Professional, Legal and ethical issues - indicative topic list

indicative list of topic areas for professional, legal and ethical issues modules clustered into broad themes. Document is to be consulted in conjunction with other slides and notes for the module.

Introduction to Professional and Legal Issues: INFO2009

slides and activities outlining the extent of the module,outline of proposed courseworks. Includes a couple of activities

Professional legal education reviews : too many 'what's, too few 'how's

Former colonies of the British Empire, Hong Kong and Australia inherited the common law system and the basic structure of legal education and training from England and Wales and remain the closest siblings in terms of proximity in distance and the high degree of similarity between their respective frameworks for legal education and training. This article first summarizes the major reviews of legal education and training in these three jurisdictions: England and Wales, Australia and Hong Kong over the last four decades and argues that while these reviews are keen on investigating ‘what’ is lacking in the curriculum and ‘what’ needs to be changed to equip graduates for the challenges of the day, they do not seem to have shown the same level of enthusiasm in identifying ‘how’ the intended outcomes prescribed can be achieved. Nevertheless, law schools in these jurisdictions recently began to tap on, and combine with the improved classroom pedagogy, clinical legal education and internship, innovative teaching tools and solutions in an attempt to deliver more enhanced learning experience to students. The article examines the role ascribed to technology in legal education and training with a particular reference to SimPLE, a e-learning platform developed in England and Wales which has been put to use in Australia as well, and the reform initiatives taken, and planned to be taken, by the Department of Professional Legal Education at the University of Hong Kong in its Postgraduate Certificate in Laws programme. This article concludes by pointing out the importance of collaboration among stakeholders including teachers, university administration and the legal profession in effecting a more active role of technology in legal education and training of today.

Professional Liability of the Construction Professional as an Expert Witness in the Spanish Legal Framework

Inside COBRA 2011 RICS International Research Conference, the present paper is linked to analyze the liability of the construction professional in his practice as a expert witness in the Spanish legal framework. In a large number of legal procedures related to the building it is necessary the intervention of the expert witness to report on the subject of litigation, and to give an opinion about possible causes and solutions. This field is increasingly importantly for the practice of construction professional that requires an important specialization. The expert provides his knowledge to the judge in the matter he is dealing with (construction, planning, assessment, legal, ...), providing arguments or reasons as the base for his case and acting as part of the evidence. Although the importance of expert intervention in the judicial process, the responsibilities arising from their activity is a slightly studied field. Therefore, the study has as purpose to think about the regulation of professional activities raising different aims. The first is to define the action of the construction professional-expert witness and the need for expert evidence, establishing the legal implications of this professional activity. The different types of responsibilities (the civil, criminal and administrative) have been established as well as the economic, penal or disciplinary damages that can be derived from the expert report

Legal privilege for in-house lawyers in the light of AKZO: a matter of law or policy? Research Papers in Law, 05/2011

From introduction. This paper discusses the arguments in favour of extending legal privilege to in-house lawyers in the light of the CJEU‟s judgement in AKZO. The previous jurisprudence is unambiguous, as the Court clearly stated in AM & S that the confidentiality of written communications between an undertaking and its lawyer is protected under Union law only when two cumulative conditions are fulfilled: they must be connected to the exercise of the client‟s rights of defence and the lawyer must be independent, that is, “not bound to the client by a relationship of employment”.1 This protection also applies to internal notes confined to reporting the content of communications with independent lawyers containing legal advice.2

Is scholarship of teaching and learning in practical legal training a professional responsibility?

In Australia, applicants for admission to the legal profession must hold appropriate academic qualifications, and competently complete practical legal training (PLT). The author's research investigates institutional PLT practitioners' engagement with scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). The theoretical framework for the research draws on Bourdieu and Passeron's reflexive sociology of education and culture. This article focuses on responses to a paramount obligation proposition put to 34 PLT practitioners during semi-structured interviews: Might lawyers' paramount obligations to the court intersect with PLT practitioners' teaching and assessment practices? The proposition elicited responses and insights about field forces within the individual and organisational dimensions of teaching and learning in PLT. These include top-down/bottom-up pressures that impinge on PLT practitioners' engagement with SoTL.

Perpetuating Racism: Legal Education, Race and Social Justice

By presenting the results of a content analysis of Australian undergraduate legal education, this paper examines the extent to which issues of race, ethnicity, discrimination, and multiculturalism feature within this component of the moral, ethical, and professional development of legal professionals. It will demonstrate that instead of encouraging a deep, critical and contextual understanding of such issues, legal education provides a relatively superficial one, which has important implications for the role that legal professionals play in overcoming injustices such as institutional racism, and the kinds of social reform that they are likely to undertake.