1 Usher, Robin, Imposing Structure, Enabling Play: New Knowledge Production and the “Real World” University in Working Knowledge: The New Vocationalism and Higher Education, 99 (Colin Symes and John McIntyre eds., 2000). The greater prestige of vocational courses is by no means new. Dunbabin states that this was also the case as far back as the 13^th Century. See Jean Dunbabin, Universities c. 1150 - c. 1350 in The Idea of a University, 34 (David Smith and Anne Karin Langslow eds., 1999).Google Scholar

2 The ramifications of consumerism in higher education are explored in Patty Kamvounias and Sally Varnham, Getting what they paid for: Consumer Rights of Students in Higher Education 15 Griffith Law Review 306 (2006).Google Scholar

3 Interviews were not conducted at La Trobe University, where I was employed at the time.Google Scholar

4 I have adapted the typology of Simon Marginson and Mark Considine, The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia (2000) 15–16. While they include five classifications: the ‘Sandstones', the ‘Redbricks', the ‘Gumtrees', the ‘Unitechs’ and the ‘New Universities', I have reduced this to four, as I felt that participants in the two Unitechs with law schools could be too easily identified. Also, the Unitech law schools are older than the News but the Unitechs did not become universities until the Dawkins reforms, so I have included them with the News. There is therefore some slippage between categories. Law schools were also introduced into some Redbrick and 3^rd Generation institutions at the same time as the New Universities were established post-1988. Research was conducted in the following Australian law schools: Sandstones – Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney, Tasmania and Western Australia; Redbricks – ANU, Monash, New England, UNSW; 3^rd Generation – James Cook, Deakin, Flinders, Griffith, Macquarie, Murdoch, Newcastle, Wollongong; News – Charles Darwin, QUT, Southern Cross, University of Canberra, UTS, UWS and Victoria University. Comparative research was also undertaken in the UK, Canada and New Zealand, which is not included in this article.Google Scholar

5 Rudd, Kevin, Child of Hayek, The Australian 20 October 2006, 12.Google Scholar

6 The Australian Government currently provides around AUD$1,600 pa per capita towards a law place, the lowest on a 10-point disciplinary scale (See Australia, Department of Education, Science and Technology <http:www.goingtouni.gov.au> at 8 December 2007. This means that most law students have to pay more than AUD$8,000 pa themselves for what purports to be a government-funded place, and three times or more than that for a full-fee place (There is currently no cap on what a university can charge).+at+8+December+2007.+This+means+that+most+law+students+have+to+pay+more+than+AUD$8,000+pa+themselves+for+what+purports+to+be+a+government-funded+place,+and+three+times+or+more+than+that+for+a+full-fee+place+(There+is+currently+no+cap+on+what+a+university+can+charge).>Google Scholar

7 In Australia, a government-initiated loans scheme covers both government-funded (FEE-HECS) and full-fee places (FEE-HELP). The loans scheme enables students to begin repayment only when their income reaches a certain threshold, currently approximately AUD$36,000. The money is then recovered through the taxation system. This loans system (euphemistically termed a ‘contribution') has softened the impact of the shift from free higher education (1972-89) to a user-pays system, even though there has been a gradual increase in fees over time.Google Scholar

8 A United States study has shown that the rising cost of law school tuition narrows graduate options. See Equal Justice Works, National Association for Law Placement (NALP), Partnership for Public Service, From Paper Chase to Money Chase: Law School Debt Diverts Road to Public Service (2002). The findings for this study were based on responses received from 1,622 graduating law students from 117 law schools. For a useful Canadian study on the impact of the rising cost of tuition fees, see Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia, Legal Education Project (2005) available at: <http://www.law.ubc.ca/files/pdf/news/2005/feb/LeapReport.pdf>..>Google Scholar

9 The impact of and response to the market has been similar in other Western countries. See Dietmar Braun and François-Xavier Merrien (eds.), Towards a New Model of Governance for Universities? A Comparative View (1999). Despite a long tradition of private universities, tertiary education in the United States has not been immune from the chill winds of neoliberalism either. See, e.g., Giroux, Henry A, Pedagogy of the Depressed: Beyond the New Politics of Cynicism, 2000, available at: <http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/GirouxDepressed02.htm>..>Google Scholar

10 Casey, Catherine, A Knowledge Economy and a Learning Society: A Comparative Analysis of New Zealand and Australian Experiences, 36 Compare 343 (2006).Google Scholar

11 Hon. John S. Dawkins, Higher Education: A Policy Statement, (White Paper, Australia, 1988)Google Scholar

12 Over a period of approximately 20 years from the early 1980s to the early 2000s, government expenditure on higher education in Australia fell from approximately 90 per cent to 38 per cent. See AVCC, Key Data on Higher Education (2004).Google Scholar

13 Department of Education, Science and Training, Australia, Building University Diversity: Future Approval and Accreditation Processes for Australian Higher Education, (2005) available at: http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/72F201EE-4D84-442F-9E92-C6968A27C818/2548/building_diversity.pdf.Google Scholar

14 Independent Committee of Inquiry into Competition Policy in Australia, National Competition Policy (Hilmer Report) (1993). The recommendations were incorporated into legislation soon afterwards. See Competition Policy Reform Act 1995 (Cth). For a thoroughgoing critique of competition policy in the context of the contemporary university, see Kathryn McMahon, Universities and Market Discourse 27 Monash University Law Review 105 (2001).Google Scholar

15 While formally conceptualized as for-profit, Melbourne University Private was a disaster in that respect, costing Melbourne University (Public) millions of dollars. For an analysis of this university's dalliance with the market, see John Cain and John Hewitt, Off Course: From Public Place to Marketplace at Melbourne University (2004).Google Scholar

16 Arthurs, Harry, The State We're In: Legal Education in Canada's New Political Economy, 20 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 35 (2001).Google Scholar

17 Sheila Slaughter and Larry L. Leslie, Academic Capitalism, Politics, Policies and the Entrepreneurial University (1997).Google Scholar

18 Ritzer, George, The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Nature of Contemporary Society (2000).Google Scholar

19 See e.g., Bill Readings, The University in Ruins (1996); Tony Coady (ed.), Why Universities Matter: A Conversation About Values, Means and Directions (2000); Simon Cooper, John Hinkson and Geoff Sharp (eds.), Scholars and Entrepreneurs (2002).Google Scholar

20 Exceptions include, Vivienne Brand, Decline in the Reform of Law Teaching?: The Impact of Policy Reforms in Tertiary Education, 10 Legal Education Review 109 (1999); Collier, Richard, “We're All Socio-Legal Now?” Legal Education, Scholarship and the “Global Knowledge Economy” – Reflections on the UK Experience, 26 Sydney Law Review 503(2004); James, Nickolas J, Power-Knowledge in Australian Legal Education: Corporatism's Reign, 26 Sydney Law Review 587(2004); Goldsmith, Andrew, Why should Law matter? Towards a Clinical Model of Legal Education, 25 University of New South Wales Law Journal 721(2002); Collier, Richard, The Changing University and the (Legal) Academic Career – Rethinking the Relationship between Women, Men and the ‘Private Life’ of the Law School, 22 Legal Studies 1(2002); See, supra, 18; Arthurs, Harry, The World turned upside down: Are Changes in Political Economy and Legal Practice transforming Legal Education and Scholarship, or Vice Versa?, 8 International Journal of the Legal Profession 11(2001); Pue, W. Wesley, Globalization and Legal Education: Views from the Outside-in, 8 International Journal of the Legal Profession 87(2001).Google Scholar

21 Cain, Maureen, The Symbol Traders in Lawyers in a Postmodern World: Translation and Transgression 31(Maureen Cain and Christine B. Harrington eds., 1994).Google Scholar

22 The University of South Australia is the most recent to announce the establishment of a law school. Other jurisdictions have also experienced a notable increase. The UK, which ended its binary system in 1992, had 85 law schools in 2000, compared with 48 in 1975. See Anthony Bradney and Fiona Cownie, British University Law Schools in the Twenty-first Century in, Law's Future(s): British Legal Developments in the 21^st Century 1–2 (David Hayton ed., 2000). In contrast, both New Zealand and Canada have remained static, with five and 21 schools respectively.Google Scholar

23 Pearce, Dennis, Enid Campbell and Don Harding, Australian Law Schools: A Discipline Assessment for the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission, vol. 2 447(1987).Google Scholar

24 Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Australia, Higher Education Students Time Series Tables: Selected Higher Education Statistics 2000, available at: <http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/AE11F01D-E517-4BF7-8ECA-8553C31EF206/2481/timeseries00.pdf>..>Google Scholar

25 Id. These figures do not include students enrolled in the Legal Practitioners Admission Board course which is offered in association with the Law Extension Committee of the University of Sydney and awards a Diploma of Law that is recognized for the purposes of admission. In 2006, there were 2,594 students enrolled, <http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/lpab/ll_lpab.nsf/vwFiles/Pass%20Fail%20stats%20Sept%202006.pdf/$file/Pass%20Fail%20stats%20Sept%202006.pdf> at 8 December 2007.+at+8+December+2007.>Google Scholar

26 Duncanson explored the discomforting role of critique in legal education some years ago, a discomfort that has been exacerbated since by the increasing corporatization of universities. See Ian Duncanson, Legal Education and the Possibility of Critique: An Australian Perspective, 8 Canadian Journal of Law and Society 59(1993).Google Scholar

27 I have written elsewhere about the process of desensitization to which law students are subjected. Margaret Thornton: Technocentrism in the Law School: Why the Gender and Colour of Law Remain the Same, 36 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 369 (1998).Google Scholar

28 Nickolas James identifies six discourses, or ideologies, underpinning Australian legal education, namely, doctrinalism, vocationalism, corporatism, liberalism, pedagogicalism and radicalism. Each discourse is an expression of power in perpetual competition with the others for dominance. See Nickolas J. James, Australian Legal Education and the Instability of Critique, (2004) 28 Melbourne University Law Review 375.Google Scholar

29 Charles Sampford and Sophie Blencowe, Context and Challenges of Australian Legal Education in, New Foundations in Legal Education 8 (John Goldring, Charles Sampford and Ralph Simmonds eds., 1998).Google Scholar

30 This contradiction is addressed by Brand, supra, note 20.Google Scholar

31 James, Nickolas J., The Marginalisation of Radical Discourses in Australian Legal Education, 16 Legal Education Review 55 (2006).Google Scholar

32 The figure is difficult to compute precisely in Australia because a practising certificate is unnecessary for many positions, such as in-house corporate counsel. A study by Karras and Roper in 2000 found that approximately 80 per cent of Australian graduates were in law-related employment. See Maria Karras and Christopher Roper, The Career Destination of Australian Law Graduates (2000).Google Scholar

33 Bradney, Anthony, Conversations, Choices and Chances: The Liberal Law School in the Twenty-first Century (2003).Google Scholar

34 James, Nickolas, Australian Legal Education and the Instability of Critique, 2, 375 Melbourne University Law Review (2004). See also the essays in Goldring, Sampford and Simmonds, supra note 29.Google Scholar

35 Webber presents an account of the changes that occurred, with particular reference to the University of Sydney Law School. See Jeremy Webber, Legal Research, the Law Schools and the Profession 26 Sydney Law Review 565 (2004).Google Scholar

36 Pearce, , supra note 23.Google Scholar

37 James, Nickolas J, A Brief History of Critique in Australian Legal Education, 24 Melbourne University Law Review 965(2000); James, , supra note 31.Google Scholar

38 Charles Sampford and David Wood, Theoretical Dimensions of Legal Education, in Goldring, Sampford and Simmonds, supra note 29, 102.Google Scholar

39 Thornton, , The Demise of Diversity in Legal Education, supra note *.Google Scholar

40 Brand, , supra, note 20, 128.Google Scholar

41 Id. Brand similarly observes that the recommendations of the Pearce Report become irrelevant almost immediately. For a follow-up on the impact of the Pearce Report in the face of the Dawkins reforms and declining resources, see Craig McInnis and Simon Marginson, Australian Law Schools after the 1987 Pearce Report (1994).Google Scholar

42 Rodgers, Sandra, Legal Education: Is it in Crisis? (Paper presented at Workshop on the Future of Canadian Legal Education, University of Manitoba, 3–4 May, 1999) available at: <http://www.umanitoba.ca/Law/LRI/Legal_education/rogers.htm>..>Google Scholar

43 Chesterman, Michael, Professional Responses to New Law Schools in Goldring, Sampford and Simmonds, supra, note 29, 204.Google Scholar

44 See also Equal Justice Works, supra, note 8.Google Scholar

45 Australian undergraduates enrolled in full-time courses now undertake an average of 15 hours paid work per week. See Craig McInness and Robin Hartley, Commonwealth of Australia, Managing Study and Work: The Impact of Full-time Study and Paid Work on the Undergraduate Experience in Australian Universities (2002) <http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/publications_resources/profiles/managing_study_and_work.htm_>>Google Scholar

46 See e.g., Melbourne University's JD is a 2-year full-fee degree for graduates. Monash University Law School similarly has a two-year LLM, and Deakin University Law School a 2-year LLB. The University of Melbourne has restructured its law degree to make it a graduate degree for all students in 2008. In other law schools, a trend away from the typical combined degree back to a standalone law degree is discernible. See Richard Johnstone and Sumitra Vignaendra, Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Development in Law: A Report commissioned by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC) (2003) 67–69.Google Scholar

47 The work of Galanter has become a classic in the way it exposes the role of corporate power within a formally equal adversarial system. See Marc Galanter, Why the “Haves” come out ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change Law & Society Review 4 (1974-75). A primary aim of the Critical Legal Studies movement generally has been to expose the seeming invisibility of power within law. See, for example, the essays in David Kairys ed., The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique (1982). CLS paved the way for a plethora of other critical and deconstructive movements in law which were keen to show that justice was not blind. See, for example, Ngaire Naffine, Law & the Sexes: Explorations in Feminist Jurisprudence (1990).Google Scholar

48 Johnstone and Vignaendra, supra, note 46. Nickolas James analyses the reasons for the marginalisation of radical scholarship in Australian legal education. See James, supra, note 30.Google Scholar

49 Duncanson, Ian, Interdisciplinarity in the Law Discipline, 5 Griffith Law Review 77, 80 (1996); Duncanson, Ian, The Ends of Legal Studies, 3 Web Journal of Current Legal Issues (1997), available at: <http:webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/1997/issue3/duncan3.html>. See also, John Wade, Legal Education in Australia – Anomie, Angst, and Excellence, 39 Journal of Legal Education 189, 192 (1989)..+See+also,+John+Wade,+Legal+Education+in+Australia+–+Anomie,+Angst,+and+Excellence,+39+Journal+of+Legal+Education+189,+192+(1989).>Google Scholar

50 Sampford, Charles, The Panic over Numbers, in Goldring, Sampford and Simmonds, supra, note 29, 70.Google Scholar

51 Curricular uniformity is a characteristic of common law jurisdictions. See, e.g., Twining, William, Rethinking Law Schools, 21 Law & Social Inquiry 1007 (1996). Rodgers notes that the twenty-one Canadian law schools all offer more or less the same things. See Rodgers, supra note 42.Google Scholar

52 McQueen, Rob, The Nike Law School (or) Branding and its Discontents in Legal Education, (Paper presented at the W G Hart Legal Education Workshop, London, 26–28 June 2001).Google Scholar

53 Despite strong criticism of crudity as a measurement of quality and their anti-diversity propensity, league tables have quickly established themselves as an inevitable dimension of the modern university landscape. See, e.g., Moodie, Gavin, The Research Race,' 2 Journal of the Public University 3 (2005), available at: <http://www.publicuni.org/jrnl/volume/2/journal_2_race.html>. Law school rankings have also been subject to trenchant critique; Margot E Young, Making and breaking Rank: Some Thoughts on recent Canadian Law School Surveys, 20 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 311(2001); Thomas, D A, The Law School Rankings are harmful Deceptions: A Response to those who praise the Rankings and Suggestions for a better Approach to evaluating Law Schools, 40 Houston Law Review 419 (2003)..+Law+school+rankings+have+also+been+subject+to+trenchant+critique;+Margot+E+Young,+Making+and+breaking+Rank:+Some+Thoughts+on+recent+Canadian+Law+School+Surveys,+20+Windsor+Yearbook+of+Access+to+Justice+311(2001);+Thomas,+D+A,+The+Law+School+Rankings+are+harmful+Deceptions:+A+Response+to+those+who+praise+the+Rankings+and+Suggestions+for+a+better+Approach+to+evaluating+Law+Schools,+40+Houston+Law+Review+419+(2003).>Google Scholar

54 For a case study of the trajectory of change in the School of Law and Legal Studies at La Trobe University, see Margaret Thornton, The Dissolution of the Social in the Legal Academy, 25 Australian Feminist Law Journal 3 (2006).Google Scholar

55 Thornton, , supra, note 27.Google Scholar

56 McInnis and Marginson, supra, note 41.Google Scholar

57 See e.g., Dunkin, M J, A Review of Research on Lecturing 2 Higher Education Research and Development 63 (1983); George Brown and Madeleine Atkins, Effective Teaching in Higher Education (1988); Nira Hativa, Teaching for Effective Learning in Higher Education (2000). See also, Mary Keyes and Richard Johnstone, Changing Legal Education: Rhetoric, Reality and Prospects for the Future, 26 Sydney Law Review 537 (2004).Google Scholar

58 James, , supra, note 20.Google Scholar

59 Universities are subject to audit on a five-year cycle by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA): <http://www.auqa.edu.au/aboutauqa>..>Google Scholar

60 Johnstone and Vignaendra, supra, note 46, 271.Google Scholar

61 Goldsmith, , supra, note 20, 726. But see Johnstone and Vignaendra, supra, note 46.Google Scholar

62 Johnstone and Vignaendra, supra, note 46, ch 4.Google Scholar

63 See e.g., Elizabeth Handsley, Gary Davis and Mark Israel, Law School Lemonade: Or can you turn External Pressures into Educational Advantages?, 14 Griffith Law Review 108 (2005). While the negative dimensions of the current climate suggest the sourness of lemons, the input of academic creativity is the sugar that produces lemonade. While the authors’ course in constitutional law was contracted, they developed a valuable alternate pedagogy through the formation of student teams that fostered collaborative and oral skills.Google Scholar

64 The best in-depth study of learning in law is Marlene Le Brun and Richard Johnstone, The Quiet (R)evolution: Improving Student Learning in Law 59–61 (1994).Google Scholar

65 Nussbaum, Martha C, Cultivating Humanity in Legal Education, 70 University of Chicago Law Review 265, 273 (2003).Google Scholar

66 See e.g., Zobel, Justin, “Uni Cheats Racket”: A Case Study in Plagiarism Investigation, (Paper presented at the Sixth Australasian Computing Education Conference, Dunedin, 2004) 30 Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology (2004). So widespread and sophisticated has plagiarism become that there is now a journal dedicated to it. See Plagiary: Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication and Falsification, available at: <http:www.plagiary.org>..>Google Scholar

67 See e.g., Gaita, Raymond, Breach of Trust: Truth, Morality and Politics, 16 Quarterly Essay 1(2004); O'Neill, Onora, A Question of Trust (BBC Reith Lectures, 2002); Giroux, Henry A, Neoliberalism, Corporate Culture, and the Promise of Higher Education: The University as a Democratic Public Sphere, 72 Harvard Educational Review 425(2002); Sennett, Richard, The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism (1999); Readings, supra, note 19.Google Scholar

68 Marian Sawer and Barry Hindess (eds.), Us and Them: Anti-Elitism in Australia (2004).Google Scholar

69 For valuable research on the relationship between New universities and diversity within the student body in the UK, see Hilary Sommerlad, Researching and Theorizing the Processes of Professional Identity Formation, 34 Journal of Law and Society 190 (2007).Google Scholar

70 One law school is quoted as having a TER of 97.05 for a HECS-based Commerce/Law place, compared with 81.45 for a full-fee place. See Adam Morton, Uni Entry System “undermined” by Late Transfers: Union Concern over Queue-jumping, The Age, 29 January 2007, 5.Google Scholar

71 The dismissal of Associate Professor Ted Steele by the University of Wollongong following allegations of ‘soft marking’ has become something of a cause celebre. See Patrick Lawnham, Strike at Steele Stalls, The Australian, 15 May 2002, 43; Brian Martin, Justice Ignited: The Dynamics of Backfire (2006). See also, Senate Employment, Workplace Relations, Small Business and Education References Committee, Australia, Universities in Crisis (2001) 150–60.Google Scholar

72 See supra, note 7.Google Scholar

73 Power, Michael, The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification (1997).Google Scholar

74 Brand, , supra, note 20, 139.Google Scholar

75 Readings, , supra, note 19.Google Scholar

76 Thornton, , supra, n *.Google Scholar

77 Bachman, W., Law v. Life: What Lawyers are afraid to say about the legal profession (1995).Google Scholar

78 No precise data is available to support the contention that it is cheaper to teach law students than social science students. Indeed a study conducted in Melbourne in 1989 found to the contrary. See the reference to a study by R A Williams, Relative Teaching Costs in Higher Education: Selected Victorian Institutions (1989) and discussed by Goldsmith, above n 20, 732.Google Scholar

79 The underfunding of law schools vis-á-vis other university disciplines has been a constant refrain. The Pearce Committee Report, above n 23, ch 16, addressed this issue in detail. As a result, law schools were able to improve their position. The publication of the Pearce Report, however, only just preceded the Dawkins reforms so that the improved conditions were shortlived for some insitutions. See, for example, Council of Australian Law Deans (CALD), The Funding of Law Schools: Resource Document for Deans (2000).Google Scholar

80 Foucault, Michel, ‘Governmentality’ in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, with Two Lectures by and an Interview with Michel Foucault (1991).Google Scholar

81 Foucault, Michel, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison 207 (Alan Sheridan trans., 1991)Google Scholar

82 The new approaches to the governance of universities emerges from New Public Administration (NPM), a constellation of ideas associated with reform of public administration in the UK, but borrowed from the private sector, and now accepted by neoliberal governments everywhere as rational, non-partisan and pragmatic. See e.g., Peter Self, Government by the Market? The Politics of Public Choice (1993); Hall, Kathleen D, Science, Globalization, and Educational Governance: The Political Rationalities of the New Managerialism 12 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 158(2005).Google Scholar

83 Alfonso Borrero B Cabal, The University as an Institution Today (1993). The Higher Education section of The Australian frequently has articles adverting to the widening salary disparity between academics and those at the senior executive level. See e.g., Dorothy Illing and Milanda Rout, Survey finds big Rewards for VCs, The Australian, 4 July 2007, 21.Google Scholar

84 Lyotard, Jean L, The Post Modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1984) 11.Google Scholar

85 Readings, supra, note 19, 175.Google Scholar

86 For an insightful consideration of the way the corporatized academy is effecting a remasculinisation of the legal academy, see Richard Collier, The Changing University and the (Legal) Academic Career – Rethinking the Relationship between Women, Men and the ‘Private Life’ of the Law School 22 Legal Studies 1 (2002).Google Scholar

87 Marginson and Considine, supra, note 4.Google Scholar

88 Gilliam Cowlishaw presents a frank account of what happens to a postgraduate student who is not deemed to be sufficiently docile. See Gillian Cowlishaw, ‘On being awarded an Australian Professorial Fellowship’ (2007) 22 Australian Feminist Studies 15.Google Scholar

89 Goldsmith, , supra, note 20, 721.Google Scholar

90 Nietzsche, Friedrich, On the Genealogy of Morals (Walter Kaufmann and R J Hollingdale trans, 1967 ed).Google Scholar

91 Brown, Wendy, States of Injury: Power and Freedom in late Modernity (1995) 66–67.Google Scholar