Book Review: How to Account for Trauma and Emotions in Law Teaching

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

How to Account for Trauma and Emotions in Law Teaching. Edited by Mallika Kaur & Lindsay M. Harris. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 2024. ix, 214 p. Includes index. ISBN 9781035307043 (hardcover) US$130.00.

Reviewed by Alexia Loumankis
Reference and Research Librarian
Bora Laskin Law Library, University of Toronto

In How to Account for Trauma and Emotions in Law Teaching, editors Mallika Kaur and Lindsay M. Harris have compiled a collection of chapters that challenge the traditional mindset that legal education must be detached, objective, and unemotional. They provide thought-provoking strategies for integrating trauma-informed and emotionally intelligent practices into law classrooms.

Kaur and Harris, both experienced legal educators and clinicians, open the book with a chapter that proposes a shift from the avoidance of trauma and emotions in the classroom to the pedagogical acceptance of them. They advise that trauma-informed pedagogy is both ethically necessary and practical in diverse legal courses. Not only does it make legal education more intellectually and emotionally rewarding for teachers and students, but it also better prepares law students for the emotional realities of legal practice, ultimately making them better lawyers. In this first chapter, the editors also outline their philosophy for the book. They explain that while the content is anchored in theory, the book is not a manual or mental health guide. Finally, they acknowledge that there are myriad ways of approaching trauma and emotion in legal education; therefore, their aim is to provide law teachers with a variety of strategies to address trauma in the classroom and embed emotional intelligence within their teaching.

This intention helps unify the later chapters, which examine an assortment of pedagogical methods and legal subject areas in classrooms and clinics from the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands. The contributors represent a diverse group of legal scholars, clinicians, and educators who draw on expertise in clinical practice, doctrinal teaching, Indigenous legal traditions, and experiential learning.

For readers unfamiliar with the subject of trauma in education, the chapter “From Trauma to Transformation: Trauma-informed Pedagogy in Law School,” written by Angela P. Harris and Monika Batra Kashyap, is a welcome introduction. The authors ably situate the theory of trauma-informed pedagogy within current legal education and align it with the “social model” of disability, which emphasizes that trauma is a product of one’s social environment. They explore what it means to view legal teaching through the lens of trauma and how curricula, classroom practices, and institutional cultures can change accordingly.

While many of the book’s chapters focus on areas of law to which students’ emotional reactions may seem obvious, such as intimate-partner violence, criminal law, and human rights law, there are also chapters on areas of law that one may not initially consider emotional. For example, Anna Lund’s chapter “Teaching Trauma and Hope in Debtor-Creditor Law,” which compellingly argues that even the usually technical subject of judgment enforcement law can be taught through a trauma-informed approach. Lund describes how and why she has her students examine a sexual-abuse judgment enforcement decision to illustrate how trauma relates to debtor-creditor law, while also encouraging student agency, solidarity, and consideration of just economic futures. Lund demonstrates how trauma-informed teaching can enrich even doctrinal courses.

Many of the chapter authors candidly reflect on both the successes and missteps they have encountered in adopting trauma-informed approaches, offering examples of what has worked well in their classrooms and clinics and where their practices fell short. By acknowledging these challenges alongside their achievements, they present trauma-informed pedagogy not as a perfect model but as an evolving, reflective practice that requires reflection, experimentation, and continual learning.

Some legal educators may be skeptical about trauma-informed pedagogy, unsure whether it fits within legal education or uncertain about how to implement it. This book addresses those hesitations directly, offering practical guidance and concrete examples centered in theory that make trauma-aware teaching accessible and compatible with doctrinal, elective, and clinical legal curricula.

How to Account for Trauma and Emotions in Law Teaching offers a timely and compelling reimagining of legal education, urging instructors to recognize that learning is as emotional as it is intellectual. While this text is most obviously appropriate for academic law libraries, it would also be valuable for any library that serves practitioners who work with articling and/or summer law students. Through the authors’ candid reflections, practical strategies, and diverse pedagogical perspectives, the book makes a persuasive case for a more humane, responsive, and emotionally intelligent approach to teaching and ultimately practicing law.