Barker, D --- "In This Issue" [2008] LegEdDig 15; (2008) 16(2) Legal Education Digest 3

---

FROM THE EDITOR

I am greatly encouraged by the response which each new edition of the Digest is evoking from its increasingly wide readership.

Already in 2008, whether it is at the Annual Conferences of the Associations of the American Law Schools, the United Kingdom Association of Law Teachers or the Australasian Law Teachers Association, there is a perceptible sharpening of focus on the importance of legal education and its relevance to the future status of the legal profession.

In an opportunity to respond to this issue the book selected for review in this edition is Strategic Legal Writing by Donald N Zillman and Evan J Roth. This reflects the importance which is being placed on this topic within the curriculum of American Law Schools and a heightened interest for its incorporation within the teaching programs of most other common law jurisdictions.

It is in this spirit of enquiry into legal education that the article by Rice digested under Clinical Legal Education makes an impassioned case for a review of the manor by which legal practice skills are assessed. Whilst the argument as to whether such courses should be graded or assessed pass/fail is open to the reader to decide, there is no questioning the fact that Rice supplies evidence of his own enthusiasm as a law teacher and his concerns that grading destroys the learning and teaching process. This is a most thought provoking article with which to open this edition. Also within the category Clinical Legal Education, Millemann argues for the proposition that ‘legal research and writing (LRW) teachers should use actual legal work to teach their courses.’ In supporting this proposition Millemann illustrates the article with two experimental LRW programs taught in co-operation with clinical teachers.

Individual Subjects/Areas of Law contains an acknowledgment by Doorey as to how he sought inspiration from Twinings 1967 article Pericles and the Plumber to make teaching labour law more relevant to Canadian non-law students. One unforeseen positive outcome from the program was the importance the students gave to their participation in collective bargaining simulations. Also under Individual Subjects/Areas of Law, Fisher, Gutman and Martens maintain a strong argument for the teaching of Alternate Dispute Resolution as a compulsory first year law unit within the La Trobe Law School undergraduate law program. Their justification is that it promotes the opportunity for students to be exposed to an example of non-adversarial mode of conflict resolution and the lawyer’s additional role as a client advocate. The article is supported by the outcomes of a wide ranging empirical study conducted by the authors.

Dodek’s article under the heading of Legal Ethics is a fascinating account of this topic from a Canadian view point. The author describes a development of a new approach towards legal ethics scholarship in Canada under the influence of ‘New Legal Ethics Scholars’ and the development of a Legal Ethics Curriculum Network. Much of this reform is attributed to the introduction of new staff into the leading law schools and a corresponding review of the legal curriculum, which has resulted in a greater focus of the teaching of legal ethics.

Humour is obviously prevalent in Spitz’s article in Philosophy of Legal Education comparing the experience of law school to the Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizards. However there is a strong message that Hogwarts’ model of teaching could be favourably compared to the best practice of that of a law school.

The heading Professional Responsibility embraces the view of Corbin and Carter on the role which plagiarism can have, not only in the development of the character of a law student, but also as a predictor of law graduates approach to their future roles as a practising lawyer.

Under Students, Augustine-Adams adopts a highly original approach to Assessment involving the adoption of the Harvard Law Bulletin Ultimatum Game when evaluating student performance in Public International Law.

A powerful article by Jones, which was extremely difficult to categorise but which was eventually designated under the heading of Teachers, relates the problems of a law academic suffering from a bipolar disorder. Since mental illness and stress are now recognised as an occupational risk within the legal profession, Jones’ frankness in his own words of ‘outing’ himself will serve to assist those involved in recognising the problems which arise when such symptoms are diagnosed in law students or among members of the legal community.

Legal educators have always been in the forefront of developing new approaches to learning techniques and under the heading of Teaching Methods and Media, Ashford examines the use of blogs and their relationship to reflective learning. The article uses the experience of a Human Rights and Civil Liberties Module in the Sunderland Law School (UK) LLB program to illustrate a form of assessment involving the creation and maintenance of a blog rather than the traditional form of a diary. As the author states ‘The potential for a wider blogging community incorporating law students and other national institutions and beyond is potentially the next stage in developing a blogging community.’ The article incorporates a series of judgments expressed by the courts as to the importance of law schools upholding the integrity of ethical standards, particularly with regard to maintaining a zero tolerance to acts of plagiarism. Under the same category, Hunter explains the teaching and use of analogy in law. The author’s aim is to provide ‘a simple model that can be used to teach and learn how analogy works.’ Lastly, Teaching Methods and Media contains a report by Bradlow and Finkelstein on a program, developed over a period of six years, involving a simulation exercise incorporating the negotiation environment of an international business transaction. The program’s international aspect is further emphasised by the fact that it is taught simultaneously in Washington DC, USA and Dundee, Scotland.

With the increasing use of technology in teaching there is a valuable lesson to be learned from Maxwell’s recounting under the heading of Technology his experience of banning laptops in the classroom and the various ways by which he endeavoured to compensate for their absence from his lectures.

Professor David Barker AM

Editor