it seems pretty entrenched. ND's "a different kind of lawyer", BYU's affiliation with LDS, Pepperdine's conservative Christian views...

On the other hand you have places like Georgetown that were founded and are affiliated with a certain religion but that religion doesn't seem as pervasive. (Though I did read someplace that GULC's med center doesn't dispense birth control? Guh).

Yeah, makes sense.... probably various degrees of pervasiveness throughout the country. If that's true GULC's med center doesn't dispense BC though, they just became a TTTTT med school IMO. Ridiculous - leave religious ideology out of medicine/science please. Whatever, I'd go to Johns Hopkins if I were MD bound anyway.

Yeah true that, I was trying to remember where I saw that, it may have been somewhere here on TLS actually.

Edit: Oh wait, wait. My bad- It was a misconception about the school apparently, though a few people were concerned about it and current students said it ended up being fine. Whoops.

You gotta go with Christ brah

Probably not going to notice a lot from the school itself at most places other than maybe some leaning towards more PI-focused work and professors sometimes being clergy. Law schools like Cardozo have tried to distance themselves as much as they can from their main universities.

As someone above said, it'll vary. I'd expect to feel it more at ND and BYU, less at GULC and BC. I would also think that another thing would be the student culture and that there are certain types of students who choose to go to BYU/Pepperdine/etc and that the atmosphere is more indicative of that than anything else.

bk187 wrote:I would also think that another thing would be the student culture and that there are certain types of students who choose to go to BYU/Pepperdine/etc and that the atmosphere is more indicative of that than anything else.

Definitely this, too.

Oh and this:

the only affiliation law schools have is with the Almighty Dollar.

I am sure most schools would permit time off for Festivus observance if the deans thought it would get a few more fannies to sign up for loan dollars.

I think BYU is on a whole different level of religion permeating into the school than any other religiously affiliated school (this is of course my own opinion from what I've heard/read about the school). Pepperdine also. I base this on the fact that they actually have professors and I believe students, sign something saying they believe in their specific faith before they can teach/attend their school.

My UG has an LS and obviously I'm only speaking from my own experience at the UG and what I've heard from 1Ls at the LS but...I went to *edited for privacy* which is a Jesuit school and religion was there but it was not forced upon you in any way. There is a church on campus where they hold mass if you would like to attend and occasionally your professors will be priests, but that is about as far as it went in terms of religion being noticeable. The LS is not even on the same campus as the UG and from what I've heard (I know several people who go to *edited*) nothing there is different from any other LS (in terms of religion).

I think I've posted this about a billion times (not really), but any Jesuit school is going to have a major emphasis on social justice and public service. Aside from that, you won't have much of a Catholic influence.

That's probably less true at a school like Notre Dame, which is more conservative.

EDIT: Jesuit law schools in top 100...:

Georgetown
Fordham
BC
Loyola Marymount
Loyola (Chicago)
Seattle U
Marquette
Gonzaga

NZA wrote:I think I've posted this about a billion times (not really), but any Jesuit school is going to have a major emphasis on social justice and public service. Aside from that, you won't have much of a Catholic influence.

TITCR

I also feel like I've posted in a "religiously affiliated schools" thread like a million times haha.

LSpleaseee wrote:

NZA wrote:I think I've posted this about a billion times (not really), but any Jesuit school is going to have a major emphasis on social justice and public service. Aside from that, you won't have much of a Catholic influence.

TITCR

I also feel like I've posted in a "religiously affiliated schools" thread like a million times haha.

Indeed. It's a valid question, and I could understand why people ask it.

NZA wrote: Indeed. It's a valid question, and I could understand why people ask it.

I however fail to understand why people don't use the search function.

bk187 wrote:

NZA wrote: Indeed. It's a valid question, and I could understand why people ask it.

I however fail to understand why people don't use the search function.

LSpleaseee wrote:I think BYU is on a whole different level of religion permeating into the school than any other religiously affiliated school (this is of course my own opinion from what I've heard/read about the school). Pepperdine also. I base this on the fact that they actually have professors and I believe students, sign something saying they believe in their specific faith before they can teach/attend their school.

False in the case of Pepperdine. I believe true in the case of BYU only if you want to benefit from outrageously discounted tuition.

1ferret! wrote:

LSpleaseee wrote:I think BYU is on a whole different level of religion permeating into the school than any other religiously affiliated school (this is of course my own opinion from what I've heard/read about the school). Pepperdine also. I base this on the fact that they actually have professors and I believe students, sign something saying they believe in their specific faith before they can teach/attend their school.

False in the case of Pepperdine. I believe true in the case of BYU only if you want to benefit from outrageously discounted tuition.

Maybe it's different for the LS but I know for a fact that professors at the UG must sign a statement saying that they believe in Jesus as their savior or w/e that crap is.