European Journal of Legal Education

Law and literature as experience

Jorge González-Jácome, Penélope Salge-Glick — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article discusses how law and literature can contribute to contemporary debates about exclusion and inequality in global legal education. It proposes that incorporating literature into law school curricula can enhance experiential learning by offering readers second-hand experiences. We discuss some of the debates in the law and literature movement that stress the possibility and importance of fiction’s ability in mobilising affects and emotions that could improve legal analyses. The article thus uses the frameworks of law and literature and experiential learning to read Ceniza en la Boca, a novel written by Brenda Navarro, which tells the story of a young Mexican woman who migrates to Spain. We argue that the novel leads to a nuanced understanding of the role of law and advocacy in the setting of illegal migration.

Widening participation, narrowing perspectives

Anil Balan — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the challenges and opportunities in adapting student evaluations of teaching (SETs) to enhance fairness, inclusivity and effectiveness, with a special emphasis on law teaching within increasingly diverse student bodies. While SETs are used widely, they often fail to adequately capture teaching quality and may disadvantage both students and educators inadvertently. This study critiques traditional SET practices, identifying how factors such as student background, unfamiliarity with legal concepts and cultural sensitivities can influence feedback, leading to incomplete or skewed evaluations. Recognising these limitations, the article advocates for a more multifaceted approach to teaching evaluation that integrates SETs with alternative methods such as open-ended questions, focus groups, reflective portfolios and peer reviews. By fostering continuous engagement, self-reflection and lifelong learning, this more nuanced framework supports both student development and teaching effectiveness. The article highlights the importance of tailoring evaluations to the unique demands of legal education, including assessing students’ legal reasoning and application of principles. It also proposes actionable strategies for improving peer review processes and enhancing student preparation for giving feedback. Ultimately, this article calls for a shift toward collaborative and human-centred evaluation systems that promote deeper learning and fairness in a diverse academic landscape, enriching the legal education experience for all stakeholders.

The art of the possible

Eraj Haidari , Tamara Hervey — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article reports on the design phase of a small-scale transnational learning experience, bringing together 20 law students from Udayana University, Indonesia and The City Law School, London, UK. We reflect on how our backgrounds and previous experience as educators; the scope and scale of available resources; practical matters, especially time zones; and ethical considerations all fed into the design of the learning experience. Our conclusion is that attention is needed to all these design-constraining or enabling elements, both those which apply to any kind of learning experience and those which are the choice of the educators who do the designing. Our hope is that well-designed transnational legal education will enhance the learning experiences of a generation of students who are living in an interconnected world, within which they will eventually make their careers.

Oral communication skills discourse and higher education pedagogy

Felipe Balotin Pinto , Svetlana Tyulkina — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article investigates regulatory frameworks influencing oral communication in the global law classroom. It proposes a policy analysis through the lenses of pedagogical theory. Recent educational research investigating the roles of spoken language in the university classroom identifies oral communication as both a learning outcome and a pedagogical tool for learning. Although classroom interaction and discussions are essential pedagogical tools to learning and assessment in law schools worldwide, the role of disciplinary classroom spoken language is underexplored in the higher education literature. This discussion is particularly relevant as the rise of generative AI has highlighted the importance of verbal communication, with experts suggesting different forms of oral examination as effective alternatives for student assessment. While challenges related to law students’ spoken language have been reported globally, this article examines the discourse surrounding spoken language in Australian legal education as a case study of the global classroom. It seeks to uncover the sources, characteristics and underlying discourses surrounding oral communication skills in national policy, accreditation requirements, and university learning outcomes. This article concludes with brief recommendations for practice and future research.

The human capabilities approach in legal education

Vesselin Popovski, Abhinav Mehrotra, Kaainat Pundir — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article argues that the human capabilities approach towards legal education in India is preferable and necessary to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, build lifelong skills, allow citizens access to justice, and make institutions effective, accountable, and inclusive. Legal education should not simply train lawyers to defend human rights in court, but capacitate and empower people, who, knowing their rights, can prevent violations. The article focuses on India – the most populous and one of the most diverse countries in the world – to demonstrate both opportunities, as well as challenges in applying the human capabilities approach to legal education. It explores the case of Jindal Global Law School as a successful example of involving law faculty and students through legal clinics, public service, outreach, and direct work with local communities to raise awareness, disseminate legal know-how, empower people, and build capacity to achieve better accomplishment of human rights, access to justice, development, and peace.

The importance of commonality and difference in global legal education communities

Carole Silver, Ritika Giri — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The forces of globalization and related flows of international students have transformed legal education. For law schools, grounded by the geography of law, being viewed as a global space adds an important reputational dimension. These global reputations have not been interrogated in depth, at least in part because it has been impossible to assess the international identities of students at particular schools. This is an important missing element: it explains which vantage points are prominent during class discussions, where a law school is likely to have and develop relationships with foreign universities, and from which countries future students are most likely to come. This article uses newly available data about the national identities of students to provide an overview of who is studying in the United States and where they are doing so. We analyze these student communities from two perspectives, each at the law school level: first, students from the same home country who connect around this commonality, and second, students from the same law school cohort but diverse home countries who coalesce around their experiences at that law school. By focusing our analysis on the level of an individual law school, we can provide insight into the distinctive nature of law school global identities.

Fourth industrial revolution (4IR) impact in assessment practices

Charles Maimela, Legodi Thutse — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Disruptions in technology have impacted teaching and learning and, in particular for this paper, assessments in a rapid manner, with Covid-19 playing an accelerative role. Covid-19 forced universities to teach and assess students using online tools and platforms. This has, to some extent, raised concerns on whether this is necessary for the sustainability and resilience of teaching and learning in universities. Although the use of technology, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, in assessing students presents some challenges, like access and socio-economic conditions of a country like South Africa, it equally presents some benefits such as promoting authentic assessments, which ensures that critically thoughtful and reasoning graduates, who are able to deal with real life scenarios, and problems, are produced. This is premised, among others, on the fact that AI is a useful tool for academics to be able to prepare authentic assessments with minimal time and to achieve module outcomes. Thus, promoting quality teaching and learning by producing critically thoughtful graduates who have meaningful impact in society. Despite the challenges of technological usage in assessments, such as the compromise of student privacy through the use of protracting tools in assessments, there are benefits which have a positive impact on graduate attributes that are relevant in today’s world of work. Hence, the use of technologies must be promoted and carefully managed to balance the pros and cons.

Civic responsibility and civic engagement

Antoinette Kankindi — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

UNESCO’ s in-progress reflections series identifies, among other focus areas for competencies and skills development, a citizenship curriculum that would encompass content such as peace, human rights, sustainability, development, values and ethics. These themes pertain adequately to legal education and practice. From an interdisciplinary approach, they offer opportunities for introducing experiential learning, when there is willingness to innovate. This paper presents a student civic initiative devised to translate theoretical knowledge acquired into direct civic engagement at the service of society. The initiative is an integral complement to the knowledge of law and basic legal skills. It puts students face to face with societal needs like human rights, development, cultural values and the diversity of their communities. At the same time, it cultivates in them a sense of personal responsibility to remedy societal inequalities in new ways, demonstrating how theory should inform practice. Their capacity to observe and analyse matters at hand sharpens faster and their critical reasoning improves. For instance, from real problems they see in society, they start looking at laws in a more critical manner. The attempt in presenting this paper is to show how the conceptual framework of unity of knowledge, from which true interdisciplinary approach stems, guided the idea of the civic initiative as a skill development opportunity for law school students. The paper will state the multifaceted problem the initiative set out to solve, its main aim and objectives, as well as the results of its initial phase of execution. The paper also envisages the scalability of the initiative as well as the investigative potential it opens up, regarding the many ways in which experiential learning enhances competencies and skills development in legal learning.

Covid lessons to incorporate in simulated teaching at university law clinics

Gökşen Effendi — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

South African University Law Clinics permanent structures were forced to drastically change with the COVID pandemic in March 2020. The pandemic shifted the focus of ULC’s to simulated learning. Converting the practical clinical legal education module into an online simulation was a great achievement across many universities. Supervisors and students utilised various tools to achieve the simulated experiences of a real ULC with the advent of the ‘Online University Law Clinic’. There were many challenges, especially for those who struggle with technology. The impact of COVID has expanded the tools and use of technology in South African ULC’s. The question addressed in this paper is what lessons and recommendations can be utilised from the pandemic to further promote skill building for law students. In unpacking this question, the University of Johannesburg’s Auckland Park ULC is explored as a case study. The Online ULC promotes skill building through simulation, which will ultimately improve the overall basic legal foundation at universities and impact the resilience of ULC’s in the face of any future pandemics.

Strengthening Competencies and Skills through Legal Clinics

Tatiane Guimarães, Alexandre Pacheco da Silva — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Legal Clinics offer students hands-on professional practice in various areas, developing skills in negotiation, strategy formulation, ethical decision-making, teamwork, and legal document drafting. At FGV São Paulo Law School, these clinics are part of the mandatory undergraduate curriculum, offered in the seventh and eighth semesters. This article analyzes the impact of Copyright Legal Clinics, facilitated by the authors for three years, through a student-centred survey. The survey, based on CEPI's research, evaluates competencies and skills expected of future lawyers amid technological and social changes, categorized into "legal," "management," "technological," and "socio-emotional" areas. The findings highlight the strengths and weaknesses of this methodology in preparing students for legal practice beyond theoretical knowledge, although students had little time to reflect on the dynamics of self-organization, as the focus of the clinic was on their training and client service. It is important to highlight the significance of the social aspect of the Clinics in raising students' awareness of the importance of memory institutions and the representation of the Clinics, as a significant departure from traditional doctrinal teaching prevalent in Brazil and Latin America. This discussion aims to contribute to the evolution of legal education, particularly in Latin America, emphasizing the importance of practical, innovative teaching methods.

Curriculum review in addressing challenges in legal education

Arthur Muiru, Roselyne Mwanza — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Legal education is constantly evolving while simultaneously trying to hold onto the fundamentals of training professionals in the field. This balancing act primarily plays out in the process of curriculum development and review in several stages. Firstly, at the inception of a school, where the prospective contents of the programme are rigorously vetted, agreed upon and implemented. With time, a review of curriculum takes place. Strathmore Law School is undertaking its second major review of its Bachelor of Laws programme. At the core of the process is the need to understand generally what the role of legal education is in the formation of a more equitable society, the need to meet market demands for proficient practitioners and professionals and, the need to broaden the range of practice areas available to the market among others. This paper will tackle the place and utility of curriculum development in the provision of a wholesome legal education, at first taking on a broad theoretical perspective on curriculum development and review. The paper will then consider what goes into curricula at the inception stages of a law school and the goals and primary considerations that go into subsequent review processes. The need for an effective and goal-oriented review process will be proposed as a means to resolve dilemmas that law schools face in deciding what to prioritise when teaching students.

Global challenges and global skills

Joyce Sadka, Ana María Zorrilla Noriega — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article presents the intention, process, and results of a recent revision of the law degree study plan at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), a university located in Mexico City. It reflects on the main lessons derived from this experience, so that its reading can be useful for other educational institutions that pursue similar purposes. The curricular reform described in this article responds to the need for modernization given the characteristics of current legal practice, as well as the purpose of improving the learning experience of students during their degree through effective and motivating pedagogy, in addition to a balanced workload.

The revision process started with a solid exercise of international, external, and internal consultations. The proposal derived from this exercise was subject to an open and collaborative dialogue with university authorities and the faculty of the Law Department. This is how the new curriculum is built, with the purpose of ensuring that graduates of this academic program develop knowledge, skills and attitudes enabling them to act as agents of social transformation, perform successfully in the different areas of the legal profession, and respond appropriately to changes in legal systems.

Learning law through experience and the development of competencies

Eleonora Lozano Rodríguez, David Orlando Niño Muñoz — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the curricular transformation of the undergraduate programme at the Uniandes School of Law, highlighting the creation and implementation of the Eje Transversal de Aprendizaje Jurídico Experiencial (AJET). This innovative educational proposal is framed within a new competency-based curriculum that emphasises experiential learning, drawing on the theories of David Kolb, John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and others. Through three key types of courses or stages —projects, litigation, and clinics— AJET integrates active methodologies such as problem oriented project-based learning (PO-PLB), simulations, and law clinic training. This approach not only responds to the demands of an ever-changing legal environment but also promotes ethical and socially responsible training. The article discusses the importance of competency-based education, highlighting its advantages over content-centred education, and the challenges and opportunities in the implementation of AJET. The conclusion emphasises how this educational transformation prepares future lawyers to effectively and ethically face contemporary challenges, setting a new standard in legal education.

Editorial

Editors — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The European Law Faculties Association (ELFA) and The Law School Global League (LSGL) are delighted to present this special issue of the European Journal of Legal Education dedicated to Global Legal Education.

ELFA was founded to enhance the quality of legal education in Europe by providing a platform for discussion and exchange. Its primary objective is to foster cooperation among European universities and beyond. In turn, LSGL unites law schools from all over the world that are committed to the globalization of law, integrating global law into their learning outcomes and research endevours. The league's mission is to promote global legal education and scholarly research in response to the increasing globalization of law. This special issue brings together expertise from ELFA and LSGL faculty members from around the world. It engages with an array of issues and practices core to global legal education.

In our increasingly interconnected world, global legal education has emerged as an essential framework for preparing future lawyers to navigate complex legal landscapes that transcend national boundaries. Legal education today must equip students not only with a foundational understanding of law and its social impact but also with the ability to critically assess and engage with different legal traditions and cultures.

This special issue brings together authors who represent a global voice of legal academia and explores the significance of global legal education in our interconnected society, with a particular focus on (a) the importance of a values-based education, (b) the promotion of inclusive and diverse learning environments, (c) the role of clinical legal education, and (d) insights from collaborative processes of curriculum reform to promote social responsibility locally, nationally, regionally and globally.