The CLS Educational Network (CLS-EN) develops an educational collaboration on Critical Legal Studies (CLS) between four Universities. It will produce open-source learning material and teaching practices for pre-graduate law students and will lay the basis for a new European CLS educational network.
CLS can be situated within the ‘law and society’ movement. Unlike an 'internal', doctrinal approach to law, that studies law as an autonomous system, CLS is an ‘external’ approach which examines how law and society interact and influence each other. CLS tends to focus on the political and social power structures that shape legal practices, exploring the ways in which relations of race, gender, ethnicity, class, disability intersect in and through law, to create complex patterns of discrimination and debility. Probably more than any other subject in the field of law, CLS emphasises intercultural awareness, diversity and equality, global challenges, interdisciplinarity, methodological diversity, and critical thinking.
The problem that this project remedies is that students often complain that CLS is too advanced, employs difficult terminology, or uses difficult methods and theories. There is a paucity of law modules which teach CLS in any depth, and lecturers in CLS are often isolated at their own institutions where limited expertise is available among colleagues.
The CLS Educational Network will create new teaching methods and materials for more than 1000 students across the four universities, including methodological guidance for applied pregraduate research. Qualitative improvement in both content and methodologies can further be expected from the knowledge network, based on the familiarisation and intensive collaborations among the teachers and with students.
Participants and Stakeholders
Coordinator
Ruben Wissing
Department of European, Public and International Law, Ghent University
Other Partner Institutions
- University of Galway
- University of Tartu
- University of Bordeaux
Team Composition:
Illan Wall, School of Law, University of Galway
Katre Luhamaa, School of Law, University of Tartu
David Diallo, School of Law and Political Science, University of Bordeaux
Objectives
The objectives of the CLS Educational Network project are as follows:
- Develop an extended syllabus. The syllabus will include suggested content, dealing with both general issues of CLS theories and methods; and also focus on specific thematical issues (e.g. rights and discrimination, refugees and migration, policing and criminal justice, etc.).
- Design a learning pack. This will include particular types of pedagogic techniques and exercises, focusing on distinctively planned teaching sessions (e.g. team-based learning, peer teaching, student co-production of materials, incl. alternative knowledge production such as comics, podcasts, videos).
- Create common online materials. We will develop a series of short explainers, including both key terms and short discussions of the fundamental literature. We will work with student groups to produce different methods of delivering this material (including video, interviews, blogs, comics, etc.).
- Establish a sustainable teaching network. The project will be completed by the development of a new teaching network, where colleagues will offer their insights across different institutions, by providing online lectures, small group supervisions, or support and mentorship. The network will include a virtual student collaboration network, where students at the participating institutions meet virtually once a year, to explore the potential for CLS to help them grasp their studies.
Contact
Contact persons
Ruben Wissing, PhD, post-doctoral assistant