The Socratic method and the problem method of teaching law

1. The Socratic method: origin

The method takes its name from Socrates, as he appears in Plato’s dialogues. Socrates claimed not to teach but to question. He asked his companion to define a concept — justice, courage, piety — then by further questions drew out the consequences of the definition until it was shown to be inadequate, leading to a better one. The process was meant to expose false confidence and to lead the learner to discover the truth himself.

In legal education the method was joined to Langdell’s case method at Harvard from the 1870s. The teacher calls on a student to state a case and then questions him relentlessly on the reasoning, varying the facts (“What if the offeror had died before acceptance?”) to test whether the student’s principle holds.

2. How it works in a law class

1. The teacher assigns reading in advance.
2. In class, a student is called on (sometimes without warning, the “cold call”) to state the facts, issue and holding.
3. The teacher asks why the court decided as it did, whether the reasoning is sound, and how the rule would apply to altered facts (hypotheticals).
4. When the student’s answer fails, the question passes on or the student is led to refine it.
5. The class ends without a lecture summary; students must consolidate the principle themselves.

A short exchange, on Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. (1893):

• Teacher: Was the advertisement an offer or an invitation to treat?
• Student: An offer, because it promised to pay anyone who used the ball and caught influenza.
• Teacher: But advertisements are usually invitations to treat. What made this one different?
• Student: The deposit of £1000 with the bank showed an intention to be bound.
• Teacher: Suppose there had been no deposit. Would the result change?
• Student: Perhaps not; the terms were definite enough …

Each answer is tested by a further question until the student reaches the principle: a unilateral offer to the world, sufficiently definite and showing an intention to be bound, can be accepted by performance, under section 8 of the Indian Contract Act as under the English cases.

3. Merits

• Active and critical thinking: students reason rather than memorise.
• Precision: vague answers are exposed at once.
• Thinking on one’s feet: preparation for argument before a bench that interrupts with questions.
• Preparation: the possibility of being called on makes students read.
• Understanding the limits of rules: hypotheticals show where a rule stops working and why.

4. Criticism

• Fear and humiliation: the harsh form of the method, made famous in fiction by the novel and film The Paper Chase, can intimidate students and discourage participation.
• Exclusion: studies of American law schools in the 1990s reported that women and minority students participated less in Socratic classrooms; critics argued the method favoured confident, combative styles.
• Inefficiency: a few students speak; the rest watch.
• Teacher-centred despite appearances: the teacher knows the answer and steers towards it.
• Large classes: unworkable with a hundred students in an Indian college.

5. The problem method: meaning

In the problem method the teacher presents a set of hypothetical facts — a client’s problem — and asks students to identify the issues, find the law, apply it and advise. Unlike the case method, which studies how a court solved a dispute, the problem method asks students to solve one that no court has decided. It reflects what lawyers actually do: they start from facts, not from a reported case.

Problem-based learning (PBL), developed in medical education at McMaster University in Canada in the late 1960s, carries the idea further: the problem comes first, before any teaching of the relevant law, and students in small groups identify what they need to learn, research it, and return to solve the problem. Some law schools, such as Maastricht in the Netherlands, have adopted PBL across the curriculum.

6. How the problem method works

1. The teacher drafts a realistic problem, usually raising several issues across topics.
2. Students analyse it, often in groups, and research the law.
3. They prepare written advice or argue it in class.
4. The teacher leads a discussion on the issues, the competing arguments and the best answer.

Example. “A, a software engineer, is offered employment by a Bengaluru start-up by e-mail. She replies accepting, but her reply reaches the company after it has sent a withdrawal by WhatsApp. She has already resigned from her previous job. Advise A.” Students must find the rules on communication of acceptance and revocation under the Indian Contract Act, 1872, the Information Technology Act, 2000 on electronic records, and the possibility of promissory estoppel, and then apply them to facts that no leading case exactly covers.

7. Merits and defects of the problem method

8. Comparing the three discussion methods

• Case method: the material is a decided case; the task is to extract the principle.
• Socratic method: a way of conducting the class by questions, usually on cases; the task is to test reasoning.
• Problem method: the material is a fresh set of facts; the task is to apply the law and advise.

In practice they combine: a class may read two cases (case method), be questioned on them (Socratic), and end by solving a problem that requires both (problem method).

How this is examined

As short notes on the Socratic method or the problem method, or as part of an essay on methods of teaching law. Give the origin, working, merits and defects, the modern adaptations, and one example. The comparison in section 8 is useful in any teaching-methods answer.