Parallel Session 4 - Session C
Translanguaging in Legal Education Dr Huw Pritchard, Cardiff University
The Commission on Justice in Wales (2019) notes that bilingualism is ‘a foundational constitutional principle’ of devolution in Wales and that it is ‘essential that there is proper provision for teaching law through the medium of Welsh’. Arzoz (2012) highlighted that lawyers working within a multilingual legal system ‘require an extra formation’ and abilities such as ‘translation, language switching and designing information bilingually’. This paper will focus on translanguaging as a pedagogical approach that incorporates two or more languages within the classroom. This provides an opportunity to reimagine bilingual legal education beyond the idea of a bilingual binary approach towards a transglossic approach with focus on sustainability and inclusiveness (Garcia & Wei 2014). The paper will present an analysis of translanguaging within Welsh law schools and also incorporates a comparative analysis of bilingual legal education in other legal systems, such as Canada and Finland. The paper will also reflect on how translanguaging approaches could provide a wider opportunity to understand how multilingual student communities in any law school engage and learn and enhance skills for students who may practice law in multilingual communities in the future. A Legal Pedagogy of the Imagination: Transformative Legal Education Through the Techniques of Storyworld Dr Chloe Wallace, University of Leeds A storyworld can be understood as the created context in which stories take place. Within legal education, students need to understand the stories that are told (cases, legal developments, controversies) but also the context in which those stories happen, which may in relevant respects be different to the context in which the student exists. Some of this difference relates to the specificity of the legal interpretive community (specific concepts, definitions of words, or legal fictions), whereas others relate to the middle class, white, patriarchal cis-het environment in which our legal system continues to exist. Legal education should not only involve students in learning the stories, but also in grasping the context, not only for a deeper understanding but also, and in my view more importantly, to provide a structural critique of the law, and to help students situate themselves and their identities within the law. In this paper I will suggest techniques used by writers in building storyworlds which can also be used by legal educators. I will consider, in particular, textual organisation and presentation of material, methods for introducing new contexts quickly, and ways in which curiosity and critique can be fostered
Indeterminacy and Uncertainty in Legal Education Dr Mark Campbell, University of Bristol Law School
Indeterminacy is an inevitable feature of law. While there is reason to value certainty in the law and its application, there are certain advantages to indeterminacy. Although this area has been considered at length by legal philosophers, there has been less scrutiny of the role played by indeterminacy and uncertainty within legal education. This paper makes two observations which point to a conclusion. First, the use of indeterminacy and uncertainty are key assessment tools in testing deeper learning of the subject matter and question technique (especially in problem scenarios). Second, when learning outcomes refer to terms such as ‘analysis’ and ‘application’, that is (to a significant extent) about the student’s ability to respond to and exploit instances of indeterminacy or uncertainty. The conclusion: if learning outcomes and assessments are concerned with responses to indeterminacy in the law or uncertainty as to its application, those who teach law should be (more) strategic in the ways they teach indeterminacy; in other words, a more conscious alignment of teaching with learning outcomes and assessment. This is, moreover, a key legal skill: lawyers should be able to identify instances of indeterminacy or uncertainty and exploit them or close them down as need be.
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