Engagement is the key to success in university studies at any time and, in the last 18 months, with online learning more than ever. Law students often find it difficult to engage with their studies. As Maranville has noted, “Many law students are so bored by the second year that their attendance, preparation, and participation decline precipitously”. This failure to engage is understandable as the common law is taught using cases that are old and alien to the students’ lives, particularly for first year undergraduates. Further, law schools traditionally teach law in discrete topics rather than as a holistic discipline. Law is broken down because law as a whole is considered too difficult and challenging, thus it needs to be sliced into manageable chunks. However, this makes it difficult for students to understand how their studies fit together, why each subject is relevant, and how subjects interact.
To encourage engagement and holistic understanding, this project uses a familiar and popular medium to engage those transitioning from high school to university studies by creating a transition course based on superhero films and the superhero universe. This project reverses the usual teaching of law by introducing law as a holistic discipline, asking the students to identify potential legal issues- problems they think the law should deal with- and then considering how the law does or should deal with these problems.
This paper will briefly explain the pedagogy and application thus far of the project.
About the Speaker:
Prof. Steven Gallagher, Professional Consultant, Professor of Practice in Law, CUHK LAW