Category: Uncategorized

  • Directions, day two: parallel sessions two

    The Organising C’ttee are working us hard.  Straight into the rigours of a group photo, brief caffeine break, then into the final session of the day and the conference.  I attended ‘Training for the Profession II, chaired by Luke Marsh.  First up, Dr Gigimon VS, on ‘Legal education: looking to an uncharted future.  Dr Gigimon…

  • Directions, day two: The Big Debate

    We have a panel of law deans, practitioners and students to discuss legal education — Chris Gane, Michael Hor, Geraint Howells, Mike McConville, Jeremy Dein, Icarus Ho Shing Chan, Brigitte Kiu, Patricia Lam, Siegfried Sin, Justice John L. Saundersand chaired by Richard Morris.  The debate is focused on ‘Navigating the (academic) law degree: are we…

  • Directions conference, day two, parallel sessions

    I attended the Engaged Learning: Simulation and the Community of Inquiry, chaired by Queenie Lai.  First up, Wilson Chow and Michael Ng of HKU Faculty of Law, on sims in legal education — from adoption to adaption.  He focused on two projects, SIMPLE and standardised or simulated clients (SC)  Wilson presented data on student feedback…

  • Directions conference, day two, keynote two

    Our first session today was a plenary with Professors Stacy Caplow talking to us over Skype from Brooklyn Law School on clinical legal education from the perspective of 2026, Rich Flofcheski, Hong Kong U Faculty of Law on flipping the tort class, and Lisa Webley on researching legal education — methods, outcomes and directions.  Chaired…

  • Directions conference, parallel session 1

    I’m joining the Technology-Enhanced Learning session (there’s a surprise).  First up is Lutz-Christian Wolff, talking on the intriguing title of ‘Legal Education without Teaching?’.  Does the question mark have the same function as in Richard Susskind’s The End of Lawyers?

  • Directions in Legal Education Conference, Chinese U of HK Faculty of Law

    Am attending the above conference (#legaled16) at CUHK Law Faculty, giving one of the plenaries — slides in the usual places, on Slideshare and on the Slides tab above.  I’ll be talking about disintermediation, which I find a fascinating subject, and making broader points about its effects on legal education than I raised in my…

  • Our online PBL JD at ANU College of Law – a personal history

    On problem-based learning (PBL), Barrows & Tamblyn (1976) and Barrows (1986) are the key early texts.  I remember coming across the first in the mid-1980s (not sure how, maybe a conversation with a medical student I’d known since undergrad days, she’d been attracted to it, after her own dismal medical education), following my doctorate and…

  • SSRN sells out to Elsevier

    I’ve been a member of SSRN for quite a while now, about a decade I think.  I remember when I first joined, the excitement of posting to an open access research site, and of being part of an application that contributed to Open Access.  Couple of days ago I woke up to the news on Twitter that…

  • The clearest blue

    The banner photo was taken earlier this month on Beinn an Dothaidh, above Bridge of Orchy, looking north across Loch Tulla to Stob Ghobhar, with the great whaleback of Beinn Nevis in the distance, across Rannoch.  Amazingly clear weather, great day climbing with Euan.  And in shadow of cornice and icefall that luminous blue, at…

  • Emerging Legal Education: a new publisher, two new books

    Emerging Legal Education, our Ashgate book series on legal education, is now a Routledge series, following the merging of Ashgate Publishing and Gower Books into the Taylor and Francis Group, which in turn is a division of the giant Informa Plc.  A few glitches with books not rendering properly on the web page but I’m…

  • Materialism and Legal Pluralism

    To the ANU College of Law Moot Court couple of days back to hear a lecture by Margaret Davies on Materialism and Legal Pluralism.  Abstract: Legal pluralism can be understood geographically, discursively, sociologically, and as the plural consciousness and performances of legal subjects. It pays attention to the bottom-up and material conditions of law production.…

  • Law Teacher Special Issue author nominated for a Webby Award

    One of our authors in The Law Teacher special issue, Dan Jackson, is director of the NuLawLab which has produced software, NuLawMaps, that’s been nominated for a Webby Award, under the Law category.  Dan discusses his centre’s approach to legal education in his journal article, arguing that coupling technology instruction with training in human-centered design approaches offers legal educators a…