Transforming Legal Education Learning and Teaching the Law in the Early Twenty-first Century

Paul Maharg presents a critical inquiry into the identity and possibilities of legal education, and an exploration of transformational alternatives to our current theories and practices of teaching and learning the law. His work takes the view that bodies of interdisciplinary theory and knowledge of the history of legal education are important to all stages of legal education. He also argues that new learning designs - such as transactional learning - need to be developed to help students, educators and lawyers deal with the transitions and challenges facing them now and in the foreseeable future. Throughout, discussions of theory are spliced with case studies of academic and professional legal learning, particularly in the field of technology-enhanced learning. The content of the book will be updated in a community of practice wiki at http://www.transforming.org.uk, which will also allow readers to comment and expand on the book's final chapter.

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Part 1 In(ter)disciplines: Trading zones; The empty quarter: interdisciplinary research and practice; Conclusion: elasticity and obstacle. Part 2 Laminations: The road not taken: realists and the curriculum; 'By the end of this module...': the intimate dimensions of ethical education; Codex to codecs: the medieval web redivivus; Conclusion: adjacencies. Part 3 Metaverse: Simulations and the metaverse; Transactional learning in action; Relational objects: transactions, professionalism, e-mergence; Multimedia and the docuverse of law: learning and the representation of knowledge; Conclusion: simulation and transformation; Afterword: elective affinities: experience, ethics, technology, collaboration; References; Index.

Paul Maharg is Professor of Law at the Australian National University, and Professor of Law at Nottingham Law School. He has published extensively in the areas of legal education and legal critique. He has worked with regulators, law firms and law schools in England, Scotland, Canada, USA, Hong Kong and Australia.