In 1962 when Salma Sobhan, the first woman legal academic in Bangladesh, joined the Law Faculty at Dhaka University few women legal academics were found even in developed countries. This article, a part of the extended life history of Sobhan, examines how she became a legal academic in Bangladesh, the role of gender in her appointment to a position within a wholly male legal academy, and her performance as a legal academic. It reveals that Sobhan's academic excellence and privileged background facilitated her entry as well as acceptance into the legal academy. While her gender did not serve as a major obstacle, her performance was weakened by a language barrier and various other challenges. These challenges precluded Sobhan from becoming a trailblazer in the legal academy that she otherwise may have been. Nonetheless, Sobhan's contributions to the legal academy were significant in that she created a new academic culture by inspiring law students to use the law for social justice and pioneered feminist legal research in the context of Bangladesh.
This paper introduces and explains an experimental pedagogical exercise that employs LEGO (R) bricks to explore vague legal concepts. Drawing inspiration from the social representations paradigm, which conceptualises meaning as continuously shaped through communicative and cultural practices, I approach vagueness not as a flaw in legal language but as evidence of law's social embeddedness and its reproduction of dominant norms and categorisations. The exercise, designed for an introductory class in courses on law and language, invites students to collaboratively build metaphorical representations of an unfamiliar legal concept using a method adapted from social representations research (hierarchical evocations) combined with LEGO (R) construction. Through this material and playful mode of inquiry, students confront the contingent, negotiated and contested nature of legal meaning-making, challenging traditional assumptions of legal objectivity and formalism. The paper outlines the theoretical framework underpinning the exercise, situates it within critical pedagogy and LEGO (R) Serious Play, and reports on insights from a recent implementation of this exercise, drawing on students' reflections and the artefacts they produced. The findings suggest that creative, metaphor-driven learning activities can reveal the limitations and possibilities inherent in the collective construction of legal concepts, highlighting the pedagogical value of making legal meaning-making visible, tangible and open to critique.
This paper explores the impact of the Solicitors Acts 1954 to 2011 (Apprenticeship and Education) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 on undergraduate legal education in Ireland. The 2019 Regulations provided for "accelerated access" to the Law Society of Ireland's entrance examination (FE-1) thereby permitting undergraduate students to sit the exam. This study examines the experience and impact of sitting the FE-1 while simultaneously completing an undergraduate degree. It concentrates on points such as academic and career aspirations, workload management, and the alignment of the undergraduate curriculum with the FE-1. Empirical research based on a questionnaire completed by 121 participants reveals both benefits and challenges. Key findings draw attention to improved study skills and legal understanding but also stress and financial pressures experienced by participants. The article considers the broader implications for legal education and suggests a need for enhanced support and guidance from higher education institutions as well as potential reforms to the FE-1 process to better align with undergraduate programmes and reduce barriers to entry into the legal profession.
Widening participation (WP) students face greater barriers in securing work experience placements compared to their non-WP counterparts due to structural inequities in our society. Many WP students face challenges in understanding the graduate employment market, and in securing opportunities to develop the skills that will enhance their employment prospects. They may also feel that they do not "belong" or lack confidence in their ability to succeed. This article reports on a research study which assessed the benefits to undergraduate WP law students of taking part in School Tasking, a work experience opportunity involving teaching law to local primary school children, alongside participation in a bespoke wraparound Employability Programme. This study contributes a unique perspective at the intersection of public legal education and work experience, exploring empirical insights from WP law students for the first time. Findings demonstrate that taking part in both School Tasking and the Employability Programme have key benefits for WP students, including improvements in their skills development, employability and sense of belonging. Consequently, this article argues that universities should create tailored work experience opportunities for WP students to support the maximisation of their potential, both during their degree and post-graduation when moving into the workplace.
This article will reflect on the impact of Brexit and of the introduction of the SQE on comparative law teaching in UK universities. Drawing on a 2025 survey by the British Association of Comparative Law (BACL) on how comparative law is currently taught in UK universities, it will examine the place of comparative law in the law school curriculum. In so doing, it will identify changes since the last BACL teaching survey of 2002. Has Brexit, with EU law potentially demoted to an optional part of the law degree curriculum, discouraged interest in studying comparative law? What has been the impact of the introduction of the SQE on law school curricula? Having been given exclusive access to the findings of the 2025 BACL teaching survey, I will examine the challenges and choices universities and comparative law academics face. Is comparative law teaching an interesting but ornamental addition to a crammed curriculum or an important part of the UK university response to globalisation and the internationalisation of legal education?
It has been argued that for feedback to be effective, it needs to be provided quickly, close to the act of learning production. However, increasing student numbers, and additional demands on lecturers, makes this goal look unachievable. A radical solution may be needed to combat this: could Generative AI provide useful feedback to students at speed? This paper explains how a Generative AI tool was built to produce feedback to students on the MSc in Law and Professional Practice at King's College London and examines the results of a study as to the advantages, and disadvantages, of using Generative AI to produce feedback. The results of the study have shown that while the students valued the speed of the feedback produced by Generative AI, and elements of its quality such as the specificity, structure and organisation of the feedback, ultimately they would view AI-generated feedback as a supplement, rather than a replacement, for lecturer feedback.
Access to quality education is a pivotal driver of social mobility and sustainable development, particularly in the Caribbean where education and skill acquisition are fundamental for overcoming structural inequalities and improving social mobility. The region faces persistent barriers, from limited institutional capacity to geographical and financial constraints which restrict higher education opportunities. This paper examines how online and experiential learning can help break down the barriers to social mobility, strengthen the sustainability of higher education, and foster inclusive growth in the specific context of legal education, using the Cayman Islands as a central case study to illustrate challenges and propose region-wide improvements. The analysis is grounded in current literature and policy, and it aligns with several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those which emphasise equitable access and lifelong learning. Ultimately, the paper argues that integrating online and experiential approaches in legal education can expand access for underserved communities, enhance practical skills training, and promote a more socially mobile and resilient Caribbean society.
This article explores how law schools in Australia and Hong Kong address digital disruption, particularly legaltech, and whether curricula equip graduates to manage structural and business-model shifts in legal services. Using a systematic survey of course handbooks identified through keyword searches and coded by inclusion and exclusion criteria, the study maps documented legaltech education. Course descriptions were cross-checked with faculty webpages where possible, though reliance on published handbooks is noted as a limitation. Findings reveal that while legaltech offerings are growing, they remain uneven and fragmented. This gap supports the central argument: law schools must move beyond isolated technology modules to fostering adaptability and change management skills. Practical barriers-such as high software costs and limited staff expertise-further constrain reform despite pedagogical intent. By situating these challenges within broader debates on hybrid legal roles and regulatory disruption, the article underscores the need for legal education to evolve beyond technical knowledge toward preparing graduates for dynamic professional models.
Undergraduate legal education in England and Wales has recently seen a shift away from prescription, by the professional bodies, of the content of an undergraduate law degree. The lack of such regulatory requirements calls into question the shape, scale and scope of the core curriculum within law schools, which sits alongside an increasingly diverse elective curriculum. This paper explores the core curriculum across providers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland through an analysis of module information taken from course specifications and related materials. It identifies that while there is still widespread provision of the traditional foundations of legal knowledge subjects, there are significant disparities in credit weighting and degree structure across providers. It also analyses the wide range of non-foundation of legal knowledge modules found within the core curriculum, developing four themes: the established core, the new core, the core adjacent and the specialist core to consider the role of these subjects and how different drivers of curriculum development are reflected in the similarities and differences seen across the sector.
The article argues that the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies in legal education has reached a new level today. This is due to the emergence in 2024 of a new technology of interactive 3D conversational assistants. This technology represents the next step after the introduction of ChatGPT technology in the world's leading universities, and it opens up new perspectives for the training of future lawyers. The article discusses in detail the technical parameters of the new technology and its continuity with the artificial intelligence technologies that are already used in faculties of law. The authors define the levels of complexity and practical options for its application. These options include lecturing by the 3D conversational assistant, using it in seminars, drafting lawsuits and contracts with the help of a special drafting tool, placing the 3D conversational assistant in the university admissions office and in the student legal clinic, and conducting simple and complex legal consultations.
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming legal education and challenging long-standing traditions in the teaching and study of law, as well as how those studies are assessed. Yet there is not sufficient empirical evidence on how law students, specifically, approach GenAI in their learning and assessment preparation. To bridge this gap, this paper investigates the use of GenAI by law students at Warwick Law School, and discusses how a focus group of high-achieving, experienced GenAI users utilise GenAI tools in their academic work and assessments. Our findings reveal complex and sometimes conflicting student perspectives on GenAI, highlighting both sophisticated usage and concerns about over-reliance. The paper also presents guidelines developed for a new undergraduate research module at Warwick Law School. These guidelines offer actionable recommendations for integrating GenAI into legal education and assessments. Through an extensive literature review, empirical study and the presentation of our guidelines, this paper contributes to broader discussions and scholarship on GenAI in higher education and legal education specifically.
There is a lack of consolidated knowledge regarding the potential of, and best practices and limitations associated with, artificial intelligence (AI) in legal education. This review synthesises 82 academic works published between January 2020 and April 2025 originating from 26 jurisdictions. Our review yields four main themes. First, current empirical evidence suggests that AI tools (eg large language models, chatbots) alone have so far performed below average on law school evaluations, though detailed prompts can substantially improve outputs. Second, the literature provides concrete use cases for AI tools as teaching aids, facilitators of interactive exercises, legal writing aids and skill development. Third, the literature highlights the risks of passive reliance on AI and diverse perspectives over appropriate AI use. Fourth, the literature suggests that AI will make legal educational content more accessible but perhaps also less transparent and more formalistic. These themes underscore the importance of evidence-based approaches to AI integration in legal education.
One in five UK students is disabled, yet disability remains underexplored in legal education research. Existing literature on disability in higher education offers generic analysis of disability but fails to explore it through a law-specific lens. This article presents an original empirical analysis of the lived experience of disability in law school, drawing on semi-structured interviews with seven disabled law students as they transition through law school. Using phenomenology and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) - a novel methodological tool for legal research - the study explores how phenomena regulated by the law are subjectively lived and experienced by law students. Findings reveal that disabled law students often self-select away from certain areas of legal practice not because of lack of capability, but because of perceived barriers and an absence of disabled role models in the profession. Centring student voice improves our understanding of how disability is experienced and can lead to better support in law school. Incorporating disability experiences in employability narratives enables disabled law students to envisage a place for themselves in the legal profession. Disability has reach into many areas of society and should form part of a truly inclusive legal education.
