Cultivating expertise as communicative performance: an ethnographic study of courtroom pedagogy in Finnish legal education

Abstract

Abstract

This ethnographic study examines how legal expertise becomes visible as communicative performance in Finnish legal education and how courtroom pedagogy can better support its development. Drawing on long-term teaching experience and reflective observation, the analysis identifies ten communicative dimensions, including audience awareness, rhetorical framing, non-verbal credibility, vocal variation and adaptive responsiveness, that students recognise as central to advocacy yet struggle to embody. In Finland, seminar teaching functions as the primary arena for practising courtroom-style oral argumentation. While seminars offer rehearsal and peer engagement, they often constrain expressive delivery, improvisation and relational awareness, reinforcing doctrinal precision over persuasive performance. This creates a pedagogical paradox: seminars are designed as rehearsal spaces but frequently suppress the spontaneity essential to courtroom advocacy. The study proposes four strategies to strengthen communicative expertise: scaffolding performance into learnable tasks; supporting embodied presence through micro-performances; fostering collaborative reflection via peer feedback; and encouraging adaptive rehearsal to cultivate responsiveness. By reframing oral advocacy as teachable, embodied practice, the study contributes to international debates on legal education and argues that communicative competence must be embedded, practised and assessed with the same seriousness as doctrinal knowledge.