A new sense of purpose: education for sustainability in law

UKCLE’s Developing global citizens through legal education project is exploring the concept of sustainability literacy within legal education. Following a discussion session at the Learning in Law Annual Conference 2007, a consultation paper was written to explore the issues and put forward some proposed survey questions.

In March 2007 the final survey was circulated to key contacts and other stakeholders – the survey questions and a summary of responses are given below. The results were also presented at the 2007 Association of Law Teachers’ Annual Conference.

Background and terminology

The term ‘sustainable development’ gained currency after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and is generally agreed to encapsulate the idea of ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. For the purposes of this project, sustainability literacy is taken to be the outcome of education for sustainable development (ESD). Someone who is sustainability literate is able to take account of social, economic and environment considerations in making decisions, taking action and informing and influencing others accordingly.

The UK government’s 2005 sustainable development strategy requires the education sector to promote the concept of sustainability literacy, and the funding councils similarly exhort higher education institutions to demonstrate sustainability in all their activities, including the design and delivery of curricula.

Survey questions

1. Do you feel it is compatible with your role as an academic to seek to produce sustainability literate graduates?
2. What do you think are the important questions which a commitment to ESD would open up about the nature of law and legal practice?
3. What do you think are the important questions which a commitment to ESD would open up about the nature of legal education?
4. What are the answers you would give to those questions?
5. Sustainable development issues by their nature are cross-disciplinary. Would you be in favour of a more flexible approach to the content and design of the curriculum to permit more cross-disciplinary learning for law students?
6. What other teaching/learning/assessment approaches would you favour in an effort to promote ESD for law students?
7. Are you aware of any examples of ESD in law already taking place? If so, please provide brief details.
8. What do you consider to be the obstacles to including ESD in the law curriculum?
9. Can they be overcome? If so, how?
10. What other stakeholders beyond students, staff, employers and practitioners, should we be engaging in this project?
11. Do you have any other information which may help us in developing this project further?

Summary of responses

Compatibility with role of law teacher

In general, respondents did not think that it was incompatible with their role as a law teacher to produce sustainability literate graduates. However, there was uncertainty about how to go about incorporating sustainable development issues within the law curriculum. It was also noted that ESD is not ‘normally’ regarded as part of the role of the law teacher.

Questions raised by a focus on sustainable development

• how to encourage undergraduate students to think beyond law as being situated in simple definable sets of knowledge
• the extent to which law is a discourse of top-down power
• the relationship between law, politics, society and morality
• the extent to which law sits uneasily with an unregulated capitalist economy
• the nature of law in the context of complex social interactions
• the extent to which legal educators are developing critical and ethically aware thinkers
• the fundamental role of higher education itself – is it appropriate to inculcate particular values?
• problems raised by a Western/Eurocentric perspective on this issue
  h4. How to include a sustainable development focus

Respondents were asked to consider how they would respond to the challenges posed by a focus on sustainable development within the law curriculum. Answers included:

• a broader, more critical and reflexive appreciation of the nature of legal education – law students as global citizens
• embedding ESD throughout the law curriculum
• raising sustainable development issues as part of the consideration of the role of law in regulating, controlling and ‘freeing’ individuals
  However, concerns were also expressed that ESD is not values free, and that it was therefore not desirable for law teachers to present sustainable development as a taken for granted ‘good’.

Implications for content and design

In general respondents were in favour of a more flexible approach to the content and design of the law curriculum. However, it was also felt that care needed to be taken to avoid a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

What are the main obstacles?

Respondents were asked to identify what they regarded as the main obstacles to addressing sustainable development within the law curriculum. Answers included:

• staff and students who define the curriculum too narrowly
• a perception that It isn’t really about law – more akin to teaching citizenship
• inherent bias towards a narrowly conceived vocationalism and the dominance of the legal professions
• inherent conservatism of university legal education
• lack of imagination

How might the obstacles be overcome?

Respondents were asked to suggest ways in which the obstacles identified might be overcome:

• recapture a sense of law as a ‘great anthropological document’
• encourage academics and involve students
• provide examples of creative practice
• emphasise the importance of a broad based critical education and reflection on the nature of law in its multiple contexts

What learning approaches can we use?

Respondents thought a wider range of learning approaches was required to encompass sustainable development issues. Suggestions included:

• inculcate critical reflection
• experiential learning
• work-based learning
• engage students in supplementary research away from black letter law – for example in Contract ask them to research a tribal form of bargaining
• research-based and active learning – for example the impact of legislation on the ‘real world’

Last Modified: 6 July 2010