Law - Using Forums to Build Students’ Analytical Skills

For this activity you will need:

• Access to an VLE such as Moodle
• A group of willing students.
• The 'carrot' in the activity is the idea that whatever comes out of the forums will form the basis for the students own individual essays or assessments which follow on form the Forum.

When opening any Forum for use in an educational context it is wise to set ground rules.

My Own Ground Rules for Working In Forums

• The forum is to be time-limited. After the allocated time it will be made available as an archive but not for on-going contributions. This gives a sense of urgency to the task.
• All students must participate and make at least (three) postings. You can tell students that part of the overall assessment grade will depend on their contribution in the forum.
• A posting can be an original idea or a development of another students posting.
• All postings, being public, must show a certain level of respect and be generally supportive. Any criticism must not be personalised or sarcastic, etc.

Example Task

Often it works best to take students into a computer room for the initial launch of the forum. This will definitely speed things up and hopefully create the  initial ‘buzz’ needed for students to return to the forum in their own time.

Teacher ‘seeds’ the forum with some initial comments and questions.

From my own subject - law - on a topic of reforming the law or murder I might ask:

• How satisfactory is it that we are relying on an ancient definition of such a serious crime?
• What issues are there arising from the definition?
• Is the Mens Rea for murder clear?
• What about recent cases about assisting a loved one to die or euthanasia – how satisfactory is the law?
• How might we consider reforming the law?

And so on...

Each prompt forms a thread within the Forum and students join in as many threads are they are willing and able to join.

Advantages of this Technique

• It leaves a permanent record of a discussion.
• It allows students to construct their own knowledge according to their own interest.
• It allows students across several groups to collaborate when they would normally be limited to the class group.
• It allows students to add in comments at any time.

The technique allows students to work collaboratively for a limited period of time and then use the resource to build an Individual piece of work. It works.

Nigel Briggs

Secondary Law - Judge for Yourself!

 You be the judge

Just how far are judges allowed to go in shaping and creating the law?

The traditional view of a judge was of an informed but neutral mouthpiece. Far from creating law they simply uncovered the law in all its pre-formed glory. It was a ‘declaration’ not a formulation.

This is unrealistic. Judges, being human, are far from neutral. If this is so then it is fair to critically examine what they say.

A good early activity is to get students involved at the sharp end of the law making process. Let them be the judge. Let them develop criminal concepts. Compare them with the actual judgments. This is both an empowering and analytical activity which helps to promote a healthy critical approach.

The Escaping Victim

Take the issue of the escaping victim who, whilst fleeing their attacker, does some damage to themselves. How do the courts allocate the blame?

Task:

• In pairs read through the scenarios below.
• Devise an instruction that a judge would you give to a jury before they retire.
• Try to make sure that the jury are not simply deciding out of sympathy for the victim.
• Try to make sure they are not dismissing the acts of the 'attacker' without proper consideration.

Scenario A
Alexia hitches a lift home in the car of a friend’s brother. Whilst driving he makes a sexually explicit suggestion to her. Then he leans over to her as if he is about to grab her. Alexia jumps out of the car. She suffers serious injury.

Play Devil’s Advocate - prompts here could include:

• What other course(s) of action were open to A? 
• What are the downsides of each course of action? 
• Isn’t it obvious that A caused her own injuries?

Scenario B
Whilst being looked after by his abusive relative Martin, aged three, becomes terrified. Whilst running away he falls downstairs and is killed.

Prompts here could include:

• How is this situation different from Scenario A?
• What difficulties arise from the victim being so young?
• How can you be sure that you are not overly influenced by the age of the victim?

The scenarios above are loosely based on the cases of Roberts (1972) and Mackie (1973).

Now compare your tests to the real judgments. How are they similar? What differences do you note? What have you discovered about the role of the judge?

The Test in Roberts [1972] Crim. L.R. 27 
The jury had to choose between two possibilities:
1. Was jumping from the car a reaction that was reasonably foreseeable?
2. Or was it ‘so daft’ that no reasonable person could have been expected to foresee it?
(NB. Comforting to note that judges do sometimes use ordinary words too!)

The Test in Mackie [1973] Crim. L.R. 438
3 stages:
1. Was the boy in fear of Mackie?
2. Did that cause him to try to escape?
3.Was the fear well-founded?

Both Roberts and Mackie were found guilty.

Nigel Briggs
Teacher of Law

Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College