Mountain ridge

  • Constitution, institution, foundation: a ius commune of legal education

    In a chapter I finished a while back for Catrina Denvir’s forthcoming book on Modernising Legal Education I explored what modernising the law school actually means, with case studies – hence the title, referencing Talking Heads, ‘Same as it ever was?  Second modernity, technocracy, and the design of digital legal education’.  As I point out,…

  • New beginnings

    Tonight is the formal opening of Osgoode Professional Development’s (OPD) newly refurbished premises on floor 26 of 1 Dundas St West, downtown Toronto. Now the view inside will match the stunning views outside to Lake Ontario and the Toronto Islands, Algonquin Island, and all the way west and south to Mississauga, glimpsed through a foreground…

  • Osgoode Sim Client Project

    We’ve finished our Simulated Client (SC) project at Osgoode Hall Law School, which was around three months in the planning. Further and much more detailed analysis later, but this is a quick post for now to summarise what we did.

  • NO ENTRY: Open access to law journals and case law

    This post is co-written by Catherine Easton, Abhilash Nair and myself.  Abhilash is a co-editor of the European Journal of Law & Technology, and Catherine is editor of the European Journal of Current Legal Issues.  EJLT and EJCLI are both completely open access (OA0 journals – also known as diamond or platinum journals. We’ve been…

  • LETR, regulatory relationship and the shared space

    The initial LETR specification asked us to report on many areas of legal education, and under various headings regulatory relationship was part of the future reform of legal education and training.  The subject was hardly addressed in earlier reports on legal education in these isles, either because it wasn’t perceived as problematic or, more likely,…

  • LETR conference: reflections

    I said in my first conference post that I was hoping for the conference to help me understand LETR’s continuing significance, if any.   I left with more questions in my mind about LETR’s purpose, but also a sense that what we co-authors made of it was at least in parts enduring beyond the five-year…

  • LETR conference: parallel papers, 2

    First up, Jenny Gibbons on ‘Curriculum as constitution’.  Fascinating analogy, which I’ve explored elsewhere.  She started with Fortnite Island.  To play the game you need to: learn the rules of the game know how to find and use yr materials take time to create safe spaces learn to maximise yr advantage in encounters learn from…

  • LETR conference: Professional Panel

    The panel comprised three representatives of regulatory bodies.  First up, Julie Brannan, Director of Education and Training.  Her slide points out which of LETR recommendations the SRA accepted: She also pointed out the themes that were recognised by the SRA and the evidence drawn upon.   She also outlined the SRA response, its view of…

  • LETR conference: paper session 1

    First up, Steven Vaughan, by video conference, on ‘Same-same but different?  The current and future LLB offerings on law schools in England and Wales’.  He started with conversations with colleagues he had about grades and the relative difficulty of subjects, the Joint Statement (JS) and the normative hold it had on the curriculum.  Law degrees…

  • Conference: LETR – Five Years On

    The Legal Education and Training Review submitted its findings five years ago now – seems more like 15 years to be honest, so much has happened in the interim.  To mark the occasion, Jessica Guth of Leeds Law School at Leeds Beckett University has organised the above conference, taking place tomorrow.  LETR’s co-authors Julian Webb,…

  • Hemiola in legal education – afterthoughts on the Directions conference

    I’ve summarised my keynote in a blog post on the Osgoode Professional Development blog, so no need to comment on it here, except to say that the place of the arts in legal education design is a long-neglected area of educational research – more of that at the end of this blog post. This was…

  • Directions conference, parallel session 3

    Final parallel session.  First up, Richard Hedlund (Lincoln University Law School) on ‘Modernising the (property law) curriculum at Lincoln Law School’.  He focused on the direction and restraints he faced in his adaptations, having taught PBL at York U.  Pedagogy wasn’t discussed much at Lincoln, and he tried to change that.  There was spoon-feeding, and…