Contents under pressure: Legal education on the line

Kathrine Galloway, Mary Heath, Natalie Skead, Alex Steel, Anne Hewitt, Mark Israel

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractResearch

Abstract

The transformation of the global economy being wrought by digital technologies, the automation of industry, and neoliberalism as an economic, political and discursive force has implications for every aspect of legal education.

Digital technologies are changing the nature of human attention and expectations of study. They affect education in both its processes and content, as well as the nature of work and pleasure. Technologies reach into our classrooms, even where the classroom itself has not already morphed into online forums. It has reached our offices, and it is transforming the legal professions. Law and legal institutions are not immune from automation which is also affecting the lives of the clients lawyers exist to serve. Precarious and entrepreneurial forms of work are a feature of the lives of our students as well as those of many university staff and graduates.

The diversity of an increasingly globalized population has not addressed the injustices facing colonized peoples; resources and power are not equally shared; and as a result diversity is not an unqualified good recognized by all. It is attended by experiences of discrimination, harassment and inequality which flow through law schools and the legal profession as well as the wider community from which law students emerge and in which law graduates will live and work.

In this paper we draw on the experience of the Smart Casual project to reflect on the nature of change in legal education; the strategies that might assist in responding constructively to it; and how we might face the future.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 8 Jul 2017
Event72nd Annual Conference of Australasian Law Teachers' Association : Law on the Line - University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Duration: 5 Jul 20178 Jul 2017
Conference number: 72nd
http://www.aomevents.com/media/files/ALTA%202017/alta-2017-program-070717.pdf

Conference

Conference72nd Annual Conference of Australasian Law Teachers' Association
Abbreviated titleALTA 2017
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityAdelaide
Period5/07/178/07/17
Internet address

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Contents under pressure: Legal education on the line'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this