GenAI as Whetstone: A Socratic Framework for Sharpening Critical Thinking in Legal Education

Abstract

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into legal education presents a fundamental paradox: while GenAI efficiently parses legal databases and accelerates research, it struggles to model the normative reasoning and ethical contexts foundational to jurisprudential thought. This article employs a dialectical approach to resolve this tension through a ‘Socratic-GenAI’ framework that reconceptualises GenAI as a whetstone sharpening students’ analytical capacities rather than replacing their critical thinking. Through empirical evidence, including students completing tasks 4.7 times faster yet demonstrating 31 per cent lower performance on cross-doctrinal synthesis, this research shows how GenAI’s limitations become pedagogical resources when deliberately leveraged. The framework operationalises integration through structured contention juxtaposing GenAI and human reasoning, critical interrogation protocols and epistemological transparency. Rejecting binary narratives of adoption or resistance, the article offers a roadmap for interconnectedness between human and machine intelligence, providing a template for evaluating emerging technologies against core jurisprudential values while promoting innovation and sustainability in legal training.