Parallel Session 1 - Session B
Embracing Popular Culture in Teaching Law – The Case for Introducing Contemporary Culture Modules Dr Michael Randall, University of Strathclyde Students will often start law degrees with an impression of what law is based on their own experiences. Core content often needs a wider context. One of the ways to give context is to examine law’s representation in popular culture. Since 2000, Strathclyde Law School has run a popular ‘Law, Film and Popular Culture’ module. The module uses films as a basis for socio legal analysis of law on screen. However, the module is confined primarily to one medium, and issues such as licensing of films/available films can limit the scope of discussion for the class. This paper highlights the opportunities provided by a case study from the University of Strathclyde. In 2023-24 a new ‘Law in the Context of Contemporary Culture’ module, building on the success of the Law & Film module. It will present the reasons why the module was introduced (to present discussion in wider media, to offset biases and present a wider range of subject matter). This includes the overall initial aims, but also the opportunities the module presents as it evolves in the future. The module may meet challenges including student engagement, introducing novel/distinctive classes and ensuring that legal analysis remains current.
Legal Education and Social Justice: An Obvious Link? James Shipton and Dr Jessica Guth, Leeds Trinity University
This paper aims to explore the role social justice plays in legal education and in law schools more generally. It begins by challenging the notion that legal education by definition contributes to social justice and that Law Schools are places with social justice at their core. In doing so the paper explores different conceptualisations of social justice and of the purpose of legal education and makes an argument for a form of social justice which is about the opportunities law schools offer for those who study and work within them or aspire to do so, for the experience they have while there and for the outcomes that they achieve as well as the wider societal impact law schools and their graduates might have. While the first part of the paper is a theoretical exploration which seeks to think about the opportunities and challenges presented by linking legal education to social justice, the second part of the paper then focuses on 2 projects which grapple with those theoretical ideas in a more practical context.
Influences Evident in Undergraduate Course Design in Law Jane Stonestreet, University of Westminster
This paper considers the initial stages of undergraduate law degree design and investigates influences such as those of professional identity, institutional culture, or wider (legal) educational paradigms. The paper investigates these influences, where they are evident, and the role they might play and present an initial analysis of why this investigation might be important, both in the context of holistic approaches to student learning, and in the wider positioning of undergraduate law degrees in the current climate of change. This is presented at the initial stages of future research looking at this cultural construction of courses from the perspectives of the individuals and teams that design those courses, considering why courses are designed in the way that they are, and whether there are some influences that are perceived to be stronger than others. The paper will present some initial analysis drawing on previous research on culture and identities in legal education (Cownie, 2004), and upon wider research on academic tribes and territories (Becher & Trowler, 2001; Trowler et al, 2012), considering the legal education “territory” and conflicting paradigms
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