Wrong about Rights: Public Knowledge of Key Areas of Consumer,Housing and Employment Law in England and Wales

Over many decades, processes of juridification have brought about huge growth in legal rights, responsibilities and protections, yet citizens appear to poorly understand this ‘law thick’ world. This impacts citizens’ capacity to ‘name, blame and claim’ in the legal domain at a time of retreat from public funding of civil legal services. This article examines public knowledge of rights in key areas relating to consumer, housing and employment law. Drawing on data from the 2010–2012 English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey, the article uses responses to a series of hypothetical scenarios to explore public knowledge of rights and characteristics associated with knowledge. Our findings highlight a substantial deficit in individuals’ understanding of legal rights and responsibilities – even among those for whom particular rights and responsibilities have specific bearing. We also consider what these findings mean for public legal education and the efficiency, efficacy and legitimacy of the law.     

Getting the fish to see the water: an investigation into students’ perceptions of learning writing skills in academic modules and in a final year real client legal clinic module

In 2010 Tonya Kowalski described the problems faced by students entering clinic for the first time as a one step backward, two step forward phenomenon. Students appeared initially unable to transfer skills and knowledge learned in earlier academic and other settings to clinic but once they were immersed in clinic their skills development improved rapidly. Clinic is often presented as a “bridge to practice” and delivered as the capstone to more traditional elements of an undergraduate degree. However, even with an integrated approach like that at Northumbria Law School, a seamless transition to the skills required for clinic is challenging and gives rise to a constant review of how best to prepare students. Our research focused on legal writing and used focus groups to find out how students participating in the year four clinic at Northumbria University perceived and adapted their previous experiences of writing for use in the clinical context. It identifies strategies which should be considered for integration into non-clinical modules and in the clinical module itself to facilitate this transition from academic orientated writing to practice orientated writing.     

The impact of student-generated digital flashcards on student learning of constitutional law

This article describes, evaluates and reflects upon student creation of cloud-based digital flashcards as an authentic formative and summative assessment task designed for the deep learning of constitutional law. The usefulness of digital flashcards in online legal education is explored. The undergraduate law student participants in the study responded differently to the assessment task depending upon the constitutional law topic they were assigned, the perceived relevance of constructing digital flashcards to professional practice and how they reacted to this creative task. Building digital flashcards provides a potentially powerful authentic assessment task for the study of constitutional law provided it is designed to support semester long creation, validation and sharing of digital flashcards that students perceive as professionally relevant and educationally useful. Student recommendations for designing an assessment task involving the creation of digital flashcards are evaluated.     

Law’s not hard; it’s just hard to get into: a study of alternative entry students to law school

Widening access to higher education is a challenge currently under discussion in Australia and the United Kingdom. The increasing number of alternative entry programs offered by universities has made tertiary study, including law study, more accessible. One concern with widening access to legal education is the ability of students entering law school through means other than very high academic scores to undertake a law degree successfully. Students who enter law school are generally referred to as “high achievers”, having qualified through an admission policy based on competitive rankings. The implementation of equitable access programs in some Australian universities has resulted in a number of places being made available to final year high school students who meet the eligibility criteria. Lowering the entry requirements to some courses provides opportunities for students whose circumstances have affected their ability to attain competitive ranking scores. The Principals’ Recommendation Scheme (PRS) is one of these programs. The University of Technology Sydney in New South Wales, Australia commenced the PRS in 2012. UTS:Law was one of the first Faculties to develop a strategy to support these students. The Faculty is committed to resourcing all students in their study and, as a result, is engaged in the ongoing evaluation of the academic and co-curricular programs provided to students. This paper explains the implementation of the PRS and the relevant support infrastructure available to students. It also considers the research into student retention and academic success and makes a preliminary assessment that, to date, the PRS students are succeeding in the transition from secondary education to law school, and that the existing infrastructure is accommodating the needs of these students. The PRS is an alternative entry scheme that provides a model for consideration by other law schools, committed to widening access to legal education.     

A common law fly on the transsystemic wall: observing the integrated method at McGill Faculty of Law

Law schools attempting to prepare students for a more global practice are generally advised to tailor a law curriculum to their individual resources. When offering comparative perspectives, some law school programmes have pedagogical advantages arising out of a mixed legal heritage, such as McGill Faculty of Law’s transsystemic approach. What does the transsystemic approach entail, and can aspects of the transsystemic approach, which is grounded in Québec’s bijural and bilingual context, be practised at national-focus law schools? In order to consider this question, the author observed classroom dynamics in first year transsystemic courses. The McGill experience cannot be imported, but its pedagogy offers key lessons for common law national-focus law schools, including the need to make alternative visions of law necessary for understanding.     

The legal and administrative processes in adoption: views and experiences of newly formed adoptive families

The early stages of adoptive placements are important in achieving successful long-term outcomes for adopted children and their families. This paper reports on findings from the Wales Adoption Study, in which adoptive parents shared their views and experiences of the legal and administrative processes in obtaining an adoption order. Parents described a range of difficulties that added to anxieties and delays. These arose mainly through poor communication about the steps in the legal process and avoidable administrative errors or oversights. Some parents also experienced lack of information and support regarding agreed contact arrangements and work with their child to help them make sense of their adoptive status.     

论循环经济的法制障碍与制度创新

循环经济已成为我国实现社会经济可持续发展的最佳模式选择,法律应该保障和促进循环经济的形成和发展。但是,目前我国现行法律中还存在与循环经济理念不相适应的制度,这些制度对循环经济的发展形成了障碍。在分析循环经济的内涵、本质以及阻碍循环经济发展的法制因素的基础上,提出了完善和创新循环经济法律制度的建议。     

论患者知情权的法律保障

我国现有关于患者知情权保障的法律制度在维护患者合法权益、促进建立和谐的医患关系方面发挥着积极作用,但在权利主体、权利内容、权利保障等方面仍存在一些不足之处。应加强立法工作,充分借鉴国内外先进经验,注重科技发展对立法的影响,逐步完善患者知情权相关法律制度。     

民事诉讼法律审的功能及构造

为了满足法律适用的统一性要求,有必要在我国民事诉讼中实行有条件的法律审制度。引起法律审的事由应当是裁判违法,包括违反法院应当适用的法律规范,违反日常经验法则等,裁判违法应当与裁判结果具有因果关系;当事人提起法律审应经由原审法院;法律审仅审理法律适用问题且仅以上诉人主张的范围为限;法律审的裁决对重审法院应当具有约束力。     

法律职业主义

律师制度起源于西方,法律职业主义是其主流指导理念。法律职业主义由三大基石构成。随着现代批判性思潮对其批判的展开,有必要重新审视国家主义、商业主义以及技术性职业主义和公共性职业主义的利弊。我国学术界和律师界所持的多是技术性职业主义的观点,政府的管制理念存在一定的模糊与混乱。以容纳多种伦理观为己任的“市民公共领域”理论,可能是建构我国律师职业定位新模式的可行路径。