How Much “Law” in Legal Studies? Approaches to Teaching Legal Research and Doctrinal Analysis in a Legal Studies Program

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (03) ◽  
pp. 297-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Kazmierski
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Professional Law

Abstract This article addresses the teaching of legal research methods and doctrinal analysis within a legal studies program. I argue that learning about legal research and doctrinal analysis is an important element of legal education outside professional law schools. I start by considering the ongoing debate concerning the role of legal education both inside and outside professional law schools. I then describe the way in which the research methods courses offered by the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University attempt to reconcile the tension between “law” and legal studies. In particular, I focus on how the second-year research methods course introduces students to “traditional” legal research and doctrinal analysis within a legal studies context by deploying a number of pedagogical strategies. In so doing, the course provides students with an important foundation that allows them to embrace the multiple roles of legal education outside professional law schools.

The Challenges of Teaching Comparative Law and Socio-Legal Studies at Indonesia's Law Schools

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (S1) ◽  
pp. S229-S244
Author(s):  
Herlambang P WIRATRAMAN
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Comparative Law ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Source Materials

AbstractThis article addresses the role of legal research methodologies in the development of legal science and the creation of social change in Indonesia. Based on fieldwork conducted at Indonesian law schools between 2014 and 2016, this article reveals that legal research methods taught in Indonesia are starkly divided into normative-juridical and empirical-juridical approaches. Misunderstandings between adherents of these different schools of thought pose significant obstacles to the development of interdisciplinary approaches to law that span or go beyond the divide. Methodological conflicts resulting in the absence of socio-legal approaches in Indonesian law schools, coupled with outdated and limited source materials, limit the study of comparative law in Indonesia to the mere comparison of statutes and rules shorn of socio-political context. They also fail to instill awareness of the importance of considering social – on top of legal – impact in the context of Indonesia's complex and pluralist legal system.

Authority of Law: An Analysis of The Role of Police

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Keir
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
The University

<div class="page" title="Page 3"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>Veronika is a recent graduate from the Honours Legal Studies program at the University of Waterloo. Her passions are socio-legal research, policy development, feminist legal theory, and crime control development. Veronika is currently working a full-time job at Oracle Canada, planning on pursuing further education in a Masters program. </span></p></div></div></div>

Teaching Legal Research in Canadian Law Schools: Are We Meeting the Needs of the Profession?

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Eaton
Keyword(s):  
Education System ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Canadian Law ◽  
University Of Manitoba ◽  
The University ◽  
Electronic Sources

AbstractIn this philosophical article John Eaton from the University of Manitoba recounts the current legal education system in Canada and reflects on the issues involved in teaching legal research skills, including problems with where to base the training within the curriculum, and difficulties encountered in the migration from hard copy research, to current students' predilections for using electronic sources. Whilst based on the Canadian process his article has a wider application in relation to the “Google-generation” of students.

scholarly journals LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. C. Nirmal
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Service Market ◽  
Education In India ◽  
Induced Changes

This article makes some observations about legal education in India by locating it within a wider context of legal education reform that is taking place in Law Schools across the world in the wake of globalizationled and globalization-induced changes in the nature and needs of legal profession. For being both intellectually challenging and professionally relevant, legal education should be more responsible than ever before to the legal needs of the community national as well as international , and the learning needs of students to become professionally competent to play their role in an increasingly transnationalized legal service market. Any effort to restructure and reorient legal education to attain these goals will be an uphill task for any school. This article begins with exploring the implications of globalization for legal education and then turns to nature, aims and objectives of legal education. The article then looks at the possible changes required to be made in the existing curriculum for undergraduate law students in order to make the legal education more relevant and meaningful for its consumers. The focus then shifts to issues concerning methods of teaching, clinical experience and assessment of students. This article then considers issues arising from the proposal of the Bar Council of India to reduce the period of Masters programme and then builds a strong case for strengthening a research tradition in Law Schools. The focus then shifts to measures that are necessary to attract and retain better faculty and also to the regulatory role of the Bar Council of India in the field of legal education. The article concludes with some reflections on the promise of a different vision of legal education.

scholarly journals Improving the credibility of empirical legal research: practical suggestions for researchers, journals, and law schools

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Chin ◽  
Alexander Carl DeHaven ◽  
Tobias Heycke ◽  
Alex O. Holcombe ◽  
David Thomas Mellor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Incentive Systems ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Legal Studies

Fields closely related to empirical legal research are enhancing their methods to improve the credibility of their findings. This includes making data, analysis code, and other materials openly available, and preregistering studies. Empirical legal research appears to be lagging behind other fields. This may be due, in part, to a lack of meta-research and guidance on empirical legal studies. The authors seek to fill that gap by evaluating some indicators of credibility in empirical legal research, including a review of guidelines at legal journals. They then provide both general recommendations for researchers, and more specific recommendations aimed at three commonly used empirical legal methods: case law analysis, surveys, and qualitative studies. They end with suggestions for policies and incentive systems that may be implemented by journals and law schools.

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