1st Edition

Legal Education Simulation in Theory and Practice

Edited By Caroline Strevens, Richard Grimes, Edward Phillips Copyright 2014
    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    The importance of simulation in education, specifically in legal subjects, is here discussed and explored within this innovative collection. Demonstrating how simulation can be constructed and developed for learning, teaching and assessment, the text argues that simulation is a pedagogically valuable and practical tool in teaching the modern law curriculum. With contributions from law teachers within the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa and the USA, the authors draw on their experiences in teaching law in the areas of clinical legal education, legal process, evidence, criminal law, family law and employment law as well as teaching law to non-law students. They claim that simulation, as a form of experiential and problem-based learning, enables students to integrate the ’classroom’ experience with the real world experiences they will encounter in their professional lives. This book will be of relevance not only to law teachers but university teachers generally, as well as those interested in legal education and the theory of law.

    List of Figures and Tables, Notes on Contributors, Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgments, Introduction, 1 Simulation and Technology in Legal Education: A Systematic Review, 2 Simulation and the Learning of the Law: Constructing and Using an Online Transactional Assessment in Employment Law, 3 Shaping the Future Lawyer: Connecting Students with Clients in First-Year Law, 4 Setting the Stage: Using a Simulation as a First Day of Class Exercise, 5 A Large-Scale Simulation, Practitioners, their Feelings and the Verfremdungseffekt, 6 Using Interviewing and Negotiation to Further Critical Understanding of Family and Child Law, 7 Virtual Learning for the Real World: Using Simulation with Non-law Students, 8 Faking it and Making it? Using Simulation with Problem-Based Learning, 9 From Trials to Simulations: Learning and Teaching Law and Ethics Using Famous Cases, 10 Revisiting the Law of Evidence: A Case Study on the Practicalities of Simulation-Based Learning and Teaching, 11 Adding Realism to Professional Legal Education at the University of Hong Kong, 12 ‘Ill-Structured’ Simulations in Two American Law Classes: Labour Law and Administrative Law, Postscript, Index

    Biography

    Caroline Strevens is Principal Lecturer and Head of The School of Law, University of Portsmouth. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and also has considerable experience as a practising solicitor. She has developed innovative units for the degree pathways, and is a keen advocate of learning from experience. She is a regular commentator on issues relating to legal education, developments in the legal services market and in particular in the use of technology and simulation. Richard Grimes is Director of Clinical Programmes at York Law School, University of York. As a former Professor of Legal Education and, in a previous life, a partner in a law firm he remains committed to learning by doing and to improving access to justice. He has also worked as an independent consultant on a variety of legal education projects in the UK and further afield including Afghanistan, Iran and Nigeria. He has published widely on clinical legal education issues and in the legal skills field. Edward Phillips is Principal Lecturer in Law at the University of Greenwich. As well as lecturing in law, the author has been a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Malaya. He regularly presents and has published widely on aspects of legal education and the use of simulations. He is also on the Editorial Board of COMPASS: The Journal of Learning and Teaching.

    'Simulation has a vital role to play in scaffolding the learning of law students but can only achieve its potential when it is well designed and effectively targeted as part of an integrated legal education. This book brings together leading legal educators from various parts of the English-speaking world and will advance our collective understanding of the contribution that simulation can make to preparing future lawyers, legal educators and scholars.' Jeff Giddings, Griffith University, Australia ’Practical guidance and a sound theoretical basis for anyone considering introducing simulation to develop students’ learning of the law. The authors’ wealth of experience provides examples in many substantive areas, using different techniques and with different pedagogic goals. This helps you understand how to deepen your students’ academic learning and their development as people.’ Nigel Duncan, City Law School, UK ’The use of simulation in legal education is gaining in importance and acceptance. Good simulation-based instruction not only grounds legal learning in the actualities of practice, but it also helps students to connect the practical with the theoretical to create the best kind of integrated understanding. With contributions from a number of international experts, this book is an invaluable tool for those looking to design the next generation of legal pedagogy.’ Oliver Goodenough, Vermont Law School, USA