Negotiating the Web: Legal Skills Learning in a Virtual Community

The web is a powerful medium for simulation and role play. It can thus be used for transactional learning, provided that the activities are sufficiently interactive and are designed to support the transaction. This article focuses on the use of web simulation to facilitate learning in Personal Injury negotiation. The underlying model of the simulation is constructivist. Students were divided into 'firms' and negotiated with each other over several months using virtual offices and a web-based virtual community. The results, both qualitative and quantitative, prove that the web can be used successfully in a number of forms of legal skills learning. The results also reveal the need to provide not only integrated resources for learning on the web, but also to support students' divergent learning in simulations and enable their social construction of knowledge within such web-based environments.     

Student based learning‐a polytechnic's experience

This article offers insight into the universality of professionalism in legal education. It does so in the context of an evaluation of a unit that forms part of the Australian National University's Legal Workshop Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice. The evaluation is undertaken with reference to a Scottish vocational course and experience upon which the ANU Legal Workshop course is based. It also seeks to inform the debate about including the development of professional identity in pre-practice legal education. The evaluation of the ANU Legal Workshop unit involved a comparison of experiences in both ANU and the University of Strathclyde. The comparison indicates that legal professional identity has universal elements and that professional working can be embedded in students' learning even where that occurs wholly online. This suggests that the development of professional culture and professional identity can be encouraged to start prior to admission to practice.     

Law,Learning, Technology: Reiving Ower the Borders

Serious consideration of our students' learning requires us to engage with the theoretical constructs of other disciplines, some of which have much to tell us about how we teach law, how we might teach it more effectively; how our students learn and what they understand as learning. This interdisciplinary understanding is an essential component in the dialectic between theory and praxis of teaching and learning, and the law. If this is true for what might be termed more traditional learning methods, it is even more the case for computerbased educational interventions. In computer-based learning, the management of learning on many levels becomes critical to educational success, and the understanding and application of interdisciplinary theory plays an important role in the design and development of materials and in the learning events themselves.     

Promoting Muslims’ Willingness to Report Terror Threats to Police: Testing Competing Theories of Procedural Justice

The heightened threat of terrorism in the West has resulted in more power being granted to police. However, new anti-terror laws and heavy-handed policing practices can stigmatize Muslim communities. Using survey data from 800 Australian Muslims this paper examines whether procedural justice policing in counter-terrorism enhances Muslims’ feelings of social inclusion, and promotes their intentions to report terror threats to police. Of interest is how procedural justice influences Muslims who feel less socially included. Three competing theoretical frameworks differ in the predictions they make about when and why procedural justice influences excluded groups. This paper considers each framework and discusses how each explains the relationships between our variables of interest. Our findings show that procedural justice is positively associated with social inclusion and intentions to report terror threats to police. Findings also show that social inclusion both moderates and partially mediates the effect of procedural justice on reporting intentions.     

Regulation and Rights in Networked Space

The Internet is often described as inherently free from regulation; a space where freedoms and liberties are guaranteed by the design of the network environment. The naivety of this view has, however, been exposed by commentators such as Shapiro, Reidenberg, and Lessig who have clearly demonstrated the inherent regulability of networked space. The question no longer is: can networked space be regulated? but rather, how and by whom is it regulated? This paper examines the regulation of rights in networked space. Property rights and rights to free speech, or free expression, are examined in relation to a number of issues that have emerged in the networked environment, or cyberspace. Its aim is to examine whether the embryonic regulatory structure of cyberspace, which has the advantage of starting with a completely clean slate, is sufficiently sympathetic to the unique qualities of this fledgling jurisdiction.     

THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS: USING FILM TO TEACH FAMILY LAW

This article discusses the aspects of narrative and character development that make films a useful tool to supplement classroom legal education. Moreover, utilizing film is particularly effective for learning and exploring the dynamics of human relationships at the center of family law cases. When designing a film and family law course instructors should seek to promote creative thinking, cultural competence, student exploration of bias and assumptions and best practices for attorneys based on the examples provided in the film. Films make the learning process more fun, but still provide substantial opportunities to broaden students' concept of the impact of law on family members.     

Working with law students to develop legal literacy materials

This paper sets out the findings of a teaching development project undertaken with undergraduate law students at the University of Leicester (UOL) in 2013–2014, funded by the Higher Education Academy (HEA). In the course of this project, students were actively involved in the design, development and delivery of five interactive workshops for primary school children, each built around a particular theme and each designed to help develop an aspect of the children’s legal literacy. The aims were to assess the impact on the learning experience of student participants; to assess whether it may be possible to incorporate this form of activity within the undergraduate curriculum and to assess whether it may be possible to create a sustainable model for use in the future, with new groups of students and a wider number of schools. The most positive outcomes of the project relate to the students’ self-reporting of the development of transferable skills and their reported increase in self-confidence, as a result of being involved in the project. The role of group work in the development of transferable skills is also evident. By far the weakest area was the demonstration and development of legal research skills. The authors reflect on these findings, and comment on some of the unforeseen benefits and challenges of the project, before drawing conclusions as to its future viability.     

Comparative Compliance: Digital Piracy,Deterrence, Social Norms,and Duty in China and the United States

The study of compliance has been predominantly Western, and we do not know whether existing theories and findings also apply elsewhere. As a first venture in developing a comparative view on compliance, this study seeks to gain a comparative understanding of compliance decision making among Chinese and American students. It studies their decisions in response to two scenarios that offer an opportunity to use pirated online content. It tests how their decisions are shaped by subjective deterrence, social norms, and perceived duty to obey the law, comparing a control group with a group who received an explicit deterrence message from a strong campaign targeting the use of pirated digital content. The results indicate that, regardless of the explicit enforcement context, Chinese students' inclination to engage in digital piracy hinges chiefly on the perceived behavior and approval of others. This stands in contrast to US students. Within an explicit enforcement context, both social norms and perceived enforcement affect US students' decision making, whereas when there is no explicit enforcement context, both social norms and perceived duty to obey the law affect decision making. This study thus provides a warning that compliance theories and findings may not generalize well beyond the Western context. This necessitates the development of comparative compliance studies and more cross‐national replication.     

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.     

Learning about Bayesian networks for forensic interpretation: an example based on the 'the problem of multiple propositions'

Both, Bayesian networks and probabilistic evaluation are gaining more and more widespread use within many professional branches, including forensic science. Notwithstanding, they constitute subtle topics with definitional details that require careful study. While many sophisticated developments of probabilistic approaches to evaluation of forensic findings may readily be found in published literature, there remains a gap with respect to writings that focus on foundational aspects and on how these may be acquired by interested scientists new to these topics. This paper takes this as a starting point to report on the learning about Bayesian networks for likelihood ratio based, probabilistic inference procedures in a class of master students in forensic science. The presentation uses an example that relies on a casework scenario drawn from published literature, involving a questioned signature. A complicating aspect of that case study - proposed to students in a teaching scenario - is due to the need of considering multiple competing propositions, which is an outset that may not readily be approached within a likelihood ratio based framework without drawing attention to some additional technical details. Using generic Bayesian networks fragments from existing literature on the topic, course participants were able to track the probabilistic underpinnings of the proposed scenario correctly both in terms of likelihood ratios and of posterior probabilities. In addition, further study of the example by students allowed them to derive an alternative Bayesian network structure with a computational output that is equivalent to existing probabilistic solutions. This practical experience underlines the potential of Bayesian networks to support and clarify foundational principles of probabilistic procedures for forensic evaluation.     

Traders of the lost ark — lectures and liability

It is easy to become inured to students' common perception that lectures are what universities provide — that the attendance at lectures is the total of a student's university experience. It is fruitless to deny that lectures, and sometimes tutorials, are the students' primary connection with the modern university. It would be interesting if the delivery of lectures was considered to be conduct in trade or commerce, capable of attracting the operation of consumer protection statutes, such as the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). This article will investigate several Australian cases which have considered some aspect of universities' liability for misleading conduct. It will also consider more a fundamental question — should universities be exposed to liability for this type of activity?     

Naming Names: The Impact of Supreme Court Opinion Attribution on Citizen Assessment of Policy Outcomes

The manner in which political institutions convey their policy outcomes can have important implications for how the public views institutions' policy decisions. This paper explores whether the way in which the U.S. Supreme Court communicates its policy decrees affects how favorably members of the public assess its decisions. Specifically, we investigate whether attributing a decision to the nation's High Court or to an individual justice influences the public's agreement with the Court's rulings. Using an experimental design, we find that when a Supreme Court outcome is ascribed to the institution as a whole, rather than to a particular justice, people are more apt to agree with the policy decision. We also find that identifying the gender of the opinion author affects public agreement under certain conditions. Our findings have important implications for how public support for institutional policymaking operates, as well as the dynamics of how the Supreme Court manages to accumulate and maintain public goodwill.     

A field trip in the first week at university: perspectives from our LLB students

ABSTRACT

Field trips are a major part of the pedagogy of experience. Generally, core theoretical knowledge is developed in class before a practical field application is facilitated to link knowledge. Field trips are both observational and participatory. This paper describes how the Bachelor of Laws students at an Australian university undertook a field trip to the Parliament during their first week at university. In contrast to traditional transmission of content knowledge and teaching legal rules, this field trip was purposefully designed as an early memorable, motivating experience for students to reflect on personal learning by connecting theory and context. This structured program had supporting activities and an aligned summative assessment. Findings of this qualitative study suggested that students and academics concurred that field trips are important for learning though their perceptions about it differed. For the students, it was a valuable learning experience which contextualised learning, developed an appreciation of different learning approaches, provided networking opportunities and set them thinking about potential future careers. Study outcomes indicate that curriculum designs that integrate experiential learning and linkage activities to professional settings across the entire law course are worth exploring and embedding into the curriculum.     

Teaching Race and Crime

Abstract

This paper examines the experiences of a select group of faculty (N = 37) from across the country who teach courses related to race and crime. Using survey methodology, the researchers solicited the faculty members' views on the course as well as their experience in teaching the course. The research was also designed to determine the receptivity of students to the course, as well as the nature of the evaluation scores of instructors who teach these courses. Most instructors reported having had a good teaching experience and felt the course should be required. Respondents also indicated that their teaching evaluation scores for race and crime courses were generally in line with their scores for other courses. The research found very minimal differences between the teaching evaluation scores of white and nonwhite race and crime instructors. Students were perceived to be generally enthusiastic about taking this course.     

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.

     

Teaching post-mortem external examination in undergraduate medical education--the formal and the informal curriculum

In undergraduate medical education, the training of post-mortem external examination on dead bodies might evoke strong emotional reactions in medical students that could counteract the intended learning goals. We evaluated student perception of a forensic medicine course, their perceived learning outcome (via self-assessment) and possible tutor-dependent influences on the overall evaluation of the course by a questionnaire-based survey among 150 medical students in Hamburg, Germany. The majority of students identified post-mortem external examination as an important learning objective in undergraduate medical education and did not feel that the dignity of the deceased was offended by the course procedures. After the course, more than 70% of the students felt able to perform an external examination and to fill in a death certificate. Respectful behavior of course tutors towards the deceased entailed better overall course ratings by students (p<0.001). Our findings highlight the importance of factors such as clearly defined learning goals and course standardization (formal curriculum) as well as tutor behavior (informal curriculum) in undergraduate education in forensic medicine. Furthermore, we suggest embedding teaching in forensic medicine in longitudinal curricula on death and dying and on the health consequences of interpersonal violence.     

Student Perceptions of Juvenile Offender Accounts in Criminal Justice Education

In criminal justice programs, a major teaching objective is to expose students to the wide range of experiences and career paths available in criminal justice. Technological advances increase instructional strategies so that students may gain more realistic educational experience and correct erroneous perceptions about the criminal justice system. This paper describes one such strategy for online criminal justice students, a virtual prison tour, founded on the principles of social learning, experiential learning, and e-learning. In an upperclass course in juvenile delinquency, 43 students viewed a video of incarcerated juvenile offenders recounting their experiences of institutionalization, sentences, challenges, programming, and fears upon release. Student responses to seven quantitative questions and one qualitative question revealed that the video greatly impacted their attitudes, understanding, and perceptions of the juvenile justice system and provided pedagogical benefits. This strategy can be used to help criminal justice educators enhance student learning so that students experience a major aspect of the juvenile justice system.     

True and false intentions: asking about the past to detect lies about the future

This study is on how to discriminate between true and false intentions, an emerging area within psycholegal research. We argue that asking about the past (the planning phase) might be a promising way to detect lies about the future (intentions). That is, participants who had developed false intentions to mask their criminal intentions were assumed to provide equally long and detailed answers to questions about intentions, compared to participants who told the truth about their intentions. In contrast, we predicted that lying participants would be worse at answering questions about the planning of their stated (false) intentions, compared to participants telling the truth about the planning of their stated (true) intentions. To test our assumptions, we used a newly devised experimental set-up accommodating the main characteristics of intent. Both lying and truth-telling suspects perceived the questions on planning as more unanticipated, and more difficult to answer, compared to the questions about their intentions (future actions). Furthermore, in support of our predictions we found that the truth-telling (vs. lying) suspects' answers to questions on planning were longer and perceived as more detailed and clear, whereas liars' and truth-tellers' answers to questions on intentions were equally long and perceived as equally detailed.     

Trial and Error – Failing and Learning in Criminal Proceedings

This paper addresses the selective mechanisms by which criminal proceedings produce strong arguments. It does so by focusing on the failing of argument themes (topoi) in the course of criminal proceedings, rather than on their career. In a further step, the notion of failing is bound to learning: different forms of failing point at different ways and places of learning. The study is comparative, relating cases from four different legal regimes (England, USA, Italy and Germany) that are taken from four extensive ethnographic studies in defense lawyer’s firms. We will track down the failures of topoi at three different stages (pre-trial, trial, and deliberation) in our different legal regimes. Failing occurs in all proceedings in various modes and at different stages. We argue that those modes as well as the different stages at which they occur point at the spots in the respective procedures that allow for learning about the inherent conceptions of “good reasons.”     

Police Empathy and Victim PTSD as Potential Factors in Rape Case Attrition

This exploratory study investigated whether rape victims’ subjective perceptions of whether to proceed with legal action were associated with their experience of disclosing to the police during their initial interview. Specifically, the study investigated associations between symptoms of PTSD, shame and self-blame post-rape, subjective perceptions of police empathy and subjective perception of victims’ intentions to take the case to court. Participants (N = 22) were found to have elevated levels of PTSD severity, shame and self-blame. Police empathy was positively correlated with victims’ ratings of likelihood of taking the case to court, and negatively correlated with PTSD severity and shame. These preliminary findings suggest that training police officers how to respond more empathically to psychologically distressed rape victims may potentially help reduce victim attrition rates.