The Law Teacher
The Law Teacher
The value of using multi-methods in law courses in higher education
This article examines the added value of using multi-methods in an intermediate law course for final-year undergraduate and master's degree students at a medium-sized university in South West Finland. The study involved twenty-three law students from various countries who were about to complete their bachelor's studies or pursue their master's degrees. The content analysis and constant comparative approach results indicated that employing multiple teaching methods in the course significantly enhanced the students' learning. The treaty simulation, based on the ongoing negotiations at two international organisations - the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization - had the most significant impact on the students. Participants felt accountable for their learning, gained self-confidence, developed a sense of fulfilment, and learned about the complexities of negotiating international treaties and building consensus. They felt more prepared for similar roles in their future careers. The course highlights the benefits of active learning and the role of simulations in developing professional competence and communication skills. It suggests that faculty should incorporate multi-methods and simulations, when possible, to teach law.
Introduction
Introduction
Legal education has been evolving globally despite the diversity among different regions. Since the nineteen seventies, numerous reports have been published in various countries, including the United States, England, Australia, Scotland, Canada, and Hong Kong. These reports have addressed desirable approaches to curriculum design and legal education, recommending a shift in traditional legal education methods to emphasize the acquisition of skills and values rather than content-based teaching. They have also called for the curriculum to be "internationalized" to prepare students for an increasingly "globalized" legal practice. Consistent with this viewpoint, several scholars have proposed the expansion of the legal education curriculum.
The traditional dogmatic practice of requiring law students to learn theory and memorize numerous rules and a few cases, believing that this will make them good lawyers, is deeply rooted in many legal systems. However, scholars argue that memorizing cases and textbooks is ineffective for students' learning or using legal reasoning skills. In a globalized world, future lawyers will require the ability to familiarize themselves rapidly with a wide range of issues and even legal systems.
This article examines the impact of a course on intellectual property law taught to university students in Finland. The course combined doctrinal teaching (utilizing multiple methods) with experiential learning (simulation). By integrating simulation and doctrinal instruction, it aimed to stimulate students' active learning and enable them to develop professional competence and communication skills.