Transforming legal education – the regulatory value of shared space

In many jurisdictions reform of the regulation of legal education has gathered pace in the last half century, driven in part by the many significant changes within and pressures upon legal education itself. In the last 30 years or so, increasingly, there are debates around how we should regulate learning and teaching. Should it be regulated as are goods, products and services in society? Should risk-based and outcomes-focused assessments underpin the regulatory field? What is it we should actually regulate in the processes of learning, teaching and assessment, anyway; and who should regulate that, and for whom? Looking wider, how does regulation of legal education sit with regulation of education in schools and HE generally? With regulation in other professions’ educations?

In this lecture I argue that regulation of legal education often derives from regulatory frameworks that have become increasingly ill-fitting in the new social, professional and technological environments in which legal education in most jurisdictions finds itself. Drawing on my work with regulators internationally I will outline a design that, in its meta-regulatory role, may help us to achieve radical change in legal education for the better.

Cover image from: Giles_Circus_shared_space_in_Ipswich.jpg (3264×2448)

Biography

Paul is a Professor of Law at Manchester Metropolitan Law School, and a consultant to Osgoode Professional Development, Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. A professor since 2003, he has worked in law schools in Scotland, England, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong. He has published widely in the fields of legal education & legal critique, particularly in international and interdisciplinary educational design, in regulation and in the use of technology-enhanced learning. He is a PFHEA, NTF, Fellow of the RSA, Honorary Vice President of BILETA, and consultant to regulators & law schools internationally. He blogs at http://paulmaharg.com. Full CV at http://paulmaharg.com/bio/

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