NO MORE CASEBOOKS: USING SIMULATION‐BASED LEARNING TO EDUCATE FUTURE FAMILY LAW PRACTITIONERS

Teaching family law using the traditional casebook method provides students with marginal knowledge and skills. To practice family law, one needs to know how to interview and counsel clients, negotiate with opposing counsel, file pleadings and supporting documents, draft agreements, and understand tax consequences. Moreover, ethical issues abound in the practice of family law, such as confidentiality, conflict of interest, and fee arrangements. Critics of traditional pedagogies in legal academia have included the MacCrate Report, the Carnegie Report, and Best Practices for Legal Education. The Family Law Education Reform Project has focused its attention on the failure of law schools to keep pace with the ever‐evolving nature and requirements of family law practice. This article offers one answer to those who seek to educate law students in a manner that will better prepare them for the practice of family law. The author, who is the director of Vermont Law School's General Practice Program, describes a family law course she has developed and taught for many years. The course is taught in an integrative fashion, and includes substantive law, practice skills, and ethical and professionalism issues. She offers the course as a response and antidote to the ongoing criticisms of tradition a methods of teaching law.     

The performance of law students at a London college

This article examines the value of jurisprudence in legal education. It argues that jurisprudence should be mandated at an early stage of the students' law curriculum as the legal ideals that may be imparted through a jurisprudence course cannot be adequately taught in a professional ethics course or through teaching jurisprudential perspectives in doctrinal subjects. Law schools have a special responsibility to get students thinking about what law is, what makes law legitimate, and how law is related to justice, morality, politics and rationality. A mandatory jurisprudence course should be intentionally structured along these themes.     

参与式教学法在卫生法学与卫生监督课程中的应用

目的:探讨参与式教学法在卫生法学与卫生监督课程中的实践应用及效果,以提升课堂质量,增强学生的理论实践水平。方法:抽取卫生法学与卫生事业管理两个专业正在讲授该课程的班级,由教师在课堂上应用参与式教学法进行教学,然后用自行设计的调查问卷对学生参与课题讲学的效果和问题进行调查。结果:通过参与式教学法,76.2%的学生认为个人学习的主动性增强;79.6%的学生认为个人对知识的掌握和吸收程度增强;74.6%的学生认为个人独立解决问题的能力增强。结论:卫生法学与卫生监督课程开展参与式教学法具有良好的教学效果。但是在具体实施过程中,教师还应注意努力激发学生的学习兴趣和参与热情,在实施参与式教学前向学生充分讲授基础知识,进行充分备课,拓展背景知识。     

Learning to be A Peacemaking Lawyer: Law Student Perspectives on Building Peacemaking into Law School Curricula,Building Paths to Practice for New Lawyers,and Interdisciplinary Training

From our perspectives as students, we reflect on the teachings of Lawyer as Peacemaker, a Winter 2015 course taught at UCLA School of Law — the school's course devoted to peacemaking lawyering. Utilizing our newfound peacemaking worldview, we share our collective reactions to the Lawyer as Peacemaker course and the ten articles in the Family Court Review Special Issue on Peacemaking for Divorcing Families. We then advocate for integrating peacemaking into law school curricula and experiential learning offerings and make recommendations on how law schools today can prepare students to practice peace.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• This article is a collaborative work product of three students who come from an array of work experience, backgrounds and interests and from their newly founded peacemaking worldview, the three students collaboratively analyzed ideas presented in the Lawyer as Peacemaker course and the articles from this issue.
• The peacemaking mediation allows the parties more control over their legal disputes and allows the control of the costs that come with litigation.
• Peacemaking involves a holistic and collaborative method, involving mental health professionals to financial advisors as well as legal professionals.
• However, peacemaking skill courses are not readily available to many law students while studying in law school.
• This valuable asset should be made available more extensively to law students interested in family law.

     

本案适用修订后的《婚姻法》还是适用修订前的《婚姻法》--兼谈最高院对新修订《婚姻法》溯及力问题的解释

新修订的《婚姻法》是否具有溯及力问题直接影响到有关案件的处理结果。从最高院的司法解释来看,《婚姻法》的新修订部分具有溯及力。但法律是否具有溯及力应由法律本身作出明确规定,不能由司法解释来决定。我国《婚姻法》新修改部分的实施时间是明确的,并未规定有溯及力,最高院规定其有溯及力的司法解释违背了全国人大常委会《关于修改〈婚姻法〉的决定》,也不符合我国《立法法》的有关规定。     

How to Push an Elephant Through a Straw: Using Wireless Technology in a Web-enhanced Skills Program

The title of this article derives from the expression used by programmers and developers to explain problems of limited network bandwidth connection speeds. The ever-increasing demand by growing numbers of web users for bandwidth-intensive media is outstripping the Internet's capacity to deliver information. In this case, the 'Elephant' is the massive online information system, including text, graphics, audio, and video, and the 'Straw' is the low bandwidth through which only a fixed volume can move. Generally, compression of data is the way to push that elephant through the straw. Included among those users competing for bandwidth are law schools. In the last decade, technology has begun to occupy a more pivotal role in American legal education. As law firms increase their use of technology in response to client demand, they must hire associates who graduate from law school prepared for high-technology law practice. The resulting pressure on law schools to incorporate technology into class materials and instruction has arisen contemporaneously with pressure to increase the teaching of lawyering skills. A tension arises, however, between the obligation of legal educators to expose students to emerging technologies and the additional burdens thereby imposed upon law schools to add lawyering skills to the the existing curriculum without displacing needed doctrinal and analytical instruction. The authors are faculty members and administrators at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Shepard Broad Law Center, which was named "Most Wired Law School" by National Jurist in 1998 and 2001. The centrepiece of legal education at NSU is a high technology Lawyering Skills and Values Program that employs wireless classrooms and web-enhanced education. Delivering a lawyering skills course through technology is not unlike pushing an elephant through a straw. The challenge is to accomplish pedagogical goals without compressing either the curriculum or the social processes of teaching and learning. This article describes and evaluates the authors' practical experiences planning, implementing, and teaching a Lawyering Skills course to first-year students in a wireless classroom environment.     

论讨论式教学法在法学本科教育中的应用

法学本科教育的定位应是职业教育,职业教育必须重视实践教育环节。讨论式教学法,作为实践教育模式中重要的教学方法,能充分调动学生的主观能动性,培养学生的创新思维,提高学生的综合素质与能力,以实现我们本科教育的培养目标。讨论式教学法应在法学本科教育中普遍推广。在法学主干课程、基础课程中我们应主要采用讲授式教学法,辅之以讨论式教学法,而在非基础、非主干课程中采用以讨论式教学法为主的教学方式。     

HOFSTRA'S FAMILY LAW WITH SKILLS COURSE: IMPLEMENTING FLER (THE FAMILY LAW EDUCATION REFORM PROJECT)

The Family Law Education Reform Project (FLER) Final Report documented that the current doctrinally oriented family law curriculum at most law schools does not adequately prepare students for modern family law practice. FLER recommended that law school courses move from the study of cases to the study of the legal system's effect on families, and integrate the study of alternative dispute resolution and interdisciplinary knowledge. In response, Hofstra Law School has made a comprehensive attempt to implement FLER's curricular recommendations. This article discusses one major innovation – the Family Law with Skills course. Family Law with Skills is the basic course in Hofstra's revised curriculum and is designed to integrate doctrinal teaching with professional skills development. In addition to studying legal doctrine, students are required to engage in structured field observation of family court proceedings; interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and mediation representation exercises in a divorce dispute; direct and cross examination of a social worker in a child protection dispute; and drafting of a surrogacy agreement. The article describes each exercise and discusses its rationale, student reaction to the course, and lessons learned.     

Reflections on clinical legal education

The substance of this paper originates from my own reflective teaching practice. It considers the written responses that were gathered from both staff and students as part of an informal evaluation exercise, following my decision to introduce podcasting into the teaching of the Equity and Trusts at the School of Law, University of Leicester. The responses are considered in light of literature that has emerged in recent years on the use of podcasting in higher education, both in relation to law and to other disciplines. The title of the paper bears a deliberate, if seemingly incongruous, analogy to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The analogy is used as a means to explain the three main barriers to incorporating new technology that have emerged in the course of this project. The paper concludes by advocating communication and the development of relationships between individuals as the key means by which “positive disruption” to the existing learning environment may be achieved.     

Law for Life: Preliminary Thoughts

Law for Life is a training programme in contract law, unfair dismissal law and the English court system. It is aimed specifically at employees who in the course of their work are required to underdstand and apply the law regardless of whether or not they have received any formal legal training. One of the primary reasons for developing Law of Life was to provide training to the SME sector. Very often such companies do not have any in-house legal advisors and research has estimated that 70% of them do not provide any training for their employees in any aspect of their work. This suggests that smaller companies are relying on informally training, and even untrained personnel, in areas requiring legal expertise. Research carried out in the Luton area had indicated that SMEs tended to adopt a pragmatic approach to legal matters, addressing them as and when they arose. Law for Life was developed as a direct response to these findings. Recognizing that the SME sector is highly competitive, operates at minimum staffing levels and that SMEs are not generally in a position to release employees for staff training Law for Life had to be tailored to suit the needs of the SME sector. This meant that in order for Law for Life to be accessible to SME employees it had to be offered as a distance-learning package.     

走向双重维度的研究——德美法学教育的研究性及其启示

研究性教学旨在通过学生主体参与,培养学生理论研究与创新工作的能力。德美法学教育改革中逐步凸显的理论指向与实践指向平衡发展的研究性教学,对我国当前的法学教育深有启迪。借鉴德美研究性教学经验,发展适合我国法学本科研究性教学的具体模式,将为完善我国当前的本科法学教育提供新的思考。     

提高《海商法》课程教学效果之路径

海商法课程的理论性、实践性和专业性极强。有关该课程的内涵既有广、狭两义之说,又涉及国内立法与国际公约的衔接;既有自身完善与法域拓展,又有民商法的一般性与海商法的特殊性;既有本课程体系的科学性、完整性,又有多学科知识的结合和实体法、程序法与冲突法的兼容。因此,在教学过程中遵循主导性和自觉性、同一性和差异性、理论性和实践性,努力提高教学效果,注重基本理论与专业知识的运用,为适应市场经济发展需要,多出高质量研究成果和多培养高水平专业人才,是设置海商法课程的重要目的之一。     

“特别权力关系”理论与中国的行政立法——以《行政诉讼法》、《国家公务员法》为例

起源于19世纪德国的“特别权力关系”理论在我国的行政法学界还非常陌生。从行政法学史的视野,研究这一理论无疑仍有意义,但如果将这种理论视作与我国当今的行政立法,特别是《行政诉讼法》和《公务员法》有联系,甚至是这些行政立法的基础,那绝对是部分学者的误会。当今中国的行政立法与这一理论没有关系,这才是它与中国行政立法之间真正的“关系”。奉行“依法治国”的中国已与形成这一理论时的德国背景大不相同,中国已无必要引进这一“过时”的理论。《行政诉讼法》和《公务员法》的修改方向也与“特别权力关系”理论没有联系,有关修改中的棘手问题完全可以在我国现行的行政法制中绕开“特别权力关系”理论而得到解决。文章最后对《行政诉讼法》和《公务员法》的修改方向提出了自己的想法。     

如何打造优秀的法学教育

朗戴尔法学教育理论和教学法是美国法学院占主导地位的教育模式,备受推崇。然而在理论上,它具有明显的缺陷;在实践中,则造成了学生与法律实践相脱节的后果。它认为法律学科的全部资料都储存在出版物之中。封闭性、复古性、考据性成为构建朗戴尔方法的基石,形成了一个建立在书本资料上的伪科学体系。法学院应当完全抛弃朗戴尔教学法,直接面对社会问题,在更高层次上回归学徒制度,以律师事务所模式为法学教育的核心,以执业者为教师,以现实社会中的法律问题为教学内容,刻不容缓地推行法学教育实验。     

“不知法不免责”准则的历史考察

刑法中事实错误与法律错误分类的现代意义与罗马法无关。对“不知法不免责”准则的发展历史的考察表明,无论在大陆法的语境中,还是在普通法的语境中,现代的“不知法不免责”准则都建立在知法的推定的基础之上。知法的推定与近代以来国家权威的扩张与治理方式的理性化存在紧密联系。借助知法的推定,“不知法不免责”准则与责任主义在古典的刑法理论体系中得以自洽共存。在知法的推定动摇之后,为维护“不知法不免责”的传统立场,人们提出诸种新的理论根据,但这些根据无法使传统立场正当化。     

民法上“法益”概念的探源与本土化

《民法总则》第126条中的"利益",与我国民法学界持者甚众的狭义法益说中的"法益"含义大致相同,指的是权利之外应当受到法律保护的客体,是立法者为解决其预见性不足的弹性规范设计。上述界定与"法益"概念的原意不符,和刑法学界的惯常用法存在明显差别,属于概念移植过程中的本土化改造。"民事权利和利益"的二分法和狭义法益说在法理、逻辑上都不能成立,也不具备法益理论应当具备的分类、区分保护和评价功能,必然会造成立法表述与司法裁判说理中的冲突。"法益"概念的本土化界定,应当建立在共识的基础上,寻求统一的、适用于包括刑法、民法等在内的各个部门法的"法益"概念。"法益"是应当受到法保护的利益,此处的法既包括实然意义上的法律,也包括应然意义上的法。法益是权利的上位而非平行概念,《民法总则》第126条中的"利益"实质上是未被立法明文规定的未上升为权利的法益,未来修法时应将该条修改为"民事主体享有其他民事权利和未上升为权利的法益"。     

多媒体教学在本科民事诉讼法学课程中的应用

多媒体教学及其效果已成为国家评价教学质量的重要指标。具体到法学本科教学,我们应当注重多媒体教学的应用,为保证和提高法学本科课程教学效果与质量建立完善的教学方法体系。我们在总结多媒体在本科民事诉讼法学课程教学中应用的理论和实践经验的基础上,探究多媒体应用于本科民事诉讼法学课程教学的方式以及应当注意的问题。     

我国产品责任制度:守成与创新

相对于《产品质量法》有关产品责任的规定,《侵权责任法》第五章既有守成的一面也有诸多创新规定,在解释上不可完全适用特别法优先的原则或新法优先的原则,而是要将两个法律的相关规定有机结合起来进行系统的解释,方能正确适用。《侵权责任法》没有对产品责任中的"损害"进行重新界定,产品自身的财产损失不属于产品责任的"损害";精神损害赔偿适用于产品责任案件,惩罚性赔偿规定的适用有待最高人民法院作出更具有可操作性的司法解释。     

诉讼法学硕士研究生培养质量保障机制研究

诉讼法学专业硕士研究生培养是一个系统工程。在招生环节,应当注意适度压缩招生规模、扩大推免比例,保证生源质量。在课程设置和教学计划环节,应当注意增设相应的实体法课程,强化实习,为培养学生解决实际问题的能力打下基础。在教学环节,课堂教学可以采用师生同堂授课的方法,以调动学生的主动性、积极性;同时通过举办学术沙龙、学术讲座的方式,开辟第二课堂。强化导师责任,对学位论文进行集中开题,严格学位论文答辩,也有助于提高硕士研究生培养质量。