Steel, Alex --- "Good Practice Guide (Bachelor of Laws): Law in Broader Contexts" [2013] UNSWLRS 51

Last Updated: 16 August 2013

Good Practice Guide (Bachelor of Laws): Law in Broader Contexts

Alex Steel, University of New South Wales

This paper is available for download at Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2289148

Citation

This paper was published in Australian Learning and Teaching Council Threshold Learning Outcomes Good Practice Guides, 2013. This paper may also be referenced as [2013] UNSWLRS 51.

Abstract

This Good Practice Guide was commissioned by the Law Associate Deans Network to support the implementation of Threshold Learning Outcome 1: Knowledge. The Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for the Bachelor of Laws were developed in 2010 as part of the Learning and Teaching Academic Standards (LTAS) Project, led by Professors Sally Kift and Mark Israel.

TLO 1 states:
Graduates of the Bachelor of Laws will demonstrate an understanding of a coherent body of knowledge that includes:
(a) the fundamental areas of legal knowledge, the Australian legal system, and underlying principles and concepts, including international and comparative contexts,
(b) the broader contexts within which legal issues arise, and
(c) the principles and values of justice and of ethical practice in lawyers’ roles.

This Good Practice Guide addresses 1(b).

It provides an overview of the theoretical perspectives through which legal education has been viewed – from positivism to critical race theory and the way these theories impact on what has been considered the appropriate breadth of context within which legal education should occur.

The Guide then provides a list of context areas that could be relevant to legal studies, and a list of articles or books that discuss or use broader contexts in a legal education setting. The lists are necessarily incomplete and correspondence is invited on further resources that could be available.