Our society is constantly changing, and the law changes with it. Yet today’s challenges,from technology and climate change to social inequality, bring new questions: how can the law continue to respond to societal developments? According to legal philosopher and ethicist Margreet Luth-Morgan, assistant professor at Erasmus School of Law, lawyers are not only executors of existing rules but increasingly also co-shapers of a society in transition.
This changing role calls for a broader perspective on the law. “A thorough knowledge of the letter of the law remains indispensable,” says Luth-Morgan. “But it is equally important to understand how the law works in practice, for whom it does, and for whom it does not.”
A discipline rooted in positive law
Within legal scholarship, positive law has traditionally taken centre stage: the law as codified in legislation and case law. This approach, grounded in observable and verifiable facts, has also shaped legal education and assessment practices. Reflection within that tradition usually focuses on the legal validity of proposals. For instance, whether a new law fits within international treaties. Yet there are also questions that highlight the broader societal meaning: does a law contribute to justice or sustainability, or does it reinforce inequality? According to Luth-Morgan, this societal context deserves greater attention.
Positivism is a philosophical movement that argues that only knowledge based on observable, empirical facts is valid. In this view, something counts as knowledge only if it can be objectively observed or measured. Normative beliefs, ethics or metaphysics are set aside, as they cannot be tested and are therefore not seen as valid sources of knowledge. This way of thinking became highly influential in the 19th century sciences and also shaped legal scholarship, where it supported the idea of law as a neutral, factual system.
Critical perspective
Law is not a closed system detached from reality. It is part of larger structures, economic, ecological, and social. And it shapes who is heard, who is protected, and who remains invisible. “Take international investment treaties,” she explains. “A country may want to pursue greener policies, yet companies investing in fossil fuels can sue that country for losses. In such cases, the law itself stands in the way of sustainability. That is something we must be willing to examine critically.”
This is just one example of how legal frameworks, designed to provide stability and legal certainty, can in practice come into conflict with public values. The same applies to human rights, labour protections, or tax rules that may appear neutral in theory but can reinforce inequality in practice. Making this structural dimension visible and inviting students to examine it critically is, according to Luth-Morgan, an important focus of legal education – particularly in assessment or evaluation.
The role of technology: AI as a driving force
As vice-chair of the examination board, Luth-Morgan was soon confronted with the rise of AI in legal education. Her conclusion was clear: enforcing based on suspicions of AI use is not verifiable, not fair, and even discriminatory. “AI tools claim to detect generated text, but the software is unreliable and biased against students for whom Dutch is not the first language. Such an approach is unacceptable.”
Instead of detection, she argues for renewal: new forms of assessment and new skills. In her article in Ars Aequi, she shows how podcasts, oral presentations or moot courts invite students to genuine reflection and are, moreover, AI-proof. “The challenge, and the opportunity, lies in forms of assessment that stimulate reflection while making ChatGPT fraud pointless.”
But AI also raises fundamental questions for the profession beyond education: major law firms are already working with proprietary language models that can generate entire pleadings at the click of a button. Soon, clients will be able to do the same. “This forces us to reconsider the added value of the lawyer. What does professional skill mean when knowledge is accessible everywhere?”
From knowing to deeper understanding
For Luth-Morgan, the key lies not only in expanding knowledge but also in strengthening critical capacity from the very first year of study. “Students rent rooms, work, and are part of systems. If you engage them in that reality from day one, they start to see the law differently. We are good at teaching positive law. But we must also help students reflect more deeply on how the law operates within society.”
In her project ‘Societal impact: preparing lawyers for their social responsibility in a changing future’, funded through a Comenius grant, she is developing a learning pathway that gives societal reflection a permanent place within existing courses. The themes: sustainability, technology, inequality. Not as stand-alone modules, but embedded in the curriculum, together with lecturers and students.
- Assistant professor
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