Law Lecturers Research Articles

Problematika Pembelajaran Fikih Mawaris pada Mahasiswa Berlatar Belakang Pendidikan SMA di Program Studi Pendidikan Agama Islam Universitas Negeri Padang

The problem in learning can obstruct and slow down the learning process, which can become an obstacle to achieving learning objectives. This study aims to identify the problems faced by students with a high school background in the Islamic Religious Education study program in learning Fiqh Mawaris, as well as the efforts made by both students and Islamic Law lecturers to address these issues. The method used is descriptive qualitative with informants including the head of the Islamic Religious Studies Department, two Islamic Law lecturers, and ten students from the Islamic Religious Education program. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation, and then analyzed using data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing techniques. Data validity was tested using source triangulation and technique triangulation. This study found three main problems in the Fiqh Mawaris learning process among students with a high school background: 1) difficulty in understanding the concepts of inheritance classification and distribution, 2) difficulty in analyzing inheritance distribution cases, and 3) challenges faced by students due to their high school educational background. The efforts made by the students to overcome these problems include: 1) writing and memorizing Fiqh Mawaris concepts, 2) seeking additional learning resources, and 3) discussing and studying together. Meanwhile, the lecturers addressed these problems by: 1) delivering material in stages, 2) using discussion and question-and-answer methods, and 3) conducting evaluations and providing feedback to students. The problems in Fiqh Mawaris learning for students with a high school background can be overcome through the active efforts of students seeking additional understanding and through a more structured and interactive teaching approach from the lecturers.

Sosialisasi Hukum Agraria (Pertanahan) Kepada Masyarakat Dusun Giyasan dan Kawungon Desa Bumirejo Kecamatan Mungkid

Agrarian law is a set of regulations, one of which regulates land registration. Land registration is important to be socialized, the socialization carried out at the Bumirejo Village Hall aims to enable the people of Bumirejo Village to increase their knowledge of the importance of land legality. After observing that there are still many people in Bumirejo Village who do not understand land matters so that quite a few residents experience cases of land disputes, it is very important to carry out socialization of agrarian law. So that through this socialization, parties experiencing land disputes can gain legal certainty and a sense of justice in resolving the problems they are facing. Then this socialization was carried out face-to-face by bringing in speakers from Tidar University Law Lecturers who discussed the legality of land, how to resolve land disputes, and the stages of submitting land disputes. The results of the socialization made the people of Bumirejo Village understand the importance of awareness of land law which can be used to socialize and become citizens who always obey the regulations in force in Indonesia.

Protection Threat Risk of Job Loss Justice Collaborator

Corruption is a criminal act classified as White-Collar Crime, which can only be committed by people who have inherent authority because of their position or power in an organization and/or in a government system. The research method was carried out using an analytical approach, namely knowing the meaning contained in the terms used in the laws and regulations related to Justice Collaborator, as well as knowing their application in practice, which is also closely related to the systematic review aspect of the relevant laws and regulations, by conducting technical studies. The second approach taken is the statutory regulations approach considering that this research will examine various statutory regulations related to Justice Collaborator. The respondents in this research are law lecturers, law faculty deans, criminal law lecturers, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, and students and related institutions. The results of research on justice collaborators related to Law No. 13 of 2006 which has been changed to Law No. 31 of 2014 concerning Witness and Victim Protection (W&V Protection), apparently do not protect against the risk of losing their job for Justice Collaborators. The results of the research are very useful for the regulation and implementation of justice collaborators in disclosing criminal acts of corruption, namely that justice collaborators are very important and needed in disclosing criminal acts of corruption. The Corruption Court can uncover criminal acts of corruption quickly and precisely which will have an impact on saving costs, time, energy, and thought. Still, the existence of a justice collaborator cannot be sovereign because it will result in dependence on law enforcement officials. in uncovering criminal acts of corruption with the information provided. The knowledge of law enforcers must also be increased, especially in the cybercrime field, so it is hoped that there will be ideal regulation and implementation in Indonesia.

Kontribusi Dosen Hukum PTKIN Dalam Penyelesaian Sengketa Adat di Aceh

The existence of Adat in Aceh is getting stronger after the MoU between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement. However, it cannot be denied that customary disputes continue to occur. Lecturers as academics are required to be involved in the customary settlement process because this is a form of lecturer service to the community. This paper aims to look further at the involvement of PTKIN lecturers in Aceh in the customary dispute resolution process. This research resulted from an empirical study using a sociological approach. The sociological approach looks at how the activities of the Acehnese indigenous people contribute to resolving customer disputes. This study focuses on two PTKIN consisting of lecturers at UIN Ar-Raniry and IAIN Lhokseumawe. Data sources were obtained from interviews and observations; data analysis was carried out by means of data reduction obtained from the interviewer, and then analysis was carried out. The results of this study indicate that practically, law lecturers, with their scientific discipline, have contributed to the resolution of customary disputes. The law lecturer at PTKIN has carried out several stages of customary dispute resolution, starting from examining the problem, carrying out mediation, and reviewing legal norms that are used as a reference in dispute resolution. The strategy for resolving disputes is carried out by classifying the problem and bringing it closer to the legal aspect so as to produce a balanced solution both in terms of aspects of religious law and state law. Obstacles and problems that occur are related to the lack of agreement between the parties regarding customary decisions, so the parties choose the path of litigation (court). The litigation route is the last alternative when an agreement cannot be reached through a customary decision.

Fiqh of reciprocity (Exploring the Concept of Construction and Deconstruction of the Rights of Guardianship of Children; Perspectives of the Indonesian Islamic Marriage Registrar Association and the Indonesian Family Law Lecturers Association)

This study aimed to reveal the essence of the rulings concerning guardianship in Islamic marriages through the construction and deconstruction of the perspectives of the Indonesian Family Law Lecturers Association (Asosiasi Dosen Hukum Keluarga Islam or ADHKI, Ind.) and the Indonesian Islamic Marriage Registrar Association (Asosiasi Penghulu Republik Indonesia or APRI, Ind.) based on the fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) of reciprocity. The underlying background was various cases of neglect of girls that lead to problems when they become adults and need guardians in their marriages. In such a situation, the main construction of the parents' responsibilities is closely related to the right to be the daughters' guardians: does it belong to the parents or to those who have been carrying out the responsibility of taking care of the daughters? This study, based on a qualitative method with a multi-site study basis and the formulation of the fiqh of reciprocity, was expected to spawn new opportunities in Islamic legal ijtihad regarding guardianship in marriage. This comprehensive and in-depth study found that 1) the construction of the guardianship of adopted children in the perspectives of APRI and ADHKI means that the essence of guardianship is to fulfill the needs and bear the lives of the children under the guardianship and 2) based on the point of views of APRI and ADHKI, the deconstruction in the concept of guardianship of adopted children by adoptive parents or those who become protectors of the children is based on a reinterpretation of the shari'ah texts, which show that guardianship must be of those who have nasab (lineage) paths or wali hakim (a Muslim judge as the marriage guardian), using a sociological approach, human rights, and the embodiment of justice (maslahah).

THE NEED FOR A LEGAL-WRITING COURSE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN LLB CURRICULUM

Students are generally unprepared to study law. Unpreparedness includes language and writing deficiencies. Legal-writing courses at law school only lay the foundation for these skills that have to be developed and improved over many years of practice. Law schools and the organized profession should accept joint responsibility for laying this foundation. A substantial part of most legal-writing courses must include language training. Legal writing is generally not regarded as necessary by many South African law faculties. The main challenge in the area of developing legal-writing courses in South Africa involves the fact that legal academics have not beenformally trained to teach language and writing. It is proposed that a course is introduced for law teachers in and that they undergo training that will enable law lecturers to present these courses themselves.

Blended Learning in Substantive and Procedural Law Modules: Malaysia’s Experience

Since its inception in 1990s, blended learning gain its footing in higher education system. The awareness amongst law lecturers on the blended learning however are not encouraging as they are firmly hold to Socratic methodology and conventional classroom face-to-face instruction. This study examines the awareness of law lecturers in using blended learning and the performance of the students who enrolled in blended learning classes. This study involves descriptive and inferential statistical analyses to investigate the law lecturers’ awareness and to analyse impact of blended learning toward students’ performance. Five modules have been experimented, three substantive law modules and two procedural law modules. The results suggest that the awareness of law lecturers on the usage of blended learning is increasing. While students’ performance, the result shows that it is better if the module is blended, but only in regards to substantive law module. On the contrary, the performance of the students is unsatisfactory in the procedural law module. This study concludes that while the awareness and the interest among law lecturers to use blended learning is increasing, it is also concluded that the suitability of blended learning only in regards to substantive law modules compared to procedural law modules.

Conducting Law Pedagogy Using Virtual Classroom in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic: Opportunities and Existing Obstacles

Globally, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is disrupting the way of life, affecting not only humans’ health, but also the education sector and law pedagogy is no exception. In South Africa, before the COVID-19 pandemic, most pedagogies at the universities were being conducted face-to-face. The pandemic has inadvertently exposed the strengths and weaknesses of university in conducting pedagogies. Consequently, various educational institutions became creative, using their ICT staff to train teaching staff members on how to use various multi-modal technologies and devices to conduct pedagogy as face-to-face pedagogy is restricted. Law lecturers who pride themselves in conducting pedagogies through face-to-face were also coopted and retrained considering that most of the law lecturers are broadly conservatives and not technologically savvy. There is paucity of any scholarly information from law as a discipline hence, this paper fills the lacuna by looking at law pedagogy in the era of COVID-19 pandemic.
 
 Received: 24 September 2020 / Accepted: 3 November 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021

Protecting Copyright Owners in Nigeria: A Panacea for Intellectual Development

The paper focused at the protection of copyright owners in Nigeria a panacea for intellectual development. A descriptive survey design was adopted in carrying out the study. The population of the study consist of librarians and law lecturers in the Universities of Port Harcourt and Benin, Nigeria. From the population, a sample size of 112 was randomly selected for the study. Three research objectives guided the study. The study utilized a self-developed questionnaire for data collection. A total of 112 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to librarians, library officers and law lecturers, out of which 108 copies were duly filled and returned, representing 96.4.%. The collected data was analyzed using percentage and mean score. The findings revealed that protection of copyright will protect owners and encourage intellectual works in Nigeria. The result also revealed that the right to intellectual properties is one of the ways to encourage intellectual content owners. The finding revealed that copyright protection provides security for intellectual products. Based on the research findings, it was recommended that owners of intellectual properties deserve good earnings for their intellectual works in order to promote Knowledge proliferation and availability so as to meet the reading needs of the citizens at the various levels. The study also recommended that all cases relating to copyright violation in our courts should be summarily dealt with. The study advocated that the provision on the punishment should be reviewed such that it can deter people from infringing on authors rights.

A Quest for a 'Toolkit' to Engage Business Students in Law Units

The research aims to find a set of techniques, a “toolkit”, to meet the different learning needs of business students studying law in higher education settings. Through action research, I collected and analysed data based on my teaching experience over the last three years. The research categorises existing academic literature regarding teaching law to business students into three main streams. The research also introduces a framework to match student learning needs with suitable teaching techniques. Lessons learnt by the author will help to empower law lecturers who want to improve their teaching.

The Use of a Therapeutic Jurisprudence Approach to the Teaching and Learning of Law to a New Generation of Law Students in South Africa

In rapidly changing social, economic and intellectual environments it is imperative that teaching and learning should be transformed from being primarily concerned with the transmission of knowledge (learning about) to being primarily concerned with the practices of a knowledge domain (learning to be). Law lecturers are faced with a new generation of law students, many of whom may be the first in their families to enter university, and one of the important challenges that we face, when educating law students, is how to enable these students to take their place in a very important profession. To meet this challenge it is necessary to instill skills that will be beneficial to the profession, future clients and the community as a whole. We at the University of Johannesburg are endeavouring to do so through embracing a therapeutic jurisprudence approach that focuses on the well-being of the student, the client and the community.
 
 The integration of therapeutic jurisprudence throughout the law student's studies, starting with orientation and continuing through to the final-year clinical experience, will enhance the therapeutic outcomes for all of the parties involved. A therapeutic jurisprudence approach, combined with appropriate teaching and learning methods, will enhance the student's interpersonal skills and writing and reading skills.
 
 The teaching methods invoked include role-play to transform formal knowledge into living knowledge, thereby stimulating students' natural practical curiosity and creating a learning environment that supports collaboration and encourages students to act purposefully in such an environment.
 
 This article discusses the teaching of first-generation students and how to overcome the existing social, cultural, economic and linguistic barriers by using a therapeutic jurisprudence approach, while upholding the values that should guide legal practice, such as integrity and respect for diversity and human dignity. The constitutional imperative of access to justice for all underlines the importance for law teachers of incorporating therapeutic jurisprudence in their teaching methods.
 
 In South Africa, law lecturers face many challenges in teaching law students and first-generation students. Passionate teachers will produce passionate students and realise that they have the power to transform thoughts, policies and lives. Students should be reminded that law is not just about financial rewards, but the ultimate reward of contributing to the betterment of society.
 
 The legal profession expects us to produce a well-rounded graduate for entry into the profession. This necessitates that our teaching methods be appropriate to prepare the student for an entry level of competence for the legal profession. Therapeutic jurisprudence creates the opportunity for the lecturer not only to equip the student with the skills required by the profession but to implement teaching methods that will prove to be beneficial for all of the role-players involved. The honing of skills such as legal writing and oral advocacy from the first year of study creates the opportunity for the students to develop to their full potential. In order to support a meaningful, integrated teaching approach, the development of skills is expanded on during each year of study and can prove beneficial to all role-players during clinical education, where the student has the opportunity to apply the acquired skills in real-life situations. The impact of a therapeutic jurisprudence on the development of legal skills can now be measured through the student's ability to focus on the well-being of the client and the community.

Constitutional Values, Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Legal Education in South Africa: Shaping our Legal Order

Law schools have a responsibility to remind law students that by studying law they have the power to transform thoughts, policies and lives, and that practising law is not just about financial rewards, but that its greatest reward is contributing to the betterment of society and ultimately to social change. The values and philosophies that law lecturers instil in law students can contribute to the legal order of the future; a legal order that supports a transformative South Africa. A need exists to bring legal education closer to the values enshrined in our Constitution. In addition to an extensive knowledge of legal principles, critical thinking and research skills, law students should critically engage with our constitutional values. The question remains: How do we transform legal education in South Africa? How do we change the way we teach law students? The introduction of concepts such as therapeutic jurisprudence enhanced by our constitutional values will ensure that we deliver graduates that display a commitment to our constitutional vales and an ability to engage critically with these values. It is important to establish a professional legal identity amongst students from their first year as this will assist in the development of a well-rounded graduate that can contribute to the legal order of the future. Letter writing and drafting skills, the value of plain language, moot court activities, alternative dispute resolution and clinical legal education provide opportunities to integrate valuable therapeutic jurisprudence principles into the curriculum and can allow students to critically engage with our constitutional values. By embodying these values they can improve the legal system, shape our legal order and promote progress toward an equal and free democratic society as envisaged by the Constitution.
 

Digesting Discourse: How Animal Law Facilitates High Quality Legal Education

When a university-mandated ‘Better Teaching Better Learning’ agenda targeted at unit enhancement coincided with a whole of curriculum review, law lecturers teaching first year law units at Monash University piloted a ‘semi-flipped’ series of short videos, supported by online and in-class activities, in order to incorporate blended learning design in key foundation units. This paper examines the key issues in the design, and implementation and evaluation of the ‘semi-flipped’ experience, highlighting lessons learnt, in terms of technical support, pedagogical issues and assessment considerations. In particular, the utility in seeking to evaluate students’ learning outcomes, engagement with reading materials and in-class activities is critically considered.

Disponibilità, livello di utilizzo e limiti nell'uso delle risorse elettroniche da parte dei docenti delle facoltà di Giurisprudenza delle università pubbliche della Nigeria

Le risorse informative legali in formato elettronico sono documenti relativi all'ambito legale che richiedono un computer e la strumentazione ad esso accessoria per potervi accedere. Quella legale e una professione erudita; i giudici e altro personale della pratica legale, oltre agli studenti, si affidano a fonti informative come rapporti legali, enciclopedie, compendi, codici, trattati etc. per la loro produzione scientifica, fonti che attualmente sono disponibili non solo in formato cartaceo ma anche elettronico. Quest'innovazione ha quindi semplificato l'accesso all'informazione, riducendo la dipendenza dalle fonti cartacee incoraggiando l'auto-formazione. Questo articolo presenta i risultati di un'indagine sul grado di disponibilita, utilizzo e limiti nell'uso delle risorse elettroniche tra i docenti delle facolta di Giurisprudenza in Nigeria: sono stati coinvolti 552 docenti, dei quali 442 hanno partecipato all'indagine. L'analisi dei dati mostra che la disponibilita delle risorse relative alle discipline legali e molto bassa; molte delle maggiori risorse dell'ambito, come LexisNexis, Westlaw, Kluwer Arbitration e I-law non sono di disponibilita immediata, dal momento che vengono sottoscritte solo in concomitanza di esercizi di accreditamento. Lo stesso utilizzo di queste risorse risulta scarso, per ragioni quali la difficile disponibilita delle risorse desiderate all'interno dell'ateneo, mancanza di formazione adeguata all'uso, carenza di postazioni informatiche e scarsa presenza di contenuti di carattere locale. I risultati dello studio incoraggiano la sottoscrizione ai pacchetti informativi individuati e l'introduzione di corsi di information literacy per i docenti, volti a illustrare le modalita di accesso, recupero, download e stampa delle risorse in questione.

A Report on Future Directions of Legal Education in Malaysia

In December 2011, the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education called for a meeting among all Law Deans to discuss on the numerous critics about the standard of local law graduates at public law schools. The meeting was attended by the Deans and Deputy Deans of the schools. At the meeting, the Chairperson, Prof Dr ZaridaHambali, allocated a special fund for the law schools to conduct a study on the future directions of legal education in Malaysia. The research was supposed to take 6 months. However, trying to gather 7 law schools to work on a project was not an easy task. After intensive deliberations and effort to convince all law schools that this was for the betterment of legal education in Malaysia, an official Committee for the first time met on February 2012. The second hurdle was to get the cooperation of legal practitioners to participate in the survey. It took more than 6 months to distribute the questionnaire and after at least two attempts the team managed to get the response approximately 5% of the members of the Bar. Most questionnaires were returned unanswered. The team sent at least 35 students to assist in distributing the questionnaire. In this research we found a common disagreement among law lecturers and practitioners on the scope of their duty, not just in Malaysia but globally. The American Bar Association in the MacCrate report recorded the gap between academia and legal practice thus lead to:"Complaints and recriminations from legal educators and practicing lawyers. The lament of he practising bar is a steady refrain; 'they can’t draft a contract, they can’t write, they’ve ever seen a summon, the professors have never been inside a courtroom'". Law schools offer the traditional responses, "We teach them how to think, we're not trade schools, we're centre of scholarship and learning, practice is best taught by practitioners". Enhancement of legal education as this study will show is not the duty of law schools alone, neither does the law practitioner. Both must cooperate to find the best possible way to resolved the perceived weaknesses in our legal education. This study outlines the academic component at the law school and investigates the students and employers perspective about legal education in Malaysia. The research shows that all law schools are aware on the challenges on legal education and had taken reasonable steps or try to look for possible ways to improve on the quality. This becomes possible with the feedback from the survey on students perspectives and employers’ perception on local law students. The feedback from the students and law practitioners is then used to make recommendations on the appropriate strategies toward the improvement of legal education. This research is the catalyst for further research in legal education. To promote the development of learning and teaching in law at both the academic and professional stages the Committee strongly suggests for the establishment of a Centre for Legal Education at the national level. The centre will be a body where all law teachers not only meet and exchange their teaching experience but promote professional legal education in Malaysia, and to foster research opportunities with and on the legal profession.

English

The study examined the demographic variables as correlates of lecturers research productivity in Faculties of Law in Nigerian universities. The descriptive survey research design was adopted. The multistage sampling technique was used to select 414 out of 905 lecturers from 16 faculties of Law in 29 federal and state universities across the 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria. A questionnaire was used. Three research questions were answered and one hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regressions. Based on multiple regression analysis the result shows that demographic variables such as age, designation, and years of experience have significant positive relationship with research productivity of law lecturers. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.14429/djlit.34.6.7962

The Usage of Colligations of Prepositions among Malaysian Law Undergraduates: A Needs Analysis

Needs analyses carried out among Malaysian law undergraduates, particularly those investigating the students’ lack of competence in legal English, are rare. This paper aimed to investigate Malaysian law undergraduates’ perceptions and usage of colligations of prepositions, one of the most essential lexico-grammatical components in legalese. 40 third semester Malay law undergraduates from one public university participated in the study. Two types of data were collected for this purpose - an interview and essay writing test. Eight out of the 40 students participated in the interview, while all respondents took the essay test conducted a week later. The interview responses were analysed manually, and Dulay et al.’s (1982) Surface Strategy Taxonomy was employed in the analysis of the subjects’ production of prepositional patterns in the Problem Question essays (of legal contract genre). The results from the interviews and essays demonstrate that the subjects lack knowledge of prepositions and their patterns, resulting mainly from interlingual (L1 negative transfer, i.e. Malay) and intralingual (difficulty with the L2 itself, i.e. legalese) interference, as well as the drilling methods applied in both primary and secondary schools. More needs analyses should be carried out in a specialised field like law in future for the short-term and long-term benefits of the students. While both English and law lecturers may gain feedback on their students’ current lexico-grammatical competence, whereby some actions can be taken to improve performance, the results from the analysis may help in developing materials for ELAP (English for Legal Academic Purposes) courses, or in establishing an ELAP course, especially if the course has not yet been established in the institutions offering law programmes.

Language, law and identity: a language and learning response to the challenges of widening participation of students in law subjects

The increasingly diverse cohorts of students studying at new generation universities pose new curriculum challenges for disciplines such as law. These challenges are most visible in written assignments and thus interpreted as “writing problems”. As a consequence, much of the advice available to assist students focuses on “elements of good writing”, advising them primarily on expression and grammar and, in some instances, on the different purposes of legal writing. This paper offers, however, a quite different perspective on what underlies the writing problems of these students, arguing that students need to be knowingly inducted into the different positions or identities embodied in these written tasks, as well as instructed in the language required to “realise” these identities. This approach is explored through analysis of a standard problem scenario assessment task and student responses to the task. Finally, the paper suggests that designing a curriculum to assist these students' entry into the disciplinary practices of the law rests on more collaboration and mutual learning between law lecturers and language and learning lecturers.

The Use of a Therapeutic Jurisprudence Approach to the Teaching and Learning of Law to a New Generation of Law Students in South Africa

In rapidly changing social, economic and intellectual environments it is imperative that teaching and learning should be transformed from being primarily concerned with the transmission of knowledge (learning about) to being primarily concerned with the practices of a knowledge domain (learning to be). Law lecturers are faced with a new generation of law students, many of whom may be the first in their families to enter university, and one of the important challenges that we face, when educating law students, is how to enable these students to take their place in a very important profession. To meet this challenge it is necessary to instill skills that will be beneficial to the profession, future clients and the community as a whole. We at the University of Johannesburg are endeavouring to do so through embracing a therapeutic jurisprudence approach that focuses on the well-being of the student, the client and the community. The integration of therapeutic jurisprudence throughout the law student's studies, starting with orientation and continuing through to the final-year clinical experience, will enhance the therapeutic outcomes for all of the parties involved. A therapeutic jurisprudence approach, combined with appropriate teaching and learning methods, will enhance the student's interpersonal skills and writing and reading skills. The teaching methods invoked include role-play to transform formal knowledge into living knowledge, thereby stimulating students' natural practical curiosity and creating a learning environment that supports collaboration and encourages students to act purposefully in such an environment. This article discusses the teaching of first-generation students and how to overcome the existing social, cultural, economic and linguistic barriers by using a therapeutic jurisprudence approach, while upholding the values that should guide legal practice, such as integrity and respect for diversity and human dignity. The constitutional imperative of access to justice for all underlines the importance for law teachers of incorporating therapeutic jurisprudence in their teaching methods. In South Africa, law lecturers face many challenges in teaching law students and first-generation students. Passionate teachers will produce passionate students and realize that they have the power to transform thoughts, policies and lives. Students should be reminded that law is not just about financial rewards, but the ultimate reward of contributing to the betterment of society. The legal profession expects us to produce a well-rounded graduate for entry into the profession. This necessitates that our teaching methods be appropriate to prepare the student for an entry level of competence for the legal profession. Therapeutic jurisprudence creates the opportunity for the lecturer not only to equip the student with the skills required by the profession but to implement teaching methods that will prove to be beneficial for all of the role-players involved. The honing of skills such as legal writing and oral advocacy from the first year of study creates the opportunity for the students to develop to their full potential. In order to support a meaningful, integrated teaching approach, the development of skills is expanded on during each year of study and can prove beneficial to all role-players during clinical education, where the student has the opportunity to apply the acquired skills in real-life situations. The impact of a therapeutic jurisprudence on the development of legal skills can now be measured through the student's ability to focus on the well-being of the client and the community.

The Real Deal: Using Authentic Assessment to Promote Student Engagement in the First and Second Years of a Regional Law Program

Labour law is an academic discipline which overtly touches upon a number of other disciplines such as labour history, industrial relations and economics. This article argues that there are pedagogical justifications for incorporating contextual socio-legal material into the teaching of labour law. The incorporation of such content fosters deep learning and also equips students to make thoughtful, informed choices in their working lives and in their roles as citizens and consumers. It is thus in keeping with universities’ obligations to concern themselves with advanced learning, the development of intellectual independence and acceptance of a role as conscience and critic of society. The article also reports on a survey of New Zealand and Australian labour law lecturers, in both law and business schools, on their use of socio-legal material in teaching labour law in to undergraduates. The survey findings suggest that while a number of New Zealand and Australian law lecturers consider socio-legal material very important and incorporate it into their teaching, not all do. Following this, some methods by which lecturers may incorporate socio-legal material into their teaching are discussed. It is concluded that if it is indeed very important that students should learn to see labour law in its socio-legal context then this should be formally stated as a course objective, interwoven into the curriculum and reflected in assessment. At the same time care must be taken in terms of finding an optimal balance between socio-legal context and black letter law.