Parliamentary simulation: the bridge between law students and political institutions 1

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the parliamentary simulation project that arose from the joint efforts of the University and the Parliament of Catalonia. We analyse the advantages of using this method in motivating the students to learn parliamentary constitutional law, and the impact it has on improving the links between the legal education system and the political institutions. Parliament is one of the basic institutions of our political and democratic system, and also one of the topics in the subject of constitutional law. Therefore, a theoretical knowledge of parliamentary proceedings is traditionally acquired within the classroom. However, the parliamentary system has evolved and it has progressively become more technically complex. This means that students perceive both the institution and its peculiar rules, the parliamentary proceedings, as distant, obsolete, excessively rigid or even absurd; to sum up, they are alien to the students' everyday world. Furthermore, a comprehensive learning scheme...