India, May 9 -- The Artificial Intelligence (AI) age is here, and law schools across the world are being compelled to confront its challenges. Yet this is not the first time legal academia has faced such a moment of disruption. On earlier occasions as well, it has been forced into serious reflection and a rethinking of how legal education is imparted.

When the legendary dean of Harvard Law School, Christopher C. Langdell (1870-1895), introduced the "case method," it was initially met with resistance within academia. At the time, law schools themselves were not widely regarded as central to legal training, and law was largely learned at the Bar. Langdell's approach helped change that perception. Students gradually found his casebooks valu...