Using soft skills courses to inspire law teachers: a new methodology for a more humanistic legal education

ABSTRACT

Law schools have in recent years been engaged in a process of revising their curricula, in large part adapting to rapid changes in technology, but also in a more generalised effort to improve “teaching the law”. Yet thus far, legal pedagogy seems to focus disproportionately on the traditional model of the “thinking lawyer”, when it should equally promote the model of the “feeling lawyer”, helping students to sharpen soft skills such as empathy, integrity and problem-solving. The main claim of this paper is that law professors could begin to pay more attention to the growing importance of soft skills in legal education and preparedness for legal practice. In this direction, we propose a set of pedagogical principles revolving around four axes: compassionate, attentive, reason-based and empathetic teaching (CARE). This methodology could help law professors become more effective pedagogues. Soft skills courses constitute a well-suited vehicle for introducing these principles to law school curricula in different legal systems. By systematically incorporating them, law schools can encourage law teachers to provide a more inclusive learning environment for their students. At the same time, law teachers who implement the particular methodology can hopefully rediscover fulfilment in their teaching. Overall, teaching soft skills can significantly improve students’ and teachers’ experience in legal education.     

Through a screen,darkly: Electronic legal education in Europe

Abstract

Electronic legal education involves the use of information, communication and instructional technologies to enhance students’ learning of the law and to provide law teachers with environments and tools for teaching the law. With the fast growth of the Internet many Law schools and Law faculties are moving their education and training into web environments. This may open new ways of teaching and learning the law by providing students with an environment in which they can manage legal information and legal knowledge for their personal professional use. However, it is clear that throughout Europe there are divergent as well as convergent uses of the web and IT This article explores some of the issues inherent in this, and suggests a number of projects that would enable ICT in legal education to facilitate the aims of the Sorbonne‐Bologna process.     

Government and education news

Abstract

FOR EIGHT years Cornell's Legal Information Institute has offered online law courses to students at other US law schools. Using a paced asynchronous approach, with streaming audio linked to referenced Web materials, interactive problems, online discussion/ and a series of written exercises, the courses offer a successful model of how law schools can pool teaching resources and students to enrich curricula. This article reports on and explains the choices, challenges, student response, and educational outcomes of this ongoing experiment, organised around ten frequently asked questions. It also ventures some cautious conclusions about the near‐term prospects for distance learning in US legal education, noting both inhibiting forces, including importantly constraints imposed by accreditation rules, and recent grounds for optimism.     

Decline of the English jury*

Abstract

This biographical study of the lived experiences of six law teachers offers a new dimension to understanding the dynamics of law teaching. The overall purpose of the study is to reveal how these law teachers make sense of the world of legal education in terms of individual identities, values and whether they necessarily regard themselves as academics. The significance of the study is the contribution it seeks to make in understanding individual law teachers and how they experience the dynamics of a rapidly changing teaching environment. The study reveals how different experiences emerge through a complex interplay between spheres of influence and theoretical frames of reference. A theoretical perspective considers three possible explanations, work orientation, performativity and supercomplexity, with regard to how experiences fit within apparent epistemological shifts in the academy.

The biographical method has not hitherto been applied to understanding this dimension of legal education. The purpose in adopting this method is to make a deliberate departure from more traditional research methods in legal education and to determine the extent to which it might be possible to see the world of legal education as a lived experience. This approach provides tools of analysis for understanding the dynamics of law teaching and dynamic identities.     

An examination of the effectiveness of Readers’ Theatre as a teaching strategy in legal education

ABSTRACT

The effectiveness of the case method of legal education in preparing for the practice of law has been questioned for more than a century. Students are encouraged to conceive conflict in a manner that often does not provide adequate context for the application of their personal perceptions of justice. A resulting criticism of the case method, then, is that it fails to adequately teach students how to act “with ethical substance” in the professional circumstances for which they are being prepared. As a means of addressing this perceived gap, North American law schools have been increasing their use of experiential education methods. In this paper, the utility of Readers’ Theatre (RT) is examined as an experiential teaching strategy to expose law students to the interpersonal and ethical dynamics of legal problem-solving communications.     

Objectives of Russian law schools today: what is the “ideal jurist”?

ABSTRACT

This article describes how Russian law schools understand their objectives today and whether there is an ideal model of a jurist to which law schools should conform. Different qualitative methods were used in this study, including a review of the post-Soviet legal education reforms, analysis of regulations governing higher legal education, analysis of websites, and expert semi-structured interviews with heads of law schools. The results demonstrate the difficulties faced by law schools, which are forced to balance the state standards of higher education and external legal, social, economic, and political challenges. The study concludes that law schools are experiencing serious difficulties with respect to understandings of their objectives as well as the current redefinition of the normative ideal model of a jurist. The study also makes it possible to draw conclusions about the importance of legal knowledge, different ways of understanding prestige in the legal profession, and the revival of features of the Soviet model of the “ideal jurist.”     

Constructing C.A.L. tutorials

ON THE assumption that law schools should seek to foster a legal profession which takes ethics seriously, this article explores how it may promote the moral development of its students. Having examined how legal education currently fails in this regards, it explores competing psychological theories of moral development and argues that law schools should seek to start students on a ‘moral apprenticeship’ leading to the development of the necessary moral character to equip them for the ethical challenges of practice. The article then looks at the extent to which ideal methods for promoting moral development can be implemented given the current climate in legal education. In particular, it argues that an excellent and viable means of assisting in the process of moral character development is through student involvement in live‐client clinics, particularly if they are run on an extra‐curricular basis.     

Lawyers’ wellbeing and professional legal education

Abstract

THIS PAPER examines the wellbeing and satisfaction levels of lawyers in the workplace. It argues that research suggesting a crisis in the legal profession in the United States is comparable with research on wellbeing and levels of satisfaction for lawyers in Australasia. Some reports in both jurisdictions are critical of conventional legal education and practical legal training programs, which do not encourage students to develop personal and interpersonal skills that can improve self‐awareness, communication skills and the capacity to manage stress and anxiety. Consequently, law students are allowed to assume that these “soft skills” are less important for lawyers compared with cognitive skills such as “knowing the law” and “thinking like a lawyer”.

The paper describes the preliminary results of research conducted with graduates of the School of Law at the University of Newcastle Australia. The results confirm existing research to show that clinical legal education programs that expose law students under supervision to clients with real cases may promote the development of interpersonal skills, which in turn may help them cope with stressors in legal practice, especially in the first few years post‐admission.     

Northern Irish legal education after Brexit

ABSTRACT

In this article we argue that the impact of Brexit on the law schools in Northern Ireland is tied to the “unique circumstances” of legal education in this part of the world. Legal education in Northern Ireland is likely to develop to become even more distinctive than that in other parts of the UK. Although there are two distinct jurisdictions on the island, they are deeply entangled by shared history and geographical proximity that make cross-border practice a daily reality. These circumstances seem likely to drive the trajectory of the development of legal education in Northern Ireland. Indeed, EU law is likely to remain a component of the Northern Irish qualifying law degree. The potential for the development of law specific to Northern Ireland under backstop arrangements is another significant driver for the future orientation of legal education in this jurisdiction. Legal education in Northern Ireland is, therefore, likely to become noticeably more “European” than that in other parts of the UK.     

Law teaching at colleges of further education

Scholars have long agreed upon the interrelated rationales for a diverse law faculty, which include the recognition of the value of multi-perspective and multicultural education and scholarship, the promotion of non-discrimination and prevention of discrimination in the legal academy and legal community at large, and the benefits of minority mentors and role models for minority students. This article will make use of the United States Supreme Court’s 2003 landmark decision in Grutter v Bollinger to illuminate how its diversity rationale in the admission of law students should extend to the hiring of minority law faculty members. Further, it will argue that “racial minorities” should include not only African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans, but also Asian Americans. Finally, law schools should include foreign professors in their affirmative action hiring efforts in this era of globalisation. Although this article focuses more upon faculty hiring than student admission, to the extent that it appropriates the Grutter rationale to discuss affirmative action hiring, affirmative action admission will also be a significant part of the discussion. After all, a diverse law faculty and a diverse student body are inseparable components of a supportive and friendly law school environment.     

SOCIAL WORK AND LAW: A MODEL APPROACH TO INTERDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION,PRACTICE, AND COMMUNITY‐BASED ADVOCACY

Many schools of social work maintain partnerships with schools in other fields, including law schools. Social work educators also seek to provide students with real‐life educational experiences. Schools maintain ties with community‐based organizations to facilitate field placements for students and also to effect social change. I review existing literature regarding social work interdisciplinary education, focusing on law and social work. I describe a social work program designed to provide students with interdisciplinary education both in the classroom and in the field and to effect community‐based advocacy. Finally, I describe pending research designed to measure the program's efficacy.     

European human rights law and the United Kingdom—A note

This article asserts that established concerns about access to, and widening participation in higher education, are now reflected in interest around retention. Those law schools with inclusive admissions policies and widening participation practices face a number of challenges around the financial and human costs of poor retention. Most of these law schools fall within the “new university” sector.

This article argues that poor retention among first‐year law students often reflects a lack of engagement. This lack of engagement exists in two key relationships; first that of between students and the teaching and learning structures of their law school and university, and second between first year law students and many of the staff who teach them. It is argued that this lack of engagement reflects a clash of cultures, first between the requirements and structures of the law school and the everyday life experience of our students, and second between ourselves as teachers and our students.

The utilisation of aspects of the Oxbridge tutorial model of higher education together with an appropriate use of new technology is suggested as a response to this cultural clash and as a way of increasing engagement with our students.

In support of these arguments, the article refers extensively to the evidence presented to the House of Commons Education and Employment Committee hearings on retention in higher education, and to the Committee's conclusions.     

Universities and the teaching of forensic sciences to lawyers—a note *

This article presents the findings of the survey conducted among business and accountancy students of the Nanyang Business School, Singapore, on the teaching of business law. The article is organised in three main sections. Section 1 formulates the framework for the research by outlining the three basic approaches adopted across many jurisdictions for the legal education of business students—the traditionalist ("black‐letter law"), the environmentalist and mixed approaches. Section 2 briefly describes the survey questions drawn up in the light of four principal objectives that, according to legal educators, the teaching of business law should achieve. Section 3 presents and examines the findings. The article concludes that law teaching at the Nanyang Business School conforms to the traditional approach. The author accordingly makes recommendations for the transformation of current teaching and assessment medthods: an injection of a great deal of “environmental” content and context‐based education; more use of actual and current cases, practical examples and a link to the business environment.     

The changing face of wardship

Abstract

I have been teaching Ethnic Minorities and the Law at undergraduate and Masters level for some eight years now. It is my conviction that the subject has achieved a certain maturity and that it is high time that serious notice was taken of it in legal education circles at all levels. This article presents some reflections on approaches adopted and experiences of being involved in teaching this field. In the next section some of the reactions that are likely to be encountered when working in this area are discussed briefly. In the following section the nature and extent of ethnic diversity in the UK are outlined, and some of the limits in academic and policy conceptualisations of this diversity are highlighted. There follows a critical discussion of the various paradigms within which legal knowledge has framed discussion relating to ethnic minorities in the UK. This forms a prelude to the introduction of legal‐pluralist perspectives which, it is argued, offer the most positive approach in the area of ethnic minority legal studies. Lastly, some of the practical issues that arise in teaching about ethnic minorities in law are discussed.     

Mapping the effects of Brexit on legal education in Wales: proposals for addressing students’ concerns

ABSTRACT

Whilst the future for UK–EU relations remains to be realised, Brexit will have consequences for legal education. However, to date, neither the UK nor Welsh Governments have sufficiently addressed what those consequences will be for higher education. This paper, which documents the results of 336 student questionnaires received from law students surveyed from every law school in Wales, evidences that learners have already started to decide what they believe Brexit means for them. Amongst the numerous challenges for Welsh law schools is the opinion of current students that Brexit makes Wales a less attractive place for overseas students and lecturers, both EU and other internationals, to study and work. Meanwhile UK students studying in Wales are questioning the relevance of EU law modules, and are viewing aspirational careers within EU institutions as now being “closed doors”. By drawing upon our findings, as well as comparisons with other EU Member States, this paper proposes six areas where urgent collaboration between governments and universities is needed. Failing to address the concerns identified by this research has the potential to further threaten the internationalised education model that UK students benefit from by studying law at Welsh universities.     

Law as a culture: Global thoughts from a small Island*

ABSTRACT

This paper will seek to address the challenges of teaching legal ethics to undergraduate law students, both generally and in my own institutional context. Ethical conduct has long been held to be a central feature of professionalism and, traditionally, codes of ethics constituted one of the hallmarks and defining characteristics of the professions. The legal profession is no exception to this; however, it has not always been recognised that university law schools have an important role to play in preparing law students for the ethical challenges of legal practice. More recently this indifference has given way to an acceptance of the importance of this area of learning. Rather than being whether to teach legal ethics to law students, therefore, the two fundamental questions for educators are, first, what do students need to learn from the teaching of legal ethics and, secondly, how this is to be achieved. This study also aims to consider the specific challenges of teaching legal ethics to law students from widening participation backgrounds. These issues are particularly important in my own professional context as programme leader for an undergraduate qualifying law degree at an institution with a high population of widening participation students.     

The limits and benefits of international mobility: an empirical examination of the biographies of Australian legal academics

ABSTRACT

Academics are becoming increasingly internationally mobile, and yet there is still limited research into the nature, outcomes and limits of academic mobility. This paper examines the biographies of over 700 academics employed within Australian law schools. It identifies legal academics who hold academics qualifications have been employed outside of Australia. Almost a quarter of legal academics in our sample hold a first degree outside of Australia, over a third hold a non-Australian post-graduate degree. While it could be expected that possessing international experience would broaden an academic’s cultural experiences, we also found that the internationally mobile academics have typically studied and worked previously within an elite international law school, and are now employed within an elite Australian law school. In addition, experiences of international mobility are not equally distributed, and male legal academics are significantly more likely to have international experience than female legal academics.     

The place of law in a business studies curriculum

Abstract

LEGAL ETHICS are the values that inform the practice of law. This article establishes what and how Australian law schools teach about legal ethics and suggests what and how Australian law schools should teach about legal ethics.

First, the article establishes that Australian law schools tend to teach legal ethics as if it were only concerned with the law of lawyering. It also establishes that Australian law schools tend to teach legal ethics discretely over the course of one subject out of the whole undergraduate curriculum.

Secondly, this article suggests the adoption of a new approach to legal ethics as the ability to exercise legal ethical judgment. It also suggests a pervasive method of instruction that integrates issues of legal ethics and the process of legal ethical judgment into every subject in the undergraduate curriculum in combination with discrete subjects on the context and substance of the law of lawyering.     

Morality and the law teacher

Teaching law to business students commonly raises two teaching issues: the tension between what business students require and what law tutors are conditioned to provide, and that business students struggle with the legal problem-solving exercises provided in their assessments. These apparently unrelated needs of business students share common skills: identifying issues, organising and analysing facts, and decision-making. A seemingly unrelated discipline is the science of proof, which was developed in 1913 by John Henry Wigmore.

Wigmore addressed the science with his chart method of analysing facts. He presented a visual method of identifying issues, organising and analysing facts accordingly, and consequential decision-making. These skills can provide genuine benefits for business law students. The key is to adapt the Wigmore model for these needs.

The aim of this paper is to explain the Wigmore chart method, derive the essence of the necessary thought processes, and adapt the chart method to suit the needs of business law students, providing basic skills that will enhance work-related decision-making and academic legal problem-solving.     

Social justice jurisprudence of clinical education programme: A paradigm shift from legal education to justice education

The legal profession has remained relevant in bringing about positive transformation in society — with leaders, policymakers, and change makers around the world mostly possessing a background in the law. That said, the trust, and positive image, enjoyed by legal professionals continues on a declining path. Considered more glamorous, the legal profession has gone astray from the path of social justice. In this article, I argue that the negative perception of legal professionals is, in large part, because of the way legal professionals are taught and trained in law schools. I argue that legal teaching pedagogy in South Asia, and generally in developing countries, is a product of colonial structure. Even after the so-called decolonisation movement, law schools and universities, for example in South Asia, institutionalised a legal pedagogy unsuited to the epistemic actualities of their societies. A law student in South Asia was and continues to be taught the Western conception of what the law is and its relationship to justice. In a legal culture carrying the transplanted laws of the colonisers, the students of developing countries are meticulously trained in the technical skills of reasoning and interpretation by applying Eurocentric guidelines of positivist construction. In light of this, I propose a shift in legal education: to transform the existing legal education and pedagogy into ‘justice education’. I focus on the ancient principles — located in the Eastern legal philosophy — of empirical reasoning and the importance of the human nature of sociability in arriving at social justice. To combat the tendency of insulating law students from societal problems, I propose a social justice-driven legal pedagogy. I have also reflected on some practices that ‘are’ and highlighted other practices that ‘ought to be’. My thesis connotes that the legal profession has an innate role in building the capability of individuals who are deprived and excluded. In line with it, I present examples of scalable clinical legal education being practised specially by the Kathmandu School of Law that can create multidimensional legal professionalism.