Nelson, J --- "In This Issue" [2006] LegEdDig 18; (2006) 14(4) Legal Education Digest 2

In This Issue

Dr John Nelson

[2006] LegEdDig 18; (2006) 14(4) Legal Education Digest 2

There are 15 articles in this issue of the Digest which, apart from three on developing courses to teach the law on national security and terrorism in the US, do not reveal any abiding issues that are occupying the attention of legal educators at the moment. Furthermore, we have not been able to locate any recently published monographs dealing with important legal education matters and, as a consequence, there is once again no review article in this issue.

There are three articles under the heading Individual Subjects/Areas of Law from a recent issue of the Journal of Legal Education. Kayyem discusses the design and delivery of a course for non-lawyers on the law relating to the war on terror. Dycus outlines the processes involved in developing a course on national security law and the lawyer’s role in the formulation and execution of national defence policies. Finally, Banks reflects on a new course carved out as a sub-set of national security law, focused on the legal dimensions of countering terrorism.

Under Students, Francis & McDonald look into the growing significance of part-time students as a proportion of the undergraduate student cohort and argue that legal educators and the profession should be more responsive to their distinctive needs. Schmidt & Iijima report on an evaluative research study they conducted into the impact of an academic support program on the grades of at-risk students.

Context, Criticism & Theory has an article by Boon, Flood & Webb on the fragmentation of legal education and the legal profession, which they argue will result from the adoption of the UK Law Society’s Training Framework Review. Under Curriculum, Gervutz & Others discuss a workshop held on the design of the curricular changes to ensure that the vast majority of law school graduates have had some exposure to issues of international, transnational and comparative law.

Binder examines the impact on the finances and mission of the public universities of the serious decline in state funding. Underwood reviews the current status of judicial education, advocating the need for the fostering of a collaborative learning environment in which knowledge is shared and built on in a constructive way.

Morgan contends in the one article under Law Schools that the shape of today’s law schools should best be determined, not by what today’s lawyers are expected to do, but by the shape of the world the next generation of lawyers will face. Under Legal Ethics, Palermo & Evans discuss their survey research into the values which are characteristic of the mass of Australian law students in their last year of law school and their impact on the students’ ethical decision-making.

The trials and tribulations of an Australian university designing and delivering a course to teach common law to students in China are canvassed in an article by Blay, Young & Li under Planning & Development. Silver, under Postgraduate Programs, provides a detailed analysis of the landscape of graduate programs for foreign-educated lawyers in US law schools and the motivations for them to study in the US.

In a rather whimsical but humorous essay under Teachers, Croucher draws parallels between the recipes contained in two universal cookbooks and the personal development of women in the legal academy. She maintains that academia is no different from the kitchen in the understanding of the social, gender and management issues which underpin human behaviour. In the last article, allotted to Teaching Methods & Media, Macduff reflects upon the effectiveness of different teaching methods in motivating students to take responsibility for social and legal change.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the contribution made by Angus Young to the Digest through the high quality both of his research and the compilation of the first drafts of the condensed articles. Angus has recently retired as research assistant after being involved in the production of the last nine issues over more than two years. Samantha McGolrick, Angus’ successor, has ably continued this tradition in this, the first issue upon which she has worked.