th
50 ANNUAL CONFERENCE CARDIFF 2015
ABSTRACTS in chronological order
Parallel Sessions 1
1a. Student Wellness
Peter Devonshire
This paper assesses the topic of Student Wellness with reference to law students. The subject is
particularly apposite having regard to the Conference's theme looking back over the last 50 years and
questioning how the challenges of the past should be addressed in the future.
Student wellness is a perennial issue for which recognition has been slow. Historically, there has
been a lack of acknowledgement and little dialogue. Benjamin's study in the US (1986) presented
strong evidence of student difficulties at law school, but suggested that the issue had been largely
ignored. A later article by Krieger (2002) complained of institutional denial, despite mounting evidence
of systemic problems encountered by law students across jurisdictions.
A highly influential study by Kelk et al, issued by the Brain & Mind Research Institute (2009) in
Sydney, produced some alarming statistics. A wide survey on mental health and depression among
law students, barristers and solicitors revealed that law students were more vulnerable than any of the
classes under review, including tertiary students in other disciplines. The BMRI report is generally
credited with promoting modern debate on law student mental health, at least within Australia. Some
of the resulting initiatives have had varied success. For example, as survey by Townes, O'Brian et al
in 2011 disclosed similar statistics at ANU despite the implementation of mentoring strategies to
counter law student depression.
There is broad consensus across a range of recent studies which suggest that legal education is
highly causative of negative and harmful stress. This cannot be brushed off by claims that law as a
discipline attracts persons who are driven by unrealistic personal expectations or that traditional
demands are exacerbated by the internet age and the pressures of social media. It will be argued in
this paper that the problem is a multi-factorial one. This includes (i) levels of workload and competition
among students, (ii) assessment methods such as 100% weighted exams, (iii) inculcating a "think like
a lawyer" mindset that is analytic, pessimistic and marginalises personal values, (iv) the diminution of
personal autonomy, particularly evident in professional disciplines, (v) cognitive dissonance when
students enter law school with beliefs which are compromised by legal education which emphasises a
new and contradictory set of values, (vi) the advent of students as "consumers" which has led to
universities becoming vendors of a service and the abandonment of an inclusive "community of
endeavour" philosophy, (vii) the nature of a legal career and its emphasis on personal image, which
may be detrimentally intrusive to law students, particularly in the latter stages of their degree. Against
these factors, this paper will explore the initiatives that have been - and should be - taken by law
schools, including curriculum delivery (for example, ADR as an exemplar of a more positive and less
adversarial aspect of law), teaching (such as Peer Assisted Learning Schemes), and targeted
pastoral care.
1b. Wellbeing in the UK Legal Academic Community; not quite 50 years in the making
Caroline Strevens and Clare Wilson
Our research question asks: What is the perception of law teachers in HE of their own psychological
wellbeing and that of their students?
Higher Education in the UK has undergone a radical transformation in the past decade. Thus, it may
be particularly timely to explore how well academic staff are managing their psychological wellbeing.
Research suggests that we flourish in our work (and lives in general) if certain conditions of self-
determination and self-motivation are met (Deci & Ryan, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2008). A detailed
understanding of how academics manage their wellbeing will allow research to develop effective
strategies for the management of psychological wellbeing in this group and to facilitate effective
strategies for our students. Research into wellbeing of students is in its infancy in the UK. However
we know of no studies that concern law teachers in the UK. If we are to promote our students’
wellbeing then we would argue that it is essential we as academics also understand wellbeing and are
able to effectively manage our own. This team has conducted surveys of UK Law teachers and this
paper will present preliminary findings for discussion.
1c. Information age to interaction age in legal education: How far have we progressed?
Kumari Lane
(Stan Marsh best paper submission)
This paper analyses undergraduate legal education in the last 50 years in relation to teaching
methods.
In the 1960s the emphasis was on the lecturer imparting legal information by means of face-to-face
lectures. This was an Information Age with legal education being teacher-centred. The lecturer was
the expert whose role was to ensure that students were taught the necessary legal content. The
beginnings of the Interaction Age came with the setting up of tutorials/seminars. However, they were
mainly teacher-centred, where the tutor gave a mini lecture. The interaction was mainly between the
tutor and students. A development of the Interaction Age came with the recognition that in
tutorials/seminars the teacher should be a facilitator of learning between students, interacting with
each other.
The early forms of computer-assisted learning consisted of imparting information to students. Initially,
the internet was used mainly to develop websites and place lecture notes and powerpoint slides.
Some websites contained interactive self-assessment tutorials, the interaction being only between the
learner and the content, placed by the lecturer. The Interaction Age using technology only began
when interactive devices such as online discussion forums, chat rooms, video conferencing were
utilised to enable interaction between students and between students and lecturers, as co-participants
in the learning process.
The literature review indicates that there is little effective use of interactive technological devices to
assist learning in higher education institutions providing face-to-face teaching. The Interaction Age
has made little progress, with pockets of innovation in a few institutions. The chief obstacles to
progress are lecturers still in the Information Age and passive students who wish to be taught rather
than to actively learn. In most face-to-face institutions (including those adopting blended learning)
lecturers impart information. Students only engage in interaction to co-construct knowledge where the
interaction is part of the assessment.
1d. Research-informed teaching: a clinical approach
Alex Nicholson
(Stan Marsh best paper submission)
In a bid to attract students, many universities claim that their teaching is "research-informed".
However, there is some disagreement amongst academics about what actually counts as researchinformed teaching and how it should be developed and delivered. Furthermore, whilst academic
reputation is a key factor for prospective university applicants, the primary objective of the majority is
to enhance employability. Therefore, as competition continues to increase in the coming years,
institutions must be careful to ensure that research-informed teaching is developed in a way that is
perceived to help rather than hinder this fundamental objective.
This paper draws upon the existing work of Griffiths (2004), Healey (2005) and others in an attempt to
define "research-informed teaching" and then considers whether clinical approaches to both teaching
and research can offer more widely applicable strategies for effective integration of the two.
Two case studies are relied upon: (1) the writer's own experience as a solicitor in private practice; and
(2), Hallam Law, Sheffield Hallam University's pro bono law clinic. Both case studies demonstrate the
close integration that clinical approaches can achieve between teaching and research and the
corresponding benefits that follow, particularly in terms of employability.
It is submitted that: by adopting a clinical approach to more orthodox, academic law modules, it may
be possible to develop and deliver research-informed teaching in a way that will enhance
employability and therefore appeal to prospective law students. There is little doubt that competition
for students will continue to increase in the coming decades and the effective delivery of researchinformed teaching is therefore essential.
1e. Design and delivery of an online English for Academic Purposes course for LLB students;
the challenges of creating an online learning environment in an international context
Glenn Robinson, Adam Doyle, Emma Blyth and David Donnarumma
This study investigates the design and development of an online in-sessional English for Academic
Purposes module for LLB students. The study explores the challenges of delivering such a module
and the importance of achieving cognitive, teaching and social presences in an online environment
(Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000). The study will explore how Rothery’s (1994) teaching and
learning cycle has been adapted for the online environment.
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In this session, we intend to demonstrate the approach and methodology we have taken to
producing an online EAP course for undergraduates on an LLB programme studying at a
distance. In the first part of the session, we will explore some of the theoretical approaches
and look at how we have adapted them to meet our needs, and the challenges we faced. We
will draw on examples from the course to show how we met these challenges.
In the second part of the session, we will look at some of the feedback we have received from
actual students who have participated in the course, and reflect on what worked or did not
work in their contexts. In conclusion, we will provide some recommendations for developing
such a course and look at ways of improving what we have done.
The session will fit with the conference themes of historic perspectives on technology in legal
learning and predictions; the next 50 years of technology in legal learning as the course has
built on traditional online learning such as forums but has moved to explore synchronous
online learning through Adobe Connect and the use of creative tools such as Articulate
The session will be useful for materials designers, academic managers and experienced law tutors
looking to deliver online and at a distance. For materials designers, the session will explore the
development of online materials, some of the tools we used, and adapting the theoretical models to
meet our needs and context. For academic managers, the session will provide some insight into the
project design and steps to consider in the process. Finally, for the tutor, the session will look at the
experience of a tutor on the course and ways of exploiting the online environment to build a
community and ensure students participate and learn.
1f. Preparing students for Studying Law in the UK and Beyond – The Foreign Language Law
programme and English for Academic and Legal purposes at the Humboldt University Berlin
David Bowskill
This paper will discuss how two Humboldt University programmes help prepare students of German
law to study, in a common law or mixed jurisdiction, in English at a university: firstly, the foreign
language law programme (Fremdsprachiges Rechtsstudium) set up by the Law Faculty in 1994 - now
offered in nine languages and covering ten jurisdictions and, secondly, the course programme in
English for Academic & Legal Purposes (EALP), offered by the Language Centre of Humboldt
University Berlin (legal English was already offered by the Language Centre’s predecessor before
1989). In particular, the paper will examine how lawyers and linguists have developed content-andlanguage-integrated and skills-oriented courses over the last 20 years to help students master legal
English and the specific skills (e.g. solving legal problem questions) needed to successfully study law
in England or other common-law countries. The modular foreign language law programme offers
courses in contract, commercial, constitutional, criminal, and tort law, aimed at providing students with
an introduction to the basic concepts of a substantive area of English, law coupled with the relevant
legal terminology. All of the courses provide practice in reading cases and statutes. There is also a
module on the English legal system and methodology, which provides extensive practice in the
aforementioned skills. The courses offered by the Language Centre are also content-oriented, but
provide specific practice in legal research and skills. Reference will be made to two specific courses:
Writing for Law (essays and legal practice questions), and Mooting (selected problems from English
contract and tort law to practise advocacy and judging skills). This presentation is intended to lead to
a discussion of the perspectives of teachers of English law both in the UK and abroad on meeting the
needs of foreign students studying law in a common law jurisdiction.
Parallel Sessions 2
2a. Assessing the impact of content design changes on student engagement with the virtual
learning environment
Ryan Murphy
(Stan Marsh best paper submission)
Over the past 20 years, Virtual Learning Environments (hereinafter “VLE”) have become a prominent
feature of the architecture of Higher Education. From humble, proprietary beginnings VLEs are now
pan-institutional monoliths that are an everyday reality of academic life in institutions of all sizes.
The implementation of the VLE, and by this we mean not its institutional design but its day-to-day
design on a module by module basis, is in the main left to individual academics. A lack of
consideration/consistency by individuals can confuse the useful design principles that should underpin
the realisation of effective curriculum design in concrete form (i.e. on the VLE). For a discipline such
as law, this is particularly important given that effective engagement with the VLE and the materials
therein is paramount to student success. A well-designed programme will suffer if its VLE design is
not effective.
This piece argues for a more considered approach to content placement on the VLE that reflects the
principles of good curriculum and programme design. The overarching aim of this project is to
investigate different VLE design methods and paradigms of content placement. The project will
investigate whether different design methods impact on, or influence, student engagement with the
VLE and the materials therein. In doing so, the paper attempts to come with suggestions for improving
content design principles. This is based on the findings and analysis of a small-scale exploratory
study.
The paper explores the issues identified with reference to
- the significant literature on VLE (Martin Weller, Virtual Learning Environments: Using,
Choosing and Developing your VLE (Routledge, Oxford 2007)),
- their usefulness (Joseph Lee and Ng Lai Hong, ‘An Analysis of Students’ Preparation for
the Virtual Learning Environment’ (2001) 4(3) The Internet and Higher Education 231;
Gabriele Piccoli, ‘Web-Based Virtual Learning Environments: A Research Framework and
a Preliminary Assessment of Effectiveness in Basic IT Skills Training’ (2001) 25(4)
Management Information Systems 401), their effectiveness for specific subject needs
(Peter Thomas, ‘Collaborative Learning in a Wiki Environment: Experiences from a
Software Engineering Course’ (2007) 13(2) New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia
187; Balakrishnan Balamuralithara, ‘Virtual Laboratories in Engineering Education: The
Simulation Lab and Remote Lab’ (2009) 17(1) Computer Applications in Engineering
Education 108),
- the new generation of VLEs (Jeremy Kemp et al, ‘SLOODLE: Connecting VLE Tools
with Emergent Teaching Practice in Second Life’ (2009) 40(3) British Journal of
Educational Technology 551; David Wong, ‘Reflections on Student-University Interactions
for Next Generation Learning’ (2012) 24(2) Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and
Logistics 328; Marcus McDonald, ‘Multidiscipline Role-Play in a 3D Virtual Learning
Environment: ) and
- their use in different modes of delivery (Teresa Aguado and Beatriz Alvarez, ‘Evaluation
of Virtual Learning Environments and Open and Distance Learning. An Intercultural
Approach’ in Mario Baraias (ed), Virtual Learning Environments in Higher Education: A
European View (McGrawHill, Barcelona 2003); Stefan Hrastinski, ‘Introducing an Informal
Synchronous Medium in a Distance Learning Course: How is Participation Affected?’
(2006) 9(2) The Internet and Higher Education 117.)
The paper builds upon aspects of this literature but also fills a significant (and important) gap in the
current research dealing with the placement of specific items of content within the VLE.
2b. Legal Education for the Invincible Millennials
Patricia Pattison
(Stan Marsh best paper submission)
It is estimated that there are 9.7 million of the “Invincible Millennials” (also known as Generation Y or
the Me Generation) in the United Kingdom. This paper predicts that in fifty years the Invincibles will
have changed not only legal education, but also the adversarial legal system itself. Research
indicates that those who are currently university students see a mismatch between how they want to
learn and how they are actually being taught. The paper will present and discuss the shared
characteristics of typical millennial learners and focus on specific strategies and practices to increase
law student learning.
Law professors must create learning environments for the current generation of college students.
2c. A reflection and comparative study of the development of specific Human Rights in
Scotland and the Czech Republic
Peter F Scott and Veronika Prag
(Stan Marsh best paper submission)
Fifty years ago, Scotland had no Scottish Parliament, a Feudal system of Landholding and still taught
the Law of Master and Servant. By contrast, the then unborn Czech Republic was part of
Czechoslovakia and Property and Employment Law were based on the Soviet Code.
In the intervening 50 years, the Czech Republic achieved independence within Europe and Scotland,
by contrast, narrowly voted against independence.
In Scotland, the feudal nature of land law has been swept away and in the Czech Republic private
landownership of land has replaced state control of land resources. In Scotland, Human Rights are
embedded in The Scotland Act but Employment Law is controlled by a UK Parliament increasingly
resistant to European commitment to such as ECHR. By contrast, the Czech Republic has looked to
Europe for new law establishing workforce rights.
The Law Teachers of 50 years ago equipped their students to deal with what were then inconceivable
legal and societal changes but if the Law Teachers of today are to similarly equip their students they
must surely reflect on the lessons of history.
2d. Old gives way to new: enhancing student employability though the use of innovative
assessment methods
Atkinson-Payne and Egle Dagilyte
According to HEA’s A Marked Improvement guide, research in teaching, learning and assessment
shows that there is a strong rationale for transforming assessment in Higher Education. However,
this document allocates only limited discussion to assessment for employability.
The focus of this workshop is to explore three innovative forms of assessment that have been
introduced to our newly re-validated LLB and LLM degrees at Buckinghamshire New University,
mapping these against Dacre & Pool’s Career Edge Model of Employability. In particular, we will
consider blogging (used in European Union Law), take-home exams (used in Public International Law
and English Legal System), and e-portfolios that are assessed by oral viva (Intellectual Property Law).
These forms will be compared to the traditional forms of assessment: written assignments, unseen
exams and traditional portfolios. The underpinning question we ask is whether these new forms of
assessment are just innovative ways of assessing, or do they actually add to the employability
potential of our students?
The attendees will be invited to consider the above three innovative forms of assessment, as well as
others used in their own course design, and how these could help develop students’ employability
skills.
Potential issues for discussion:
Ø Do the new forms of assessment induce greater student engagement?
Ø What employability competencies are developed via these assessments?
Ø Are there other innovative forms of assessment that could enhance employability?
Ø What staff and student training is required to effectively utilise these assessments?
Ø Do we need to reshape assessment criteria for innovative assessments?
2e. Using MCQs in a first year law module; the next fifty years of assessment
Penny English, Andrew Gilbert and Cailan Morrison
This pilot study provided the opportunity for us to think creatively about how we could address a
number of issues. Firstly, many of our international students, particularly in the first year have written
language skills which lag behind their conceptual grasp of the topics they are learning. Secondly, with
increasing pressures around marking turnaround times and increasing student numbers, we needed
to find ways to reduce the burden on staff.
We therefore started from the basic question: what are we seeking to assess in a first year exam?
Our conclusion was that the traditional exam format of a mix of problem and essay questions was no
st
longer the ideal mechanism, and that we needed to find a 21 century solution.
A survey was undertaken of the existing literature on the use of MCQs in Law. We then piloted MCQs
as part of the summative assessment, comprising 50% of the exam, coupled with an extended
traditional exam question which would meet the module learning outcomes, by enabling a range of
topics to be covered – thus assessing students’ conceptual knowledge and understanding across the
syllabus and also which provides an opportunity for extended analysis and application (a mixed
approach supported in Higgins and Tatham 2003) Overall the exam will demand more thinking and
less writing and encourage quality rather than quantity.
MCQs are often considered to be a soft option in the UK (Scouller 1998), although widely accepted
assessment in the US, and which are capable of testing all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy (Allen 2008).
They have the benefit of swifter marking and feedback (Barnett and McNamara 2012).
The paper discusses the pedagogical value of this approach and describes and reflects on the initial
outcomes from using MCQs in a first-year Constitutional and Administrative Law module.
2f. Getting students to write MCQs as a formative assessment task
Alison Bone and Luke Mason
Fifty years ago there was no such thing as formative assessment on most law degrees and it is still
not as widespread as it should be – although because of retention issues it will now often be available
for first year students. Nowadays formative assessment is another way of engaging students in their
learning and it is predicted it will be available to all students in one form or another within a decade.
Last academic year a pilot study at the University of Brighton was run whereby employment law
students were tasked with writing multiple choice questions on the previous week’s work. Brief
feedback was given on all questions submitted and a select few used in the final summative
examination at the end of the year. This academic year the study has been extended to include
students at the University of Surrey.
This paper explores the theories behind the learning that is encouraged and developed by writing
multiple choice questions and reports back on student reaction to this type of formative assessment.
Useful sources
These address student learning assuming the tutor is writing the questions
Scouller, K. (1998) The influence of assessment method on students’ learning approaches: Multiple
choice question examination versus assignment essay Higher Education 35: 435 – 472
A good collection of online resources can also be accessed at
cll.mcmaster.ca/resources/pdf/MultipleChoice.pdf
Parallel Sessions 3
3a. Law Teachers and Law Books
Graeme Broadbent
Law teaching and law book publishing today are unrecognisable from their counterparts in 1965. The
change has not just been in quantity. While today there are more law schools, more law students and
more books (and now other types of material too) they are also different in character. The Law
Teacher (and its predecessor, the Journal of the Association of Law Teachers) has acted as a
barometer of some of these developments, not least through its book reviews section (now learning
resources reviews, reflecting one of the more significant changes in legal materials). This paper
explores the relationship between law teaching and law books through an examination of the way in
which The Law Teacher has reflected, and reflected on, these changes. There has always been a
strong nexus between materials and law teaching in the reviews published in The Law Teacher. As
book reviews editor for The Law Teacher (1994-2009), as well as having oversight of developments in
legal publishing, I was also in regular contact with the publishers. As a book reviewer who has written
more than 60 reviews for The Law Teacher, I have also charted some of the developments that have
occurred over the last few decades. This paper draws on both my personal journey as a law teacher
and reviews editor and on an analysis of material published in The Law Teacher.
3b. It’s not just a book!: The evolution and impact of the English law textbook
Patricia Leighton
This paper traces the origins and development of law textbooks, exploring their aims, readership,
style and content. It contrasts the professional text with the student text, a distinction that endures to
today. The main focus is on the period following the publication of Blackstone’s Commentaries in late
Eighteenth Century, especially from the 1830s, with the formalisation of professional legal education
coinciding with the emergence of teaching English law in universities. This led to an explosion in law
publishing and the production of student texts, largely then written by ‘law crammers’, followed later in
the century by, arguably, according to Sugarman, the golden age of texts produced by some of the
most famous jurists, such as Dicey, Holdsworth, Anson and Maitland. These aimed to capture the
‘common law mind’ and to present law as a principled and coherent body of law and therefore,
student friendly. Interestingly, this approach was not without its opponents, not least from the legal
profession!
The paper argues that texts, as well as responding to the law and legal developments, have been
influential in setting legal education agendas through their distinctive yet broadly similar approaches,
a matter not only worthy of further investigation but one strongly derived from the student-centred
crammers. The papers draws on a limited but powerful literature, analysis of primary sources,
especially the texts themselves, in a context of two recently presented papers (Hart Workshop, 2014
and SLS Annual Conference, 2014) dealing, respectively with the origins and culture of the law
degree, and the origins of professional law teaching.
3c. The future of legal education: Can flipping the learning enhance the development of
problem solving skills?
Zoe Swan
This session will share the findings and experience of using flipped learning and a SCALE UP style
pedagogy for one term only, to engage a group of 140 law of contract students, with an emphasis on
developing problem solving skills.
Research evidences flipped learning can increase student participation, engagement, help develop
critical thinking and problem solving skills and promote deeper levels of learning. The flipped
approach gives students an opportunity to engage with pre-released study material before attending a
teaching session. Research also suggests the SCALE UP pedagogy improves a students conceptual
understanding, ability to apply law to facts, improved achievement, improved attendance and higher
levels of student satisfaction.
The case study and rationale
Problem solving questions are used as the mode of summative assessment on this first year module.
Results from previous years assessments evidence students find this type of assessment challenging,
particularly in their first year of university. The rationale for piloting this approach was to use the
‘flipped’ session to provide more opportunities for students to develop problem-solving skills and to
increase engagement in the module. Voiced over powerpoints were released weekly in advance,
using Panopto. Panopto is a video platform used for sharing knowledge in various forms, including
interactive screen capture. A variety of devices can be used to watch Panopto including an App and
the software is accompanied by statistics to track engagement. ‘Flipped’ sessions were designed as
an interactive large group, enabling students to work in small groups (albeit in a lecture theatre), using
laptops, ipads, tablets or phones. Activities designed to build on the pre-released knowledge included
MCQ quizzes, short answer questions, problem questions, reading and extracting relevant information
from cases via online databases. Problem scenarios were used at the start of each Panopto, during
the ‘flipped’ session, in seminar sessions and for assessment based on an engaging concept, the G
Festival (similar to the V Festival but called the G Festival as the students study in Greenwich!)
The session will conclude by summarising student perceptions of their experience collated via
questionnaires and a focus group, set against assessment outcomes and comparisons made to the
traditional mode of study in the second term.
3d. Public Law beyond the classroom: exploring opportunities for engagement and interaction
– how can we prepare for the next fifty years of legal education?
Chris Monaghan
This paper explores the different approaches to teaching Public Law and creating opportunities for
student engagement and interaction in the study of Public Law, both within the classroom and beyond
it. It takes as its starting point the future of legal education and seeks to predict how Public Law could
be taught over the next 50 years, with reference to the relative success of the different approaches
currently being experimented with at the University of Greenwich. This paper explores the student
responses to different teaching approaches that include:
• The use of twitter as part of the course;
• The launch of a Public Law in Action project and the involvement of students from across the
faculty in the response to the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee’s report
‘A New Magna Carta?’ and student participation in a conference; and
• The incorporation of practical legal skills into the Public Law course including mock judicial
review applications and the drafting of skeleton arguments.
This paper is based on the Public Law course at the University of Greenwich and the Public Law in
Action project. The rationale for the incorporation of these approaches into the taught curriculum and
the extra-circular project is to explore ways of engaging learners and communicating the relevancy of
the material covered and the scope for practical application within the legal profession. It builds upon
the work undertaken by colleagues in engaging students. Reference will be made to the recent LETR
report and the relatively low ranking of Public Law amongst the professions, compared to the other
QLD subjects. This paper will address the question as to how this perception can be challenged over
the next 50 years?
The methodology which will employed to record student responses to the different approaches will
include asking students on the Public Law course and those involved with Public Law in Action to
record their responses via an anonymous survey, that will measure the effectiveness of each activity
according to its engagement value and relevancy as a tool for learning. The findings of this survey will
be outlined in the paper and it will respond to the student feedback.
3f. Becoming a solicitor : vocational legal education and the emerging professional identities
of female LPC students – learning from the past and looking to the future
Lucy Floyd
Literature on the legal profession suggests solicitors would feel happier in their work if encouraged to
think more about their personal values and how these might fit with their professional identity.
Research suggests that the formation of a female lawyer’s professional identity may be influenced by
the tension between her personal identity and what is expected of her as a lawyer. This identity will
develop and change over time as a result of her experiences, including her education and training but
existing research does not specifically examine the role of the LPC and there is therefore a need for
research in this area.
The paper reports on a longitudinal study (the initial stages of which were reported on at last year’s
conference) to investigate the role of the LPC in the formation of female solicitors’ professional
identities. The study focussed on female students at 4 provider institutions. An initial study was
carried out at one LPC institution (n=9) and the main data collection phase of the project took place
across 3 further LPC institutions where students (n=14) were interviewed as they began their LPC
and again as they finished the course.
At a time when significant changes to the vocational legal education process are anticipated the study
draws on concepts of professional identity, gender and legal education with a view to informing a
discussion on whether changes might be made to the vocational stage in order to encourage female
students to be aware of and consider their professional identities. It may be possible to make changes
now which will shape the development of vocational legal education over the next 50 years.
ASSOCIATION OF LAW TEACHERS
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2015
ANNUAL CONFERENCE, CARDIFF/CAERDYDD
AGENDA
1) Consider and, if thought fit, approve the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on held
on 15 April 2014 at the Queens Hotel, Leeds, at the 2014 Annual Conference.
2) To discuss matters arising from the Minutes.
3) To receive the Committee Report for the year 2014-2015.
4) To receive the Honorary Treasurer's Report.
5) To receive the Membership Secretary's Report.
6) To appoint the Auditors for the ensuing year.
7) To elect a Vice-Chair, Honorary Secretary, and Honorary Treasurer for the ensuing year.
8) To elect members to vacancies on the Committee.
9) Any Other Business.
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Monday 14 April 2014 at the Queens Hotel, Leeds
Present: Chair (Rebecca Huxley-Binns), Committee members and ordinary members, totalling 34
Apologies: none given
th
1. The Minutes of the previous AGM held at Nottingham Trent University on 25 March 2013 were
approved.
2. Matters arising: nil
3. The Committee Report 2013-14 was approved.
4. The Hon. Treasurer spoke to the accounts. £41,310 on deposit but not getting much interest and
£35,370 in the current account (but will be reduced by expenditure on this Conference); there is
£18,000 invested in the Stan Marsh Fund, which is invested in a bond which matures next year: this
will then be £20,000. The books have gone to the auditor. Some will be spent on the coming survey
of law schools. Money is also expended on LERN.
5. The Membership Secretary spoke to the number of members, including payments and the
number of joiners and leavers (retirees, left academia, and one has died). Social media is bringing in
members. The database continues to improve. It was suggested that some money should be spent on
marketing: any ideas to Jess Guth/Becky Huxley-Binns.
6. Andrew Seed was reappointed as auditor.
7. Election of officers
(i) The Chair confirmed that she would continue for a second year, as the Constitution
permits.
(ii) Vice-Chair: Chris Ashford was nominated, seconded, re-approved without an election.
(iii) Hon. Treasurer: Chris Gale was similarly re-elected.
(iv) Hon. Secretary: Michael Jefferson was also similarly re-elected.
Richard Owen is the immediate past Chair.
8. Membership of the Committee:
Committee (three years): Nigel Duncan, Amanda Fancourt, Robert Hiscocks, Chris Maguire, Rachel
Wood (one third retire at each AGM)
Co-opted: Ali Bone, Jo Boylan-Kemp, Lynn Cherrill-Teesdale, Jess Guth, John Hodgson, Caroline
Strevens (able to co-opt up to 7 at each AGM; all retire at the next AGM)
9. Conference feedback ‘very good Conference’, ‘nice venue’, ‘fabulous meal’, should there be a PG
rate? Stan Marsh travel bursary has for the first time been given to a PG student, feedback forms
were in the pack.
Next Conference: Cardiff
Michael Jefferson, 17 April 2014
NOMINATION
FORM
FOR
THE
TREASURER/COMMITTEE MEMBER
ELECTION
OF
VICE-CHAIR/SECRETARY/
We, the undersigned Members of the Association of Law Teachers, hereby nominate:
(Name of nominee): ____________________________________________________
University/College or other address: _____________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________Postcode:______________
for the election of VICE-CHAIR/SECRETARY/ TREASURER/COMMITTEE MEMBER (delete as
appropriate)
of the Association for the year 2015-2016.
Date:
Signature
(proposer)
Name in block capitals:
University/College:
Date:
Signature
(seconder)
Name in block capitals:
University/College:
I agree to stand for election as VICE-CHAIR/SECRETARY/TREASURER/COMMITTEE MEMBER
(delete as appropriate) of the Association of Law Teachers and, if elected, to serve in that
office.
Date:
Signature
Michael Jefferson, Hon. Sec. to the Association
School of Law, University of Sheffield, Bartolome House, Winter St, Sheffield S3 7ND, UK
M.Jefferson@Sheffield.ac.uk
4 Feb. 2015
Parallel Sessions 4
4a. Memory and Forgetting : What should legal education take from the past and into the
future ?
Graham Ferris
Legal education and professional socialisation is concerned with the reproduction of communities of
practice (Lave, Lave and Wenger, and Wenger). Communities are in part constituted and entertained
through tales of heroes and villains. Who is remembered, and how they are remembered, is an
important element in reproduction of communities (Cownie, Lacey, Leighton, Rundle). If law is a chain
novel, then the central characters include those individuals whose stories and careers we remember,
retell, and teach (Dworkin).
Lawyers who have lived lives of moral courage should be remembered, and their stories should be
told: because this is a feasible way to facilitate self-conscious ethically informed character change in
law students. Ethical conduct is said to require four component elements (sensitivity, reasoning,
motivation, and efficacy: Rest & Narvaez). The third component of ethical action, motivation, is the
product of the third apprenticeship, the apprenticeship concerned with identity, that the Carnegie
Report argued had central importance for legal education (Sullivan et al, Ferris).
Teaching about, discussing, and reflecting in class upon lives of moral courage can encourage law
students to reflect upon and internalise, ethical principles and the desire to act ethically (Colby and
Damon, Coles). This paper argues that the lives and careers of Clifford and Virginia Durr provide an
excellent opportunity for legal education (Brown, Colby and Damon, Durr, Salmond).
The paper explains why the Durr’s are fitting as the subject matter of legal education, and argues for
inclusion of their story, and the stories of other morally committed lawyers, on the legal curriculum.
Those we honour in our educational practice will inform the choices of the next generation of legal
professionals. Our students should be given the opportunity to reflect upon those who have “spoken
truth to power” and upheld ethical standards through a meaningful professional life.
4b. Law as certainty: what future for intuitive learning and question-based teaching?
Stefano Barazza
In an era of legal complexity, where new social phenomena, comprehensive regulations, and multiple
layers of national and supra-national laws interact at an unprecedented pace, legal education has
been charged with the difficult task of untangling the complexity, without indulging in oversimplification. Students frequently struggle to deal with such complexity and may feel lost, puzzled, or
even overwhelmed, by it. They demand clear answers on how to identify the applicable law, how to
interpret it, and how to solve legal cases; they seek refuge in law as certainty. Legal education has
significantly evolved to address such demands, taking responsibility for the daunting task of reducing
legal complexity to its lowest terms.
While this approach may be reasonably effective in addressing the students’ insecurity, it implicitly
suggests the shelving of other traditional teaching methods, especially those based on poietic
intuition, creativity, and theorisation. As intuition and questions are commonly seen as instruments of
uncertainty, we may wonder whether there will still be a role for intuitive learning and question-based
teaching in the next fifty years. Will we witness the rise of a ‘tyranny of answers’? Will certainty
become the focus of legal education? Will legal education itself become an entirely exogenous
process?
While students may be tempted by a positive answer, we should not. Intuitive learning and questionbased teaching promote understanding, which is the best antidote to complexity. Understanding, in
turn, allows students (and teachers) to identify appropriate solution for legal cases, to predict sociolegal developments, and to influence the evolution of the law; in other words, it transforms uncertainty
into a vital creative power. This will be one of the fundamental challenges for legal education in the
next fifty years: recognising and protecting uncertainty and complexity as fundamental characteristics
of the law and invaluable teaching tools.
4c. Legal Educators in the next 50 years: Pedagogic excellence and academic identity
Chlöe Wallace
In October 2014, “What makes Great Teaching”: a literature review commissioned by the Sutton Trust
hit the headlines. Whilst the aspect of the review that attracted attention was a section calling into
question certain alleged ‘received wisdoms’ in pedagogical practice, more interesting is the general
framework for teaching quality which was suggested, where the focus was on behaviour, environment
and attitudes, rather than specific techniques and theories. This review largely reflected school level
learning and teaching; in this paper I would like to draw on this framework and apply it to the question
of the role of the legal educator in the university and, in particular, the research/teaching nexus.
The traditional legal academic career reflects a notion of scholarship as an overarching activity which
covers both teaching and research, and an assumption that the skill sets required for both teaching
and research are similar. “What Makes Great Teaching” supports this view in so far as it suggests that
content knowledge is fundamental to effective teaching. However, it also suggests that a strong factor
in effective teaching is the theories of learning that teachers’ have and the professional reflective
practice that they engage in. The common assumption that good researchers/scholars, as long as
they are good communicators, will be good teachers may thus be problematic. In this paper I intend to
provoke a discussion as to the extent to which the traditional role of the academic will be sustainable
in the next 50 years of legal education. I will consider the impact of an academic environment where
the types of legal research that are valued are narrowing, as well as the future relationship between
legal education in professional training, and question whether the tradition model of the legal
academic is sustainable.
4d. Learning from the Changes in Legal Education since 1965
Lars Mosesson
It was a different world in 1965, which is when I began my LLB. I began teaching (Roman Law to
first-year LLB-students) in 1968. Since then, I have been involved in a dozen different Law Schools,
as a student, teacher, manager and external examiner. Other participants will have their varied
experiences from these years.
We cannot see far into the future, but we can identify what we have learned (or should have learned)
from the past that can guide us into the coming years. I propose participants share our experiences
of Legal Education over any parts of the last fifty years, to see how they compare with each other’s.
We will identify the successes and mistakes of this time. In the light of this, we will explore how we
think the experience of the Law students has changed since 1965, as society, the range of students,
and attitudes in and outside Legal Education have changed. Does the system today provide a better
Legal Education? If so, in what ways? Do we know now what Legal Education is for? If there is no
such thing as society, can Legal Education be seen as a public good? What is the place of education
in a system given over to market forces? In the process of privatisation, much money is to be made
by providing courses in Law; but is the system designed to provide education for the individual
students (or merely training), or to benefit the law schools or legal practitioners, or to benefit the
community? In light of the past fifty years, where should we aim to take Legal Education in the
future, if we still believe in it?
4e. Education for Sustainable Development: The next 50 years of legal education
Jessica Guth and Katherine Self
This paper considers education for sustainable development in the context of legal education in
England/Wales. It begins by setting out the problems with our current understanding of sustainable
development as linked to market economies and financial growth. It tries to reclaim the concept by
acknowledging that there are other, we would say more meaningful measures of development which
bring us closer to the ideals of social justice and move us away from the concept of sustainable
development as ‘greenwashing’. Next the paper considers the role of law in perpetuating the myth of
sustainable development and in doing very little to address serious environmental and social
concerns. Finally the paper draws these issues together by considering how (legal) education can and
must help shape understanding of sustainable development to allow a future generation of graduates
to understand, challenge and change current frameworks in order to move towards a genuinely
sustainable way of life across the globe.
4f. Advancing towards a future vision of social justice within clinical legal education
Victoria Murray
“Now is the time to advance the social justice agenda and to bring the topic more directly into our
classrooms and students’ lives.”
John O Calmore (2004)
Clinical legal education has arguably become a growing trend in UK law schools. However, the
primary focus of this clinical activity appears to be educational value, rather than promoting social
justice. With the recession plunging more of the population into poverty and decreased access to
Legal Aid post LAPSO (Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012), this paper
make a case for a vision which advances a post-recession social justice agenda and framework for
the future.
Drawing on the author’s own the clinical experience, the LawWorks Law School Pro Bono and Clinic
Report (2014) and the works of leading social justice commentators including Aiken (2013) and
Wizner (2012) this paper will argue for more sophisticated and dynamic clinical models to further the
social justice mission. It will address pedagogies and frameworks for the advancement of social
justice, highlighting barriers and solutions to better support marginalised and underrepresented clients
and communities. It will articulate why social justice must be repositioned at the forefront of clinical
activities, particularly in the current economic climate. This paper will encourage delegates to
(re)consider reprioritisation of social justice and how to establish/implement supporting frameworks.
4g. Legal education: Lessons from Africa
Nick Johnson
The average law teacher’s idea of an international perspective is either Europe or the white
Commonwealth. Africa is seen as a passive recipient of development aid including capacity building
in the legal and justice systems. African legal institutions are often regarded, sometimes rightly, as
weak or fragile. This paper will broaden the international and comparative legal perspective by looking
at four examples of change in Africa which have global legal importance. Emphasis will be placed on
the impact for law teaching and law teachers. The four are:
• The role of the Constitutional Court in the new South Africa.
•
The reconstruction of the internal justice system in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide.
• The interaction of Common Law, Civil Law and Indigenous Law in African systems.
• The impact of the Rwandan genocide on international justice
4h. Teaching Large Classes in the Law School: Lessons and Challenges from the Nigerian Law
School
Olanrewaju A. Onadeko and collegues
The Nigerian Law School is the largest law school in Africa. It started the training of lawyers in 1963.
Annual enrollment in the school currently averages 5000. Students of the Nigerian Law School are
graduates of the law faculties of Nigerian universities and universities in other jurisdictions.
Attendance at the Nigerian Law School for Bar vocational training is a mandatory requirement for
qualification to practice as a barrister and solicitor in the legal profession. The school runs a multi
campus arrangement training students in subjects on the practice of law. The smallest class has
about 300 students, with the largest having about 1500 students. Whilst there are arguments against
teaching law in large classes, the experiences and lessons from the Nigerian Law School
demonstrate how the institution has adapted successfully. Some of these include uniformity in the
instructions received by students; and it is also cost effective. In highlighting some challenges, the
advantages of the Nigerian arrangement will demonstrate peculiarities that should be of interest to
experiences in other jurisdictions.
Parallel Sessions 5
5a. From rote to realism: The role of clinical legal education in providing best practice in
assessment and feedback
Carol Boothby and Elaine Campbell
One of the most significant changes in legal education during the last 50 years has been the increase
in experiential learning and, in particular, clinic as a vehicle for educating lawyers. Many of these
clinical programs are assessed. Can clinic provide a panacea for student criticism of assessment and
feedback?
For the second year running students have said that assessment and feedback is the poorest part of
their academic experience. Only 72% of the 321,000 final year undergraduates who responded to this
year’s National Student Survey were satisfied with this aspect of their course. Given this, it is not
surprising that an increasing number of institutions are looking to embed principles of good
assessment and feedback practice into curriculum design, such as:
• encouraging ‘time and effort’ on challenging and authentic learning tasks;
• ensuring formative assessment opportunities; and
• facilitating the development of self-assessment, reflection in learning and autonomy.
This paper will argue that clinical teaching provides the perfect environment for this type of good
practice, as well as allowing for personal development and reflection. There are, of course, challenges
associated with this method of delivery. However, looking to the future, if we wish to improve student
satisfaction with assessment and feedback then incorporating experiential learning into the curriculum
is an obvious solution.
5b. ‘That’s entertainment folks!’ Legal education for the masses
Hugo de Rijke
This paper examines cultural and pedagogical shifts in legal education and explores the concept of
educational entertainment in relation to law and popular culture, against a backdrop of growth in
student numbers and new expectations since the introduction of student fees.
Educational entertainment has existed for millennia in various forms, from early parables and fables to
the use of new technologies in mass media such as films, radio, television, animation, YouTube
videos, online games and mobile apps. The term ‘edutainment’ is used as a portmanteau to describe
any presentation, performance or game with education in mind, or that has secondary or incidental
educational value. Whereas the ‘fun factor’ of entertainment has traditionally been associated with
leisure pursuits, this aspect is now often used as an engagement tool in order to teach concepts and
skills, increase interaction, enhance cognitive performance and facilitate social change. (See for
example Singhal, A. et al (eds), Entertainment-Education and Social Change (2003, Routledge);
Moyer-Gusé, E. (2008), ‘Toward a theory of entertainment persuasion: explaining the persuasive
effects of entertainment-education messages’, (2008) 18 Communication Theory pp.407–425.)
This paper will focus upon the use of popular culture to teach law, with particular reference to film and
literature. As much of the legal academy is inclined toward orthodoxy, the use of popular culture is still
regarded by some as superficial or ‘low-brow’ and lacking in serious content. Compelling reasons
against this viewpoint will be presented with reference to society’s perception of law and its
representation, the impact of popular culture upon law and vice versa, and the use of popular culture
as an invaluable pedagogical tool. (See for example Ward, I., Law and Literature: Possibilities and
Perspectives, (1995, Cambridge University Press); Freeman, M., ed. Law and Popular Culture, (2005,
Oxford University Press); Greenfield, S. et al, Film and the Law, (2010, Hart Publishing); Pawlowski,
M. and Greer, S., ‘Film and literature in the legal classroom’, (2009) 43 The Law Teacher pp.49-61).
Furthermore, when dealing with increased student numbers and widening participation, it is argued
that entertainment provides an excellent opportunity to hold the attention of larger groups. Finally, and
perhaps more controversially, it is suggested that in the current era law students expect to be
entertained, are paying for this privilege, and are ultimately more ‘satisfied’ for NSS purposes if they
are entertained in the right ways.
5c. Advocacy 20 years on from Hempel: A critique of behaviourist learning theory from a
constructivist standpoint
Gemma Davies
Advocacy as a discrete subject in law only really emerged from the mid-seventies starting with the
work of Irving Younger. The consistent leading countries in this field have been the US and Australia
with the UK following behind. In the US the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) is an
organisation dedicated to enhancing the skills of practicing lawyers. Virtually every American law
school has adopted the NITA method although it was originally developed as part of a continuing
professional development programme. In 1990 Northwestern University held a conference entitled
“Teaching Trial Advocacy in the 90s and Beyond: A Critical Evaluation of Trial Advocacy Teaching
Methodologies and Design for the Future”. Subsequent to this conference a number of academics
joined the debate (Allen, Lubet, Imwinkelried, Hyman, Lyndsman, Saks, Ordover) but there is very
st
little 21 century academic debate.
The Advocacy Training Council overseas the training of advocates in England and Wales and chose
to follow the structured method developed by George Hampel more than twenty years ago. When
using this method the advocacy teacher having observed the trainee’s performance will follow the sixstep method:
Headline:
Identifying one particular aspect of the performance to be addressed.
Playback:
Reproducing verbatim that identified aspect of the performance.
Reason:
Explaining why this issue needs to be addressed.
Remedy:
Explaining how to improve this aspect of the performance.
Demo:
Demonstrating how to apply the remedy to the specific problem.
Replay:
The pupil performs again, applying the remedy.
This paper seeks to look at what has happened to advocacy training since the mid-1990s and to
critique the current method of teaching advocacy at postgraduate level. The paper seeks to question
the behaviourist learning theory that underpins the Hampel method from a constructivist standpoint
and asks the question whether it is time to revisit advocacy training.
st
5d. The importance of teaching dispute resolution in a 21 century law school
Ben Waters
Civil justice reviews over the past 20 years have encouraged the use of alternative dispute resolution
(ADR) and particularly mediation. Mediation in particular is arguably now becoming more mainstream
in terms of dispute resolution process choice. In some instances law changes have been introduced
requiring parties in dispute to consider using mediation; similarly, lawyers have an ethical
responsibility to provide advice to clients about the range of dispute resolution processes available.
What is lacking however is a corresponding appreciation of the changing attitudes to dispute
resolution in the majority of UK Law Schools, where the promotion of adversarialism appears to
remain the focus as the primary and only method of dispute resolution. This paper will argue that this
is unreflective of current attitudes and thinking towards dispute resolution in most common law
countries, where litigation is no longer the primary dispute resolution process of choice. Whilst there
was token appreciation of the importance of mediation advocacy and inclusion of this within the BPTC
recommended, the LETR was silent on any suggestions about the inclusion of dispute resolution
based curriculum content at any stage of legal education in England and Wales. This paper will
explore the historical development of lawyers’ attitudes to dispute resolution within the civil justice
arena and academics’ teaching of it in UK Law Schools. The paper will pose questions on why recent
legal history suggests that Law Schools should now perhaps think differently about their curriculum
content and embrace the teaching of dispute resolution as a defined subject area for the 21st century.
5e. Report on the first two years of a three-year cohort study on the career intentions of
students studying on QLDs in England and Wales
Melissa Hardee, Hardee Consulting
I have been conducting a three-year cohort study since academic year 2012/2013 into the career
intentions of law degree students. This follows an earlier project I undertook for the UKCLE, on which
I reported at the 2012 ALT Conference. The Cohort study aims at improving understanding of the
reasons students choose to study on a Qualifying Law Degree; what their career intentions are when
they enrol on the QLD; whether those reasons change while they are studying; and what the factors
and influences are which affect those decisions. I commenced the cohort study with students in their
first year of law in academic year 2012/2013, with the intention of tracking those students over the
following three academic years of their degree.
Whereas the UKCLE study provided a ‘snapshot’ of student intentions and perceptions, the Cohort
study is providing more of a ‘video’ of changing student awareness and intentions of career-related
matters, and an understanding of the pressure points, factors and influences which contribute to
changes in career intentions. I have now completed the first two years of the Study, funded by the
HEA, and have obtained funding through a LERN Small Grant to assist me in completing the third
year of the Study since the HEA has lost its funding.
What was remarkable with the first year of the Study was the similarity with the results of the UKCLE
study, notwithstanding different samples having been used. I have now completed and written up the
report for the first two years of the Study, which is being published by the HEA, and which I would like
to present at the ALT Conference in 2015.
The research provides information on matters that are important for universities, prospective
employers, regulators and those who advise students on careers alike to understand.
The reports of the UKCLE study and the comparison of the results of the UKCLE study with the
results of the first year of the Cohort study can be found at:
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/disciplines/law/Hardee_InterimReport_2014FINAL
5f. Towards a Feminist Pedagogy of Clinical Legal Education: Challenges and the Possibilities
of Transformative Learning
Jhuma Sen
Clinical Legal Education (CLE) started developing as a concept of prescriptive learning since the mid90s and now is identified as an inseparable part of legal education across the globe attempting to
bridge the gap between theory and practice. While CLE may be specialized with a specific focus on
target areas of law practice (Social Justice Clinic, Domestic Violence Clinic for example) or target
groups which shall benefit (Child Rights Clinic for example) with certain layers of overlap between the
two; or generic, with the objective of teaching law students regular drafting and developing their skills,
the challenge is to shift classroom thinking in new directions of critical pedagogy. Before identifying
the challenges of such a project, one must attempt to understand what ‘feminist pedagogy’ is. Who
employs ‘feminist pedagogy’? When is it employed? What are the challenges of employing such
transformative tools? In the context of CLE, which is limited by its own constraints like the problems of
isolation, staffing problems and problems of resources, how does one integrate feminist learning into
simulated classroom teaching? These are some of the questions the paper shall reflect, address and
engage with, drawing from experiences, both primary and secondary, in the global south.
5g. External Examiners in Law– paper and audience discussion
Vera Bermingham, John Hodgson, Graeme Broadbent and Mike Cuthbert
The UK system of higher education has external examiners as one of the mechanisms for ensuring
that students achieve certain levels of attainment at an appropriate level. When the ALT was
established 50 years ago responsibility for ensuring comparability of degree standards between
different polytechnics was vested in the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA).
The CNAA is no more and there are many more institutions with ‘degree awarding powers’ but the
Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) still sees the external examiner as central to maintaining public
1
confidence in academic standards. The latest code published by the QAA states that:
governments have shown in the external examiner system as a means of upholding standards.
Equally, the system has been subjected to criticism for a lack of robustness in carrying out this task.
2
Papers at previous ALT conferences and articles in the Law Teacher have continued this discussion
as it relates to external examining in law.
This paper continues that dialogue by subjecting the external examiner system to critical scrutiny in
the modern delivery system of higher education by briefly reviewing the historical development of the
role of external examiners and seeks to review some key questions:
• Who are the external examiners?
• How are they inducted or trained?
• How are they selected
. The effectiveness of the system will be examined by asking:
• Why have external examiners?
• What is their role and how effective are they?
• Is there an effective guarantee of standards?
• What are the alternatives?
The strengths and weaknesses will be identified, locating this particularly in the literature surrounding
assessment and quality (e.g .Warren Piper 1994; Wisker 1997; Morley 2003; Brown 2004; Hannan
and Silver 2006). This paper forms part of a wider ongoing project on external examiners in law,
which builds on work previously undertaken by Mike Cuthbert for LERN (2003, 2003a) on the
development of the external examiner system and by Vera Bermingham and Graeme Broadbent
(2004) on limitations of the current system. The on-going research has been approved by Kingston
University with the formal title of ‘Quality Assurance and Assessment: the role of External Examiners
in Law’ (2014).
Parallel Sessions 6
6a. Travelling through time and space: Comparing last generation and next generation law
schools: A case study of legal education in Nigeria
Omoyemen Lucia Odigie Emmanuel
Legal education in Nigeria has undergone radical changes since its inception. In its history lies the
strength and direction for the future. The development of legal education in Nigeria has moved from
an era of admitting Articles, to an era of temporarily admittance of persons thought to be fit, then to
the era of admitting those who qualified as barristers or solicitors in Britain even though at that time
attending dinners was more important to attending lectures and today to the era of compulsory
university training and vocational training at law schools before being called to the Bar because of the
deficiencies of an English trained lawyer practicing in Nigeria.
1
UK Quality Code for Higher Education: Part B: Assuring and enhancing academic quality; Chapter B7: External examining, p2 (2011) 2
See most recently (2013) 47 Law Teach 423-­‐429 Embedded in its long history are other notable changes like improvements in the number of female
students enrolled in law programmes in the world when compared to the situation of 1899 when
Harvard Law School rejected a female applicant because according to Christopher Columbus
Langdell, then HLS Law Professor ‘law was entirely unfit for the feminine mind’ and developments in
legal education methodology culminating in the adoption of clinical legal education.
Using interactive methods of delivery to stimulate discussion, the proposed session and paper will
highlight developments in legal education in Nigeria, comparing landmark changes in legal education
and analyzing the effect of Linkages on legal pedagogy while also stirring predictions for the future
development of legal education with a projection for next generation law schools.
6b. 50 years of Legal Education in Nigeria: Historical Perspective
Ifidon Oyakhiromen
Legal education, in its present form was introduced into Nigeria in 1861. Some of the legal
practitioners trained at the time, In the United Kingdom. Others had no legal education but were
granted the license to practice. The Legal Practitioners were wholly male. At Independence, the
government embarked on policies that sought to empower its citizens to acquire appropriate skills,
abilities and competences both mental and physical relevant to individual aspiration to live in and
contribute to national building. Accordingly the Nigerian development plans focused on a just and
egalitarian society, where there should be no form of discrimination but equal opportunity and
accessibility to education, legal education not exempted. To that end the Legal Education Act, 1962
was enacted to institutionalize, legal education of persons seeking to be members of the legal
profession in Nigeria. Using a historical and analytical method, this paper seeks to x-ray the
development of legal education in Nigeria, its accessibility, basic content, and method of delivery,
admissions and other components of legal education. It also examines the question of quality
assurance in legal education in the face of high enrolment into the profession, now being offered in
both traditional and open and distant learning, which has acquired a vital force in modern Nigeria, and
in federal, state, private and Nigerian based foreign universities. In the process, the paper addresses
the impact of globalisation, trans-nationalisation and Information Communication Technology (ICT)
network system on legal education in Nigeria.
6c. Predictions, perceptions and premonitions of law students about commercial law practice
and work-life balance compared and contrasted with reflections, recollections (and some
regrets) of early career commercial lawyers
Alexandra Johnstone and Barry Yau
Our research project explores and analyses the attitudes of LLB/JD students, professional legal
training students, and early career commercial lawyers, towards the study and practice of commercial
law. Our focus groups and individual interviews with students explore what shapes their attitudes,
and the effect and influence these attitudes have on legal career options both actual and
predicted. Our research project also considers early career commercial lawyers’ reflections of their
commercial law study as students, the effect this had shaping commercial law attitudes, and the
influence this had on their career.
Our preliminary results show that despite some students having negative attitudes towards the study
and practice of commercial law, especially in large-tier firms, many still maintain respect for
commercial law, even aiming to practice commercial law. Work-life balance themes emerged –
especially concerns about the pressure of billable hours – as influencing students’ career and family
expectations. Official Australian statistics charting the number of lawyers over a nearly 50 year period
provide a telling insight into the family expectations of law students by gender, and provide clues to
predicting how work-life balance will influence law careers for the next 50 years.
Client and community relationship building and business development activities also emerged as
significant influences of commercial lawyers’ attitudes, their perceptions of the legal profession and
the role of lawyers in society generally.
The comparison and contrast of law students’ predictions and perceptions of commercial law careers,
and the reflections, recollections and even regrets of early career commercial lawyers, provide
invaluable insight into perceptions and realities of commercial law careers. The challenge for
professional legal education teachers is to provide a genuine commercial law learning experience
which of itself can serve to better shape the impressions and attitudes of current and future
generations of law students towards a potential commercial law career.
6d. Professional judgement: The future of the legal profession
Fiona Westwood
Like all professional groups, lawyers’ claims to status and reward are based upon their access to an
exclusive body of knowledge and practice gained through formal education and training. In a world
where formerly privileged information is now widely and freely accessible, the legal profession’s
continued claim to special status ultimately rests upon its ability to mediate such information in ways
which best suit the interests of its client. To contextualise the application of law in this way requires
the exercise of professional judgement which is therefore central to its continuation of a distinct and
recognisable profession. Recent regulatory changes in the UK in relation to permitted business
structures may undermine the traditional mechanisms by which lawyers developed their judgement.
In addition, marketplace trends such as increasing complexity of legal interactions resulting from a
global economy and the use of information technology to commoditise routine legal work require a
different response to and an adjustment of the current roles and future education of lawyers.
This session will present and discuss the findings of recently completed qualitative research into the
effectiveness of the pre-admission training processes employed in selected law firms in Scotland,
England and Wales in relation to the development of professional judgement of trainees, with
comparisons made with other jurisdictions and professions. These findings affirm the importance of
experiential learning and ‘communities of practice’ and describe the process of exercising
professional legal judgment and its constituent skills. Recognition of the importance of this context
helps law teachers enable their students to develop their ability to exercise it.
6e. Predictions; the next 50 years of technology in legal learning
Anita John
Short description of the topic: I will argue how pedagogical reforms such as the use of technology
in legal education will help students to be prepared for modern legal practice.
Argument of the paper: Technology has and will continue to be a catalyst on how legal education is
taught. By incorporating technology into legal education, this will better equip students for the legal
profession of the future.
The intended outcomes:
• Rise of technology is evident in practice of law (online research, electronic discovery, online
transactions, electronic contracts)
• Analysis of whether traditional curriculum allows students to be e-commerce or e-business
minded as they enter in the legal profession
• Adoption of technology in legal education such as online courses, specialized topics such as
internet law, student response system (clickers), computer-based mind mapping applications
which parallel how clients communicate and the direction where legal profession is heading.
Summary of the research:
David C. Vladeck argues in his chapter, Law School 2.0: Course books in the Digital Age in the text,
Legal Education in the Digital Age that the traditional legal curriculum, fails to prepare students for
modern legal practice. He argues that there is a “serendipitous convergence” between the need to
update the curriculum and the advent of digital materials. Vladeck argues that the curricular effects of
this inevitable digitalization will greatly improve legal education’s ability to prepare students for the
practice of law.
Geoffry, Christopher Rapp, Can You Show Me How To…? Reflections of a new Law Professor and
Part-Time Technology Consultant on the Role of New law Teachers as Catalysts for Change 58 J.
Legal Educ. 61 (2008).
6f. Evaluating the use of on-line systems in the development of IT-enabled student research
and research-related skills
Keith Puttick, Judith Tillson, Chris Harrison and Alison Pope
In Tomorrow’s Lawyers Richard Susskind paints a picture of a legal services industry busily
undergoing transformation, not least as a result of the impact of technology on the way services are
delivered (Tomorrow’s Lawyers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Part 2 is particularly relevant
to our paper as it is concerned with how lawyers and other entrants to a fast-changing legal services
market have to adapt and work differently). Lawyerly skills and tasks are now supported by
increasingly sophisticated on-line systems that facilitate high-quality legal research, drafting, and
document production (Lexis Library, Westlaw, PLC On-Line, and Jordans Family On-line are among
the systems we are looking at). In contentious legal work dispute resolution processes, too, are
increasingly ‘IT-enabled’.
How should law teachers, learning facilitators, and information specialists respond to this, and assist
our students to be ‘work ready’?
Our three year Research Informed Teaching project has been evaluating the use of on-line systems,
and the support they provide in developing the research and research-related skills of Law students.
Assisted by the interim results of this year’s research, we will argue that the focus should be on the
design and development of opportunities to utilize and deploy those skills, coupled with formative and
formal assessment of students’ work, including usage of on-line systems. Introductory training and
tracking of systems’ usage has been assisted by Lexis Nexis and other partners.
Going forward, in the workshop/small group activity of the future students will have use of computer
devices with phenomenal interactive content and facilities. This will add greatly to the quality and
depth of the learning experience, enabling participants to ‘flip the classroom’ (Broadly, the expectation
is that information, knowledge, and concept acquisition will form part of wider-ranging, IT enabled
learning processes available to participants and the lecturer/teacher; Anthony Cody (2014) Living in
Dialogue – The Classroom of the Future: Student Centred or Device Centred? NPE News: The
Network for Public Education). The project team, and other lecturers involved in the project, already
use some of the elements of this model, for example in pre-session directed tasks, research, and
other activities supported by web-based systems (and when accessing ‘rich content’ and utilising
deep links to sources). Reflective tasks are currently supported, in the main, by Blackboard tools like
journals, blogs, and wikis.