Abstract

Competing discourses in legal education shape practices in law schools and these discourses affect the teaching of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). This area of study has become increasingly important for law students to understand, both at undergraduate or Juris Doctor level, due to the widespread adoption of ADR in our legal and justice system. Attitudes to ADR can be explored through the framework of the various discourses presently competing for dominance in Australian law schools. There are arguably six main discourses in legal education, doctrinalism, vocationalism, corporatism, liberalism, pedagogicalism and radicalism. This paper will apply these discourses in legal education to the subject area of ADR. The possibilities for legal education to more fully explore ADR to assist future lawyers to engage in the full range of dispute resolution options will be explored.

Highlights

  • The teaching of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in law schools has come under increasing scrutiny in Australia and provides an area of rich research possibilities.[1]

  • As discourses compete in legal education the place of ADR in the legal curriculum shifts and changes

  • For instance a law school that values vocationalism, pedagogy and corporatism may well prioritise the place of ADR due to the perception that negotiation, mediation and other ADR options are important to legal practice

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The teaching of ADR in law schools has come under increasing scrutiny in Australia and provides an area of rich research possibilities.[1]. This paper will consider legal education discourses as applied to ADR with a particular focus upon the options of negotiation and mediation For those students who go on to be lawyers after completing a Bachelor of Laws or Juris Doctor the approach in law school to ADR will affect their understandings of legal practice and the place of ADR to deal with conflict in our society. Adams provides a critique of the introduction of ADR into legal education in the United States and claims that it has largely stalled from the initial enthusiasm of the 1980’s except in some select universities see generally D S Adams, Alternative Dispute Resolution Programs in Law School Curriculum-What’s Next? Both the content and pedagogy of ADR courses are affected by these stories circulating in a particular law school, the value that each program group places upon ADR and the individual approaches of ADR law teachers. 66 The larger stories of ADR circulating in the community will affect the stories in legal education

LEGAL EDUCATION AND ADR
A Doctrinalism
B Vocationalism
75 NADRAC outlines legislative approaches to the use of ADR
C Corporatism
D Liberalism
E Pedagogicalism
F Radicalism
CONCLUSION
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