This is an interactive workshop designed to bring together teachers from a variety of institutions across the UK to share ideas, learning materials and other resources related to the teaching of ethics on undergraduate and postgraduate law degrees and professional law programmes.
The workshop will be modelled on a successful pilot organised by the proposer in October 2011. This was designed not simply to share ideas and experience but to establish a continuing community of practice in this field. The October workshop (which was planned for 25-30 participants) was oversubscribed and the proposer has received excellent evaluations and considerable support for further workshops. Included amongst these are three proposals for contributions to the proposed workshop and the proposer intends to call for more in order to provide a diverse experience for participants. Current proposals include demonstrations of the use of simulations, and how to develop ethical understanding through live clinical experience using limited resources.
The workshop intends to make the results of its work and the resources demonstrated freely available to the wider community. To date this has been done through the website: www.teachinglegalethics.org, where the resources from the October workshop may be downloaded on the basis of a Creative Commons licence. We hope that the material would be available through the HEA website as well, if possible.
One value of the proposed workshop would be its role in developing an interactive community of practice on teaching legal ethics which we would hope to continue (with HEA support if possible) through further workshops and the development of an effective forum on either the HEA or the ‘Teaching Legal Ethics’ website.