The importance of teaching dispute resolution in a twenty-first-century law school

Civil justice reviews over the past 20 years have encouraged the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and particularly mediation. Mediation is arguably now becoming more mainstream in terms of dispute resolution process choice. In some instances law changes have been introduced requiring parties in dispute to consider using mediation; similarly, lawyers have an ethical responsibility to provide advice to their clients about the range of dispute resolution processes available. What is lacking however is a corresponding appreciation of the changing attitudes to the teaching of dispute resolution in the majority of UK Law Schools, where the promotion of adversarialism within the curriculum appears to remain the focus as the primary and only method of dispute resolution. The article argues that this is unreflective of current attitudes and thinking towards dispute resolution in most common law countries, where litigation is no longer necessarily the primary dispute resolution process of choice. Whilst there was token appreciation of the importance of mediation advocacy and its inclusion recommended within the Bar Practice Training Course (BPTC), the recent LETR was silent on any suggestions about the inclusion of dispute resolution based curriculum content at any stage of legal education in England and Wales. The article will explore the historical development of lawyers’ attitudes to dispute resolution within the civil justice arena and academics’ teaching of curriculum associated with it in UK Law Schools. The article will pose questions on why recent legal history suggests that Law Schools should now perhaps take a more socio-legal approach to their curriculum content and embrace the teaching of dispute resolution as a defined subject area for the 21st century law school

Report on USA visit into the establishment of a mediation clinic

In December 2006 The Department of Crime and Policing made a successful bid for funding support from the HEFCE Teaching Informed and Enriched by Research Initiative (RIT). This is a report on part five of the bid regarding the visits made in phase one of the project to other international institutions who teach programmes with alternative dispute resolution (ADR) components, some of which engage in experiential learning through clinical legal education (CLE)

The Mediation Clinic at Canterbury Christ Church University: report and evaluation

In January 2008, with the assistance of funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and after nearly a year of preparatory research, the Christ Church Mediation Clinic was set up. This is a unique project in as much as it is the first such clinic to be based within a UK university. This report will reflect on the progress made with the project, the contemporary relevance of a mediation clinic, it will include a summary of the clinic’s main aims, the research required to establish the right model of clinic and an explanation of how the curriculum has been developed using dispute resolution as a focus. The report will conclude with a summary of the service provision element of the clinic and a brief analysis of the work undertaken so far

Presentation. the launch of the Canterbury Christ Church Mediation Clinic

The development of the Mediation Clinic project has been possible through a Higher Education Innovation Research in Teaching fund. Ben Waters will outline the rationale for developing such a project. Despite the perceived resistance demonstrated by the private sector to use mediation for the resolution of civil disputes, since the millennium, particularly following the implementation of the Access to Justice Act 1999 and the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules, there has been a growth in alternative methods of dispute resolution for civil claims and particularly the use of mediation. Court of Appeal decisions such as Dunnett v Railtrack, indicate that parties to a civil dispute should give serious thought to mediation as a method of resolving their dispute, not only for all the benefits that this process can provide, but also to avoid the risk of costs penalties which the court has power to order for failing to do so. At an international mediation conference, which Ben Waters attended in 2007, Sir Brian Neill, himself a former Lord Justice of Appeal, delivered the keynote speech. Sir Brian described mediation as “An unstoppable force”. It is therefore argued here that there is a much to be said for these words and this presentation provides justification for the establishment of the first mediation clinic to be based in a UK University will be provided

Mediation and your business

This presentation, delivered to the regional business community at the Kent 20/20 event in April 2012, will provide an overview of the Mediation Clinic project at Canterbury Christ Church University, the first of its kind to be established in a UK University. The aims of the project will be outlined, namely to provide mediation services to the local and wider community, to enhance teaching and learning across curricula and to encourage research in the area of dispute resolution. In the context of the business world and the perceived value which the mediation provision offered by the Mediation Clinic can have for small to medium sized businesses, a case will be made to help business managers understand that mediation can have real and tangible advantages for their organisations. Successfully resolving internal disputes through mediation can assist with internal focus of an organisation in order to improve staff harmony and wellbeing, which in turn translates into profitability. Mediation can also assist with the external focus of the organisation by preservation of business relationships and maintaining reputation. The use of mediation as a dispute resolution process can have a really beneficial and positive effect on business savings in terms of time, money and reduced disruption

How can we SQEeze it all In? some challenges facing law schools in England and Wales

The Qualifying Law Degree in England and Wales has required law students wishing to qualify as solicitors to demonstrate competence in the seven foundational subjects (through a range of variously flexible assessment methods) and Law schools have arguably been allowed a certain amount of latitude in the way the law degree is taught. There has been space for a liberal education approach and the dissemination of the idea that the goal of a liberal law curriculum is not to ensure that students have acquired particular factual information, but rather, to allow them to understand the structures and values that pervade and underpin law as seen by Bradney (2003). Some law degrees have also included elements of socio-legalism, which arguably promotes the inclusion of a requirement to think critically, the facilitation of contextual knowledge acquisition, and the learning of what law ‘is all about’ and not just ‘what law is’. Other, perhaps more traditional law schools, have taught the law degree doctrinally, requiring law students to learn what the stated law is or, in other words, the black letter law and to understand the substantive law and associated legal principles. Educators in these institutions have often adopted the case law deconstruction and analysis method, which has often been delivered didactically. This doctrinal approach has most commonly required law to be learnt by rote and is best exemplified by Graduate Diploma In Law (GDL) teaching. In some more enlightened law schools, a place has been found for a more practical or experiential legal education approach at undergraduate level, and sometimes for academic credit. Within these institutions not only has the acquisition of practical legal skills (including research methodology), been incorporated into the curriculum, but opportunities are provided for students to learn how to perform practical legal tasks such as drafting letters and documents, negotiating and interviewing. In some instances, such law schools have facilitated this knowledge acquisition process through students’ exposure to the world of ‘real law’ through clinical legal experience. We now enter a ‘brave new world’ of training regulation for students seeking admission as solicitors. The current Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) proposals, now looking increasingly more like reality than not, present the academy with challenges as to how the undergraduate law degree will be delivered; what to teach, how to teach it and if the Solicitors Qualifying Examination Assessment Specification syllabus as currently presented is to be adopted, how to include it all

The value of community participation from the perspective of law school undergraduates involved as community legal companions

This paper will consider the current importance of the graduate skills agenda in relation to a UK law degree by using as its focus the CLOCK (Community Legal Outreach Collaboration Keele) scheme, a collaborative social justice project involving law students, legal services providers, third sector advice agencies and law courts based in Canterbury and Brighton UK. In recent years, the UK Government has significantly cut civil legal aid in areas such as housing, family and welfare benefits, with a view to easing the strain on the deficit. Many, including lawyers, who have raised concerns that these cuts could leave the most vulnerable within our communities unrepresented in court and place an undue burden on our civil justice system, have opposed the cuts. The CLOCK Community Legal Companion scheme has been introduced to provide an opportunity for those within our communities who are caught in the so-called ‘justice gap’ to gain support and guidance from law students when they attend court unrepresented. The socio-legal experiential learning opportunities presented by such an initiative for undergraduate law students will be evaluated, together with an overview of how the scheme operates in the Canterbury and Brighton County Courts, as well as the benefits it provides for the local community. The scheme not only helps litigants in person in need, but enables law students at Canterbury Christ Church to use their knowledge for the benefit of their local society. Experiences of setting up a Community Legal Companion scheme and students reflections of participating as Community Legal Companions drawn from empirical qualitative research, will be shared. The way in which this community-based project can provide undergraduate law students with valuable employability skills, through analysis of their own perceptions, will be appraised

Setting up a collaborative community legal outreach project

The purpose of this workshop is to explain why a collaborative community legal outreach project is a good idea for a University Law School. Some background to how such a project (in this case CLOCK) will be outlined, following which the importance of getting ‘buy in’ from various important stakeholders will be explained. A general idea of the costs in establishing and then running such a project will be provided. The workshop will also explain how best to set up such a project and the value of running a pilot study in the early phase of such an initiative. Some valuable research findings will be shared from the CLOCK projects established at both Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Brighton, and this in part, will demonstrate the opportunities for the legal academy to demonstrate how theory meets practice. Other opportunities for students such as internships will also be shared

Setting up a social justice community legal outreach project

This presentation will cover a number of issues for consideration when thinking about setting up a social justice outreach project. These include justification for establishing such a project (in this case an access to justice CLOCK project) including the social justice (altruism) rationale, assisting the growing numbers of Litigants in Person, a need to relieve HMCTS/judiciary of an ever increasing work burden and the benefits that students can derive from such a project, such as the engagement with clinical legal education, and employability benefits, as well as the obvious marketing advantages which such a project can provide for the university. Background will be provided to CLOCK; there are now 11 Law Schools in England and Wales, which operate similar projects and which are part of the CLOCK National group. The importance of getting 'buy in' from your your institution (and possibly collaboration), as well as court, partner providers, students, crucial to which is extensive networking engagement, will be emphasised. Importantly, the likely costs of setting up and those ongoing will be outlined. The presentation will share the requirements of project set up, including the importance of coordinating a steering group, the need for good quality training and the establishment of a student committee and a reminder that best practice (borrowing from others) is to be recommended. The research undertaken by both CCCU and the University of Brighton will be shared and the pedagogical relevance through theory meeting practice will be emphasised