Legal education reform: An analysis of Scopus-indexed publications

The past decades have witnessed numerous reforms in legal education (LE) worldwide. However, the current state of these reforms remains insufficiently explored in depth. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the existing literature on LE reform (LER) through a bibliometric approach, utilizing data from Scopus. Specifically, 303 LER-related articles were analyzed across various dimensions, including timeframe, country, publishing outlets, authors, research groups, and keywords. In addition to descriptive analysis, science mapping was conducted to explore the co-occurrence of cross-country collaborations, research groups, and co-keyword appearances in previous LER studies. The findings indicate that LER remains at a nascent stage: it has emerged only since 2009; is dominated by scholars from a few Anglophone countries; and is characterized by small, fragmented, short-lived, and largely mono-disciplinary research groups. The extant literature clusters into four core themes: 1) Clinical and practical LER, 2) LER through online learning, teaching, and pedagogy, 3) LER through curriculum redesign, artificial intelligence, and 4) Legal technology, LER through internationalization and globalization. These results carry theoretical and practical implications for policymakers, law school and university leaders, curriculum designers, and LER researchers.