Legal Education In Australia Research Articles

Psychological Distress at a Regional Australian Law School: Reporting on Law Students’ Experiences of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

Legal education in Australia is constantly evolving to meet the needs of law students and to prepare many of them for roles in the legal profession. Examples include changes to law degree structures, optional elective units, and subjects aimed at preparing law students to be ‘workplace ready’. Law students face challenging academic requirements and law school culture that can result in greater levels of psychological distress compared to the general population. Promoting law student wellbeing and responding to high student levels of psychological distress is a key area of focus for Australian Law Schools. This article explores existing law student wellbeing studies in Australia and reports findings from an empirical exploratory study investigating the levels of depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS) using the DASS21 survey instrument in law students at a regional Australian university, James Cook University. The results from this study support earlier studies at Australian universities that show law students experience higher levels of psychological distress symptoms compared to the general population, and it is an area of concern that requires ongoing attention. Results include an exploration of the impact of factors including type of degree being studied, campus location, year of study, gender, and time spent at law school.

Australian Legal Education – A Short History

This article examines the history and development of legal education in Australia by tracing the establishment of university law schools and other forms of legal education in the states and territories from the time of European settlement in 1788 until the present day. It considers the critical role played by legal education in shaping the culture of law and thus determining how well the legal system operates in practice.
 It argues that Australian legal education can satisfactorily meet the twin objectives of training individuals as legal practitioners, whilst providing a liberal education that facilitates the acquisition of knowledge and transferable legal skills.

Special Report on Online Legal Education in Australia

This report considers the state of online legal education in Australia pre-, during and post-pandemic. The paper reviews the adoption of online legal education by the numerous law faculties in Australia, the regulatory environment, and the future prospects for online legal education. It evaluates the advantages and disadvantages as viewed in the Australian context, and concludes that blended learning and delivery is the principal means by which the potential of online has been realised in the legal education sector in Australia.

Embedding Critical Reflection in Legal Education

The literature of higher education widely notes the importance of reflection and reflective practice as a critical aspect of professional practice. This enables learners to act and think professionally by combining theory and practice. As such, many teaching and learning strategies and activities to enhance reflection have been incorporated into professional degrees. Notwithstanding the support for reflective practice, critical reflection remains a contested concept with a lack of consensus as to its definition and best practice. The frameworks chosen by higher institutions may be influenced by course context, ideology and expectations around the course/unit learning outcomes. This paper commences with a discussion of reflection and critical reflection. By examining different notions of reflection, the paper will discuss why the concept of critical reflection is important for practitioners in the 21st Century. It is advanced that critical reflection can encourage learners to better understand professional practice by linking discipline knowledge and theories to professional practice and wider insights. Whilst reflective practice is a desirable capability for law graduates, legal education in Australia largely fails to incorporate and assess critical reflective skills, as it is directed at producing a technically skilled and ideologically compliant legal workforce. The authors advance that adherence to a solely doctrinal approach to legal education is no longer justified in the 21st Century, which is characterised by profound change and uncertainty that impacts on the legal profession and society at large. Law schools have a positive role to play in the education of their students through instilling doctrinal knowledge, professional practice skills and critical thinking skills, which foster an understanding and analysis from multiple perspectives, to ensure that law graduates are able to holistically understand the reasons for changes within their profession and effectively adapt to change through informed choices. The final part of the paper outlines how critical reflection can be implemented in legal education.

The Participation of Indigenous Australians in Legal Education, 2001–18

Indigenous Australians face many challenges in accessing and completing a legal education in Australia. Addressing this problem requires a clear empirical picture. However, no comprehensive study exploring the participation of Indigenous Australians in legal education has been conducted for almost two decades. This article rectifies this by presenting the results of a survey on Indigenous Australian students, graduates and staff members within Australian law schools. We find that while Indigenous Australians are increasingly commencing legal studies and graduating from law school, inequities and challenges persist.

The Participation of Indigenous Australians in Legal Education, 2001–18

Indigenous Australians face many challenges in accessing and completing a legal education in Australia. Addressing this problem requires a clear empirical picture. However, no comprehensive study exploring the participation of Indigenous Australians in legal education has been conducted for almost two decades. This article rectifies this by presenting the results of a survey on Indigenous Australian students, graduates and staff members within Australian law schools. We find that while Indigenous Australians are increasingly commencing legal studies and graduating from law school, inequities and challenges persist.

Repositioning lifelong learning in legal education

This paper examines the concept of lifelong learning in the provision of legal education in Australia, in an era where widening participation in legal education has resulted in the replacement of the legal curriculum based on intellectual enrichment to one that is predominantly skills driven and vocational in nature. Following a critical review of the context and scope of current approaches to lifelong learning in legal education in Australia, the paper demonstrates that, while widening participation in legal education continues to provide the key skills necessary for lifelong learning, the emphasis on vocationalism results in the concept of lifelong learning being treated as a subset of generic law graduate attributes. As a consequence of such a categorisation, motivation for continued learning following graduation as a key dimension of lifelong learning is overlooked. The adoption of transformative pedagogies to enhance student motivation for lifelong learning in legal education is advanced. Focusing on critical reflection, dialogue and experiential learning, teaching and learning strategies are suggested to enhance motivation for lifelong learning so that wider participation in Australian law schools is also accompanied by more effective pedagogies to encourage lifelong learning.

Enhancing civic consciousness through student pro bono in legal education

ABSTRACTA key aim of encouraging law students to participate in student pro bono, a form of experiential learning in legal education, is to develop their commitment to volunteer lawyering after graduation. This paper examines student pro bono in legal education in Australia and the United States. A critical review of the current approaches to student pro bono in both jurisdictions demonstrates that although student pro bono exposes students to lawyering skills, the absence of structured follow-up as part of student pro bono, results in limited changes to students’ attitudes to commit to volunteer lawyering. The benefits of adopting reflective activities as part of student pro bono are discussed. It is argued that transformative pedagogies can encourage critical consciousness and social transformation necessary for active involvement in volunteer lawyering after graduation. Teaching and learning strategies are suggested to simultaneously enhance social and personal transformation and to develop lawyering skills through student pro bono.

Embodying life-long learning: Transition and capstone experiences

This paper discusses the principle of Transition as it has been conceptualised by the Curriculum Renewal in Legal Education project. The project sought to develop a principled framework for renewing the final year of tertiary legal education in Australia. Capstone experiences were chosen as the most appropriate mechanism for assisting final year students to manage the transition process. Thoughtfully designed capstones assist students to integrate and synthesise their learning over their entire degree programme, facilitate closure on the undergraduate experience, and assist students to transition from student to emerging professional. We discuss the importance of addressing final year students’ transitional needs and explain how the principle facilitates this process. Although the framework has been developed specifically for legal education in Australia its approach enables transferability across disciplines and institutions. The framework addresses criticisms that universities and law schools are not meeting the needs of final year students by preparing them for the transition to graduate life in a complex and uncertain world.

Active Learning in Law by Flipping the Classroom: An Enquiry into Effectiveness and Engagement

In this article, I argue that any significant change to legal education in Australia would require the abandonment of the Priestley Eleven subject requirements for a more refined, shorter list of core subjects. The Priestley Eleven currently act as a “dead hand” on curriculum reform, preventing law schools from innovating and experimenting with new subject choices for students. The Productivity Commission has argued that the Priestley Eleven provide a ‘strong base knowledge of the law [but] limit the flexibility of universities to compete and innovate’. Universities would need to move beyond the Priestley Eleven if they wish to give students a holistic or contextualized education in law. Part of this would require the abolition of several black letter law subjects, to be replaced by optional subjects that teach the law in context.

Clinical Legal Education in Australia: A Historical Perspective

This article addresses the distinctive development of clinical legal education in Australia from the 1970's to the turn of the century.

Critique in Legal Education: Another Journey

This article engages with a body of literature concerned with the demise of critique in Australian legal education. In particular it reflects on Thornton’s, Privatising the Public University: The Case of Law, a recent special issue of this Journal, ‘The Past, Present and Future of Critical Legal Education in Australia’ (2013) 23(2), and several articles by James on competing legal education discourses published between 2000 and 2013. This reflection narrates the story of the survival and consolidation of a deeply critical legal core course against the tide of corporatism, vocationalism and doctrinalism that have cemented their dominance in law schools since the 1990s as part of the neo-Liberal turn afflicting tertiary education. It concludes that the future of deep legal critique depends on a commitment to embed it across the LLB curriculum and to the extent students are persuaded to see it as relevant.

Special issue: Legal education and curriculum renewal

<p class="p1"> </p> <p class="JLDBodyText2">Welcome to this special edition of the <em>Journal of Learning Design</em> which focuses on legal education and curriculum renewal in law. At the outset ,we would like to thank the editors of the Journal, Margaret Lloyd and Nan Bahr for agreeing to host this special edition. The special edition is timely as legal education in Australia is enjoying a lively period of renewal.</p><p class="p1"> </p>

A transformative approach to work integrated learning in legal education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current context, scope and problems in the provision of work-integrated learning (WIL) in legal education and how the adoption transformative pedagogies in WIL which is offered in legal education can foster personal and social transformation in addition to enhancing lawyering skills. The paper draws on learning from Australia, England and the USA. Design/methodology/approach – The backdrop of this conceptual paper is WIL and transformative education. The text begins with a critique of existing WIL frameworks and practices in legal education in Australia, England and the USA. This exposes a focus on skills enhancement at the expense of social and personal transformation. Drawing on transformative learning, the paper proposes practices which can be used in WIL offered in legal education to enhance personal and social transformation. Findings – There is very little literature on how legal education and WIL in legal education can enhance personal and social transformation. Tensions continue to exist between the predominant aim of instilling the legal skills necessary to ensure that graduates are prepared for legal practice through WIL programmes and between the need to simultaneously enhance critical consciousness and social transformation necessary for active participation in social and professional life. Research limitations/implications – More research is required on the best manner in which the ideals and practices of emancipatory education can be installed within WIL programmes so as to successfully reduce the tensions between the instilling of legal skills required to practice law and the need to train students to be holistic, critical and constructive thinkers. Practical implications – The suggestions made in this paper provide a framework to adopt critical pedagogies in the provision of WIL in legal education. The theoeretical and practice-based suggestions presented in this paper are also relevant to other professional disciplines where personal transformation is desired. Originality/value – The literature on legal education predominantly focuses on enhancing lawyering skills and competencies and there is an absence of the utilisation of transformative pedagogies in legal education generally and WIL offered in legal education. Drawing predominantly on the literature and practices relating to legal education in Australia and incorporating comparative insights from England and the USA, the paper contributes to the broader literature on transformative learning. Most significantly, the paper contributes specifically to the use of transformative pedagogies in WIL offered in legal education through the suggestion of practices relating to critical reflection and dialogue which are not commonly used in legal education.

The role of ADR in developing lawyers’ practice: lessons from Australian legal education

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in legal education is an important area of study to ready law students for the rising use of ADR in justice systems around the world. In spite of the move towards ADR in legal practice, law schools internationally continue to debate the merits of including this area of study as a mandatory course in the legal curriculum. In Australia there have been increasing calls for the review of ADR in the legal curriculum and many lobby for the mandatory inclusion of ADR. However, if ADR is made a mandatory part of legal education in Australia it will be important that the way ADR is included ensures that students will experience the full benefits of studying this disciplinary area. The article outlines some of the benefits and challenges of including ADR in the legal curriculum. It draws on qualitative research with ADR teachers in law schools in Australia that analysed the most valuable approaches to including ADR in the legal curriculum. Analysis of the data gathered from twenty-nine ADR teachers shows the importance of skills based and experiential learning in ADR methods, the complexity of the issue of where to place the study of ADR, the difficulties of finding staff with sufficient expertise to teach in this area and the challenges of gaining support for typically costly teaching methods in the current environment of reducing funding for higher education.

Clinical Legal Education in Australia: A Historical Perspective

<p>The article focuses on real client clinical work with participating students being supervised by lawyer academics while also referring to other models. This model has enabled clinics to retain a strong commitment to community service whilst also facilitating close work with small groups of students.</p>

Clinical Legal Education in the 21st Century: Still Educating for Service?

<p>As a lawyer and clinical legal educator, I have direct experience of the ways in which clinical legal education programmes in Australia2 provide legal services to poor and disadvantaged people. In this context I recently began to wonder about the image of lawyers and of the legal profession, that other clinical educators and I portray in our work and about the values underlying clinical legal education.3 I began to think that despite a longstanding commitment to access to justice,4 clinical legal education in Australia might actually be acquiescing in a notion of professionalism that is counter to that commitment. </p><p>In this article I explore the connection between the continuing commitment of clinical legal education to the provision of legal services to those unable to otherwise afford them and the notions of professionalism traditionally adopted by the organised legal profession. In doing so I focus on the Australian legal environment as the one with which I am most familiar. However, I believe the issues I raise are relevant for other legal educators concerned about the state of the legal profession in their jurisdictions and about the values which clinical legal education imparts to law students.</p>

Specialist Clinical Legal Education: An Australian Model

<p>Clinical legal education in Australia traditionally has been based in generalist clinics, where the client and caseload intake is limited primarily by the financial means of clients rather than by the legal subject matter of their problems. The breadth and variety of legal problems which confront clinic students provide insight into and understanding of the operation of the legal system at the grass roots and the legal issues raised rarely seem to reflect directly the law the students have learnt in the classroom.</p><p>In recent years, for both educational and political reasons, Australian Universities have begun to develop specialised clinics, serving clients with problems in a particular area of law.</p><p>This article describes the operation of Monash’s specialised Family Law clinic and considers the factors which, in the Monash experience, have combined to ensure its stability and recognition, within the University and in the broader political context.</p>

Second Life machinima enhancing the learning of law: Lessons from successful endeavours

<span>A traditional approach centred on weekly lectures, perhaps supported by tutorials, still predominates in modern legal education in Australia. This approach tends to focus on the transmission of knowledge about legal rules and doctrine to students, who adopt a largely passive role. Criticisms of the traditional approach have led to law schools expanding their curricula to include the teaching of skills, including the skill of negotiation and an appreciation of legal ethics and professional responsibility. However, in a climate of limited government funding for law schools in Australia, innovation in legal education remains a challenge. This article considers the successful use of </span><em>Second Life</em><span> machinima in two interactive multimedia programs, </span><em>Air Gondwana</em><span> and </span><em>Entry into Valhalla</em><span>, and their part in the creation of engaging, effective learning environments. These programs not only engage students in active learning, but also facilitate flexibility in their studies and other benefits. The programs yield important lessons concerning the use of machinima innovations in curricula for academics involved in legal education as well as those in other disciplines, especially those that rely on traditional passive lectures in their teaching and learning approaches.</span>

Before Competition and Beyond Complacency - the Internationalisation of Legal Education in Australia

The Law School of the University of the South Pacific has been working to identify appropriate program outcomes for its Bachelor of Laws degree, but no research had been undertaken to determine the knowledge, skills and capabilities needed by lawyers in the South Pacific. A project has now been commenced which seeks to identify contextually appropriate outcomes for lawyers in the region. This article reports on a pilot study conducted in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands as a first step in this project. It reports both the data and the process issues arising from the pilot study, and sets out proposals for the next stage of the research.