Designing and teaching a course in legal research and writing for master in legal studies students.

Gary Lui

Austin, M. (2014). Designing and teaching a course in legal research and writing for master in legal studies students. Legal Reference Services Quarterly, 33(4), 310–335. doi:10.1080/0270319X.2014.972219

Summary
The question of the Austin (2014) article is not whether Legal Research and Writing should be taught but how it should be taught. Legal Research and Writing is a course not just law students should learn but anyone interested in the law should learn. "More broadly, legal analysis and writing are seen as important skills to develop even at an undergraduate level to achieve a level of legal literacy that is crucial for all citizens" (Austin, 315). The debate about doctrinal versus experimental learning encompass the debate on how a Legal Research and Writing course should be taught. The article leans toward experimental learning. The typical bird units way of teaching Legal Research and Writing in Law schools is to not give feedback on what the students submit on the one final exam which makes up the whole grade for the course. Experimental learning requires professors give greater amounts of feedback but also more effective feedback on what the students' submit. The Austin article also discusses adult learning theory. Adult learning theory should be a method of improving legal education because the theory encourages the teacher to move away from a typical teacher-student hierarchical relationship to a relationship where the teacher and students are more equals by asking about the students' past experiences. "Therefore, effective instruction of adult learners requires the teacher to have the confidence to move away from a hierarchical or authoritarian structure in the classroom and create a more communal or collective environment" (320).

Evaluation
I think the experimental learning model is an opportunity for instructors of Legal Research and Writing to include the librarian with expertise in legal research as part of the instructing. Though the Austin article does not mention directly that the librarian will be included in the instruction of a course in Legal Research and Writing, I am including this article in the blog because the author of the article in actually a Law Library Fellow and Adjunct Professor with the Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library at The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. The author of this article also taught the Legal Research and Writing course for Master's of Legal Studies students at The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. I think most Legal Research and Writing courses will not be taught by someone with background in Library Science but definitely someone with legal training, which is why I think librarians should be included directly in the instruction of the Legal Research and Writing course.