Lecturing in a live environment

Peter Scott, Glasgow Caledonian University

More students – more law – fewer resources! Can education work in those circumstances? Many law teachers are faced with the difficulty of delivering deep and broad learning within an impossibly short period. In this paper Peter describes the pioneering work being carried out at Glasgow Caledonian University taking teaching into the workplace, offering ideas about the contextualisation of law in a workplace environment – and fresh eyes for the opportunities around the campus for bringing law alive.

---

It is not the purpose of this paper to reflect on the variety of mechanisms available to the 21st century academic – nor is this intended to be yet one more diatribe railing against a system which does not appear to facilitate the promotion of deep learning. Contemporary thinking on educational techniques and their efficacy has been greatly influenced by published research, and new techniques are being explored in an attempt to maintain quality educational provision within a wider access framework – and in the face of blatant underfunding. One message from research is that teaching must be practice based and workplace relevant. The methodology adopted should embed skills, stimulate student interest, relate to the ‘real world’ of practice and, preferably, should give the under-resourced and underpaid academic something approaching the will to continue academic life.

The truly inspirational teacher of law will always be an asset to be treasured. Any practitioner will vouchsafe the truth that cross examination of witnesses requires the ability to read the involuntary telltale flicker of the eye and that site investigation is as much about what is being concealed as about what has been laid out for inspection. There is truly no substitute for the ‘roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd’. Given the complexity of modern law the teaching of legal principle has never been more important – hence the need for some level of inspirational teaching – but to deliver this in a live environment with real clients and real sites…now there is a challenge! A tall order – but not beyond the reach of the thinking professional.

This paper describes the use of live projects to take teaching into the workplace, with details of the identification of suitable projects, their assessment and the students’ results. Examples of projects are taken from shopping malls, brewers and distillers, factories, local authorities, theatres, building sites and National Trust properties.

Identification of projects

Where Honours students are encouraged to select individual projects – either for the dissertation itself or as the topic for an individual module – this in itself can be a source of ideas for a site visit where law and practice can be combined and form a project theme. In the overwhelming majority of cases, there is an individual on site who can provide significant input into the teaching element. In some cases it may be a public relations officer, who sees the opportunity of promoting the company to a potentially valuable market sector. In other cases, the opportunity of projecting a good public image is simply too valuable to ignore.

In neither case should the opportunity be discarded as lacking intellectual rigour. In the case study below on Barr’s Irn Bru the PR person had a business degree which included significant law, and what could so easily have been an anoydyne explanation of the quality control system turned into a fascinating dialogue on product liability and consumer protection. Here was a young and intelligent speaker who understood very well the legal issues which had to be addressed and could bring that branch of law alive for students familiar with the legal principles but who had never quite had to face the practicalities of a risk assessment in situ. In fact one or two of the students identified future career pathways for themselves in fields of management where sound legal knowledge might be at a premium and which they had never quite thought of as being opportunities for law graduates. Another former student who had been writing a dissertation on the legal issues surrounding asbestosis established links in the voluntary sector and is now a leading expert on civil litigation in such cases – very much a case of the pupil going on to outshine the master. Yet, in those and in other instances, the first contact had not been an obvious ‘law’ contact.

In another case, the student concerned complained bitterly that a project on air pollution from petro-chemical sources was foundering for lack of hard information. The contact within the industry was felt to be throwing up a public relations smokescreen – to the extent of being in denial about even the most self evident hazards. The point was made to the student quite forcibly that lack of hard evidence can be turned into identification of an issue in urgent need of more detailed research. In fact, the student became so incensed at what she saw as an insult to her own intelligence that she worried at the problem like a terrier with a rat until in her dissertation she was able to catalogue every instance of misinformation and produce quite robust proof as to the true scale of a particular hazard.

Pleasingly for her, between the submission of her dissertation and the viva voce, the company concerned was taken to court and found guilty of a whole raft of offences in the very areas which she had investigated. In a television script, of course, she would have been a key player, but this was real life and she had merely been following a parallel line of enquiry which was being pursued by the authorities. Nonetheless, she produced a work of such excellence that she was awarded the dissertation prize – and a first class Honours degree. Although not an LLB student at the time, her first degree opened the door to a scholarship to Edinburgh where she distinguished herself in their ‘fast track’ LLB to such an extent that she secured a traineeship in one of Scotland’s most prestigious practices and is now set fair to become a highly successful reparation practitioner.

The point is always made to students that investigative skills require tact and diplomacy as well as a keen mind. If students can only see beyond the ‘publicity puff’ they will be able to tease out information from the source – without that source appreciating the significance to the listener of the information received. The only danger, in a presentation to a group, is that it only needs one member of that group to become adversarial for the source to retreat into a defensive shell. Is this not part, however, of meaningful clinical legal skills? Students are, by definition, intelligent young adults and do not need to buy into the product being peddled – especially if they feel that they are playing a tactical game.

Next time you read a dissertation or individual project look for ways of exploiting the student contacts – bearing in mind that students are a learning resource for the lecturer.

Assessing live projects

To state the obvious, there are broadly three types of assessment mechanism available.

Multiple choice is often attractive, and if well done can be an excellent indicator of comprehension. It also lends itself to electronic marking. However, it does not so readily lend itself to the assessment of problem solving skills, in the sense that there is limited scope for construction of an original argument.

The essay is the main standby for many lecturers, and certainly one cannot quarrel with a tried and tested mechanism which should test the research potential – subject to an increasing problem with plagiarism from the Web – and certainly should develop the ability to construct a logical argument. However, it is not per se a skill which is applied in the workplace.

The case study approach is the third mechanism, and here it is possible to establish a synthesis with practice. A good project will mimic the typical scenario which the practitioner is likely to encounter, but there is a temptation to rely on reported cases, and an astute student can all too easily identify the case which the lecturer has used as the basis for the case study.

A signal weakness is, of course, that the facts are given and there is no room for the exercise of investigative skills.

By contrast, in practice clients can be highly selective in the information which they choose to share with the agent and can often overlook some seemingly minor detail which, in fact, can turn a case on its head. The clinical skill, which the practitioner has to develop in the field, is the ability to ask the right questions and to judge the reliability or otherwise of the information provided.

If we are truly to combine the teaching of investigative techniques with the practical application of legal principle then we frequently look to the establishment of a law advice centre where students meet and deal with members of the public with very real problems. These can, however, be somewhat mundane and, to take a fairly obvious example, one divorce on grounds of irretrievable breakdown can be pretty much the same as any other – and none are other than truly depressing.

A good law school will try to counter this by establishing links with local chambers, but even there practitioners have to consider the wishes of the client in matters of confidentiality.

Yet the world is full of individuals with on-going legal problems, and a goodly percentage of these are only too happy to talk about the impact on their lives. Misery loves an audience.

The goal is to find a single case study which can be laid before a class and where the surroundings can provide a picture which , in the words of the song, can paint a thousand words.

To understand how this may be achieved, the examples given later in this paper may be of some assistance. In looking at these, however, it should be borne in mind that students are being asked to investigate, to research and to come up with practical solutions to practical problems.

Inevitably, there will be specific points of law where the solution may depend on fine interpretation of detail. (In one case study, the meaning of a simple phrase “may lead to pollution of a waterway” in the context of genetically engineered organisms required very close attention to the detail of the regulations on containment and release and the interpretation which the courts had placed on similar wording in the Public Health Act 1936 et seq..) Very often the research will produce quite surprising results, and sometimes the data can even produce proof positive that the received wisdom is actually quite wrong. Everyone knows, for example, that oil spill is a major source of marine pollution – but everyone is wrong, as well over 70% of oil pollution in the North Sea comes from land runoff. (The data had been published, of course, as part of the Bonn Agreement, but it took a student researching harbour pollution to collate the data and present it in digestible format – the research now being incorporated into module content.)

Learning and assessment

It is suggested that assessment should not be viewed merely as a mechanism for testing what has been learned but should, actually, be integral to the learning process.

Students must learn how to investigate. By selecting a topic which tests research capability the student not only acquires that workplace relevant skill but can, in effect, be adding to the store of knowledge. The class as a whole is informed, as is the lecturer. From the perspective of the individual, the knowledge thereby gained should be much more securely embedded than would be the case with rote learning for end testing.

The learning activity becomes student centred, while the actual mechanism for assessment can be part of the instruction process. The available options may depend upon whether the project is individual to the student or a common to the class itself.

Peer group assessment is used at Glasgow Caledonian where appropriate, and very clear guidelines are laid down as to the assessment criteria.

If the case study is complex then it may be more appropriate to suggest that the class be divided into groups – each group with its own brief. Alternatively, in smaller classes, each individual might have to research one particular aspect. Inevitably there will be a crossover in some areas and students will have to co-operate to ensure there is no duplication of effort.

As a ‘rule of thumb’, Honours students work on individual projects so that in, say, environmental law the project site will contain a combination of environmental factors.

In 2003, for example, classes at levels 3 and 4 attended the Britannia Music Hall.

Level 4 students had individual projects. For example, one student researched traffic pollution (the theatre is on a main thoroughfare with high levels of pollution and damage to the fabric of the building). Another student considered secondary smoking as a pollutant (the theatre is a rare example, simply because smoking was common in public places at the time of its use and fire wiped out many theatres at that time. In addition, of course, smoking would not now be permitted in such an environment). Another student looked at waste disposal – a major consideration here with on-going works. The list goes on but each student could take something different out of the exercise.

Honours students were then required to give a presentation (counting for 10% of the total mark), which was peer group assessed. They also had to submit a written report (counting for a further 10% of the mark) plus an article to ‘publishable standard’ on one aspect of their work (20% of the total mark). The end tested element accounted for the remaining 60% of the total mark. In this way, presentational skills were assessed, while the macro report tested broad comprehension and the micro report (the article) tested research ability.

Level 3 students had to prepare a planning report described in detail later in this paper.

Another module is delivered with a group report ethos coupled with individual submissions on particular aspects. Assessment is conducted by a specialist panel, as the group report is presented to the class as a whole. Again, presentational skills are assessed alongside comprehension of principle and research capability. In that module, which is a law module delivered to non lawyers, there is no end testing.

Shopping malls

There cannot surely be a campus which is not within easy reaching distance of a shopping centre.

In Glasgow a group of students was taken to the Princes Square development and the given project was to write a report on the planning criteria to be addressed in developing a strategy for city centre regeneration.

The site had originally been a courtyard used for servicing shops and offices. Loading and unloading could be carried out from the rear of the business premises which formed a hollow square – the facades looking out onto the main thoroughfares and the inner square being accessed by two passageways large enough to allow the entry of horse drawn traffic. Retail patterns had changed quite dramatically, with the growth of peripheral hypermarkets, and road transport had also, of course, changed to the extent that large vehicles simply could not pass through an entry designed for much smaller vehicles.

The solution, in planning terms, was actually quite striking. The courtyard is now a glass covered mall with a central staircase and elevator which lead to several tiers of balconies from which are accessed various designer boutiques, cafes and wine bars. Premises which had been small offices and store rooms serving department stores are now self contained units, which attract affluent shoppers and have actually brought new life to the main street shops. The Are you being served? character of the former department stores has changed to accommodate retail outlets for products too large for the boutique sector or where high turnover demands larger spaces. The presence, in the immediate area, of shoppers with spending power has truly regenerated an area which had been in danger of gradual, but generalised, shop closure.

From the perspective of the planning lawyer this was fruitful territory. The role and function of the local plan was central, the National planning policy guidelines were relevant and the integrated strategy of the structure plan was critical. In addition, the buildings themselves were listed, as is not uncommon in an established city environment.

A lecture on the legal criteria was delivered to the students in the central well on the ground floor – an area with seating and quite large enough for a group of over 30 students. In fact the ‘audience’ consisted of several hundred, as shoppers stopped on the balconies to listen. All that was required of the lecturer was a reasonable speaking voice and the nerve to address a quite large audience – two qualities which surely should be possessed of any teacher in any discipline. This enabled the lecturer to point out the architectural features which were listed, identify the aspects of character and amenity which the local plan had described and summarise the legal considerations which such a development had to resolve.

The assistant manager of the Centre then described how it had been designed and developed. His job was made easier by the fact that the owners of the centre had an information pack for prospective tenants, and that he was not unused to delivering presentations to commercial interests. The information pack had been copied in black and white for the students and contained a wealth of technical information – naturally the law lecture had been prepared to anticipate the very points which the assistant manager would be addressing in his presentation, but that had been easy to anticipate given the prior availability of the information pack which was to form the basis of his presentation.

Privately, of course, the very go-ahead young manager saw this presentation as something for his own CV – and, publicly, he encouraged the students to look around the shops.

Normally the de-briefing would have been carried out back at campus, but an enterprising cafe owner was happy to set out extra tables for the students and provide coffee (at a special rate) so that groups of students could compare notes and perhaps even stay on for a bit afterwards.

One student, whose dissertation the following year was on the law of waste management revisited several of the shopkeepers later and produced a rather good dataset on the problems of waste generation in a retail environment, based on contacts made on that outing – making the point that the site also had potential for an environmental law perspective. The site has subsequently been visited by other student groups concerned with building control and retail management.

Brewers and distillers

There cannot surely be a single brewer or distiller who does not organise tours. In Glasgow there are several distillers within easy reaching distance and, of course, the brewing giant Tennent Caledonian Breweries.

To single out the latter, they have, and this would be typical of most, a reception suite which can accommodate quite large bus parties where there is a video presentation and general talk. This is followed by a tour of the production process and, at some point, the product can be sampled.

They have professional guides who have the history of brewing at their fingertips and are well able to address large groups. Such visits are popular social occasions, but they have significant value from an educational perspective.

To date, law presentations have covered:-

• the law of health and safety – many students have not previously been exposed to a complex manufacturing process where hazards abound and punctilious attention must be paid to an effective health and safety policy
• waste management and the law – where the line between a by-product, such as cattle feed, and a substance which has fallen outwith the ‘economic cycle’ can be so fine as to be invisible
• product liability – where the raw material attracts vermin and the product itself can be, frankly, toxic
• water quality and the law – given that brewing is a major water user and generates significant liquid outfall
• environmental nuisance – emissions from the premises
• planning law – where the Industrial Use Classes are only part of the planning picture

Taking a broader view, the Glasgow brewery is also important from the perspective of social history. In one instance a student working on a dissertation topic dealing with discrimination in the workplace was intrigued to discover that when the brewery had its own school and housing stock for the workforce, the brewers also had their own church which the workers were required to attend for both Sunday services. An excellent idea given the mores of the time, but a practice which effectively debarred Roman Catholics and Jews from taking up employment if they were orthodox in their beliefs.

Sometimes it is the historical footnotes which add colour to the learning experience and generate interest. To give an example, in Glasgow the word ‘scrubber’ is a pejorative term for a girl whose favours are widely bestowed, if somewhat indiscriminately, but the derivation of the word actually comes from the then lowest paid occupation within a brewery – namely the job of scrubbing out the inside of the wooden brewing vats. Given that women always had the poorest paid jobs at that time and that this particularly undesirable job was particularly badly paid, the women would often have no alternative but to turn to casual prostitution as the only available means of keeping body and soul together – a valuable insight, perhaps, into the exploitation of the female workforce for anyone with an interest in the law of sex discrimination.

One especially valuable field trip was to a micro-brewery, and may suggest the value of being alert to local developments. The background was that a local entrepreneur who wished to exploit the perceived market for real ale had decided to brew beer on the premises. This, of course, was the original brewing tradition where innkeepers would ‘brew their own’ on site, and modern technology does enable small batch brewing at a competitive price. Sadly, the project eventually failed but it was a brave try.

What made this interesting from a planning law perspective was that the mixed use as brewhouse, licensed premises and restaurant did not fall neatly into any specific planning category. The students were given the problem of advising on whether or not this was sui generis or might be covered by any of the current classes and were asked to write a report for the ‘client’. (In fact, the obvious first task should have been to make an Application for Determination, while the second task should have been to check for title restrictions.)

After they had carried out their preliminary research the students were taken to the newly opened premises. The product was excellent and the tour of the brewing facility fascinating, but what stood out was the plenary session afterwards when the students – hoping to check that they were on the right track – quizzed the proprietor at some length as to the legal obstacles which he had to overcome. He described, in some detail, the various setbacks and delays, and the students were incredulous that so many perfectly foreseeable difficulties had come as a surprise. Of course, they had researched in depth and acquired a level of expertise which no practitioner could possibly have possessed in such a narrow field (without that very same careful research) but the reaction of the client was, quite literally, “I wish I had known you guys when I started out – I would have saved fortunes”.

In fact, that exercise was then used later as an exercise in clinical legal skills. Clients do not always seek advice timeously and do not always ask the correct questions of their advisers. Hopefully, the lesson that research is an essential hands-on skill was driven home to the students, as was the cost of incomplete advice. They had worked out the pitfalls for themselves and, frankly, realised that there is actually no substitute for pedantic attention to detail on the foundation of sound comprehension of principle. They felt good about themselves and perhaps that was most valuable of all.

Factories

Factories must surely be a fruitful source for ‘living law’.

The larger manufacturers may have regular tours open to the public, and most others are not averse to contact with students, who may be the young executives of tomorrow. Even modest sized enterprises have concerns with health and safety issues, and for many waste disposal can be an issue.

Small businesses are not averse to contact with legal academics – the hope of a little free legal advice can be a wonderful incentive. Legal questions are usually of the trite variety, but a well prepared lecturer with a stock of student handout material can usually find something from stock which the sore pressed executive is only too pleased to receive. A lecturer who has, for example, an ‘idiot’s guide’ to Health and Safety Regulations is usually made most welcome – especially if they have an index of regulations where, say, a risk assessment is obligatory. A ‘double whammy’ is also possible, whereby a businessman needs a lawyer somewhat urgently and a professional colleague from practice is not averse to contact with prospective commercial clients.

In short, legal academics are often perceived as useful contacts by practitioners and businessmen alike – and, of course, academic managers are usually impressed by obvious links with commerce. An astute academic may even find a market for short courses along the way.

At Glasgow Caledonian commercial contacts are carefully cultivated. Hence a list of companies happy to open their doors to law students is not data for the public domain. However, two examples are worth a mention.

Scotland’s ‘other national drink’- the famous Barr’s Irn Bru – is a forward looking company with a policy of using recyclable containers. As a Scottish brand leader, they encourage tours and have a highly professional approach in their dealings with the public. From a legal perspective, they have a rolling programme of health and safety training, an impeccably reasoned case for recycling and factory locations in both urban and rural areas. Planning, health and safety and environmental practice are all, therefore, areas where graduate tour guides are able to participate intelligently and are quite happy to share the floor with a legal academic. Team teaching of law and practice is, accordingly, relatively simple. To be sure, there is a formal public relations presentation, but if this is professionally delivered it can only enhance the overall impression and, as mentioned earlier, students can see for themselves career potential which, before, had been but a vague possibility.

A second opening, in fact, grew out of teaching and deserves a heading of its own. Suffice it to say that lecturers frequently teach mature students on part time Masters programmes and that students on such courses are highly receptive to the idea that their workplace could become a teaching platform – the most interesting to date might have been the contact with the managing director of a chain of night clubs, but the lecturer concerned felt that he was not sufficient of a Daniel to face the young lions in their own den.

Local authorities

Most lecturers will be familiar with the perceived difficulties inherent in persuading senior local authority staff to give their time and participate in guest lecturing. They carry, by definition, a heavy burden of responsibility and shy away from anything which might draw them into ‘political’comment.

The perception of councillors is that they are unlikely to have the detailed expertise of their professional staff and prefer the bland generalities of the politician to the cut and thrust of debate with articulate and frequently impassioned students.

In simple truth, experience suggests that public servants can be very valuable members of any teaching team and have a wealth of experience which can benefit the pedagogue as much as the student. The Scottish Executive has been a goldmine for Glasgow Caledonian University and regularly provides speakers for staff seminars. For example, Scotland has now incorporated the Water Quality Framework Directive into Scots law, and a presentation on what was then the Water Bill was a boon and a blessing for the subject leader in Environmental Law. Our pool of part time lecturers also includes significant input from such as local trading standards officers.

One case stands out, however, and deserves special mention. It would be remiss not to acknowledge especially the contribution of Councillor Charles Gordon in this regard – who has never failed to welcome students or to answer the most challenging technical questions.

For some years, Glasgow Caledonian had been delivering a postgraduate diploma in corporate resource management for City Builders – the in-house repair and maintenance arm of the council of the City of Glasgow – and law was clearly integral to that diploma. Year in, year out, the students were a joy to teach and it would be false modesty to pretend that the law teaching staff had not contributed to the success of the programme. Established links were reinforced and new links developed. The combination of networking, an essential skill for the academic in today’s world, and the sine qua non of workplace relevant teaching meant that the subject leader in planning law has been able to set coursework over several years based on current developments – where the council has hosted a working lunch for students to discuss the detail of the legal challenges facing an ambitious planning committee.

The value to the student body of a plenary session hosted by a senior councillor and with the senior planning officer responsible for the individual project simply cannot be over-stated. Scale models are there to be seen and the detail can be discussed in a way which is simply not possible other than on location.

The message is that if a council is persuaded that the set project is thoroughly professional and that the students can benefit then doors open. The quality of the project work is outstanding as a result of this hands-on approach and the enthusiasm of the student body is palpable.

Theatres

All large towns and cities have theatres – and Glasgow is no different.

The first project based on a theatre in Glasgow was at the Pavilion Theatre. The building is listed, but attracts no Arts Council grant as it operates commercially with a regular programme of plays, pantomime and popular concerts. The National Planning Policy Guidelines encourage alternative uses for buildings, but a custom built theatre does not really lend itself to alternative uses. Put bluntly, if a theatre is not a working theatre then demolition is inevitable and one more part of a cultural tradition will disappear.

The student brief was to prepare a report identifying the planning law issues which would arise if the theatre were to cease being viable. Obviously the implications of listing were high on the agenda, but the report would also need to bring out the detail of the National Planning Policy Guidelines as they might apply in context. The report would have to be holistic and identify other land use control issues.

The stage manager was delighted to participate and welcomed a recognition that the continued existence of the theatre could not be taken for granted. The theatre was his life, and optimistic as he was he felt that his problems were simply not understood. He addressed the student body at length, pointing out the numerous listed features which could never be replicated and describing the problems with fire and health and safety regulations and licensing requirements. He considered other potential uses, such as a conference venue, and spoke to the cultural and historic significance of one of the last of the working variety theatres in the UK. This was followed by a brief presentation on the legal issues, building on the factual description so well provided by the theatre professional. The afternoon was completed by a tour of the theatre which, arguably, was barely relevant to the law but certainly imprinted the reality on the student consciousness.

The superb acoustics of a theatre were such that the lecture element required no sound system to project – it would be a poor public speaker who could not rise to such an occasion. (Any theatre lends itself to such treatment, as would any recreation centre or sports facility.) Frankly, it was fun – and none the worse for that.

A modern theatre, of course, would raise all sorts of other issues such as bringing crowds of people to an otherwise quiet area – described as ‘bad neighbour development’ in the Local Plan and Use Classes.

The Britannia Theatre

This was almost certainly an afternoon which the students will treasure.

The ‘inspiration’ came from the Heritage television series. For the uninitiated, the programmes considered various buildings throughout the UK in urgent need of repair and viewers had to vote for which of the many should receive the support of the Lottery Heritage Fund – compulsive viewing for an environmentalist, historian or archaeologist.

Glasgow submitted the Panopticon – originally the Britannia Music Hall – as its entry, but virtually every university in the UK is close to one or more of the contenders. The theatre saw the first appearance on stage of a 16 year old Stan Laurel and probably also an early appearance by an acrobat and stilt walker called Archie Leach (or Cary Grant as he was later to be known). It was a treasure trove of artefacts. This was a derelict time capsule – staggeringly complete but worryingly at significant risk.

What, however, is the law as it applies to historic buildings? How can such be saved?

There is in fact a great deal of law involved. Not merely the basic statutory references, but case law such as Kennedy v Sec of State for Wales [1996 EGCS 17] on the significance of fixtures within a listed building and Glasgow District Council v Sec of State for Scotland [1993SLT 1332] on the sort of detail requiring listed building consent. However, a good project should never require a trite rehash of established law but should require the student to research in detail an uncommon aspect. Research skills have to be learned – and practiced – and it is critical that students should be able to construct a legal presentation in an unfamiliar field. Of course, a case study such as this can only be assessed fully during a site visit and this site was truly unique.

The class were addressed in the auditorium by the resident archaeologist in charge, who not only could speak to the technicalities but had, of necessity, to be familiar with the law. A student of planning law in Scotland is familiar with the concept of the Planning Agreement in terms of S 75 of the Town & Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, but here was someone who had to deal with every nuance of the precise wording and had explored every avenue in an attempt to have the building legally protected. The complexities of central funding were not glossed over and here, in fine, was a consummate professional.

Again the law was spoken to briefly by the module leader, but the real importance of the exercise was that this was a real live problem in urgent need of a real solution.

Quid juris? Ask any planning law student at Glasgow Caledonian law school!

Building sites

Building sites are not the ideal places for conducting classes, and few project managers would welcome the prospect of a site awash with walking accidents looking for a place to happen. End of story? Not really!

In almost every university town, there will be an on-going project which has grossly exceeded its budget and/or has destroyed some much loved feature and which would be delighted to play host to any group in the vain hope of attracting some favourable reportage. On a building site, there are issues involving construction law, planning law, health and safety law, planning law, environmental law and contract law. Case studies abound and, whatever the project manager’s views might be, groups are not always as unwelcome as might be thought.

If there are already site visits on-going elsewhere in the university then why not tap into them? Collaboration with other disciplines is always to be encouraged. If the university has a School of the Built Environment or similar then it is highly likely that the engineering students, for example, already have a system of field trips. These same students often have to study law as part of their degree.

At Glasgow Caledonian University there are two modules which require law input to satisfy the professional benchmark. Over the last ten years law input in both has served to underpin the regulatory aspects which, frankly, are better taught by a technical expert. (Credit here should be given to Dr Robert Gilmour of the School of the Built and Natural Environment, who despite, or perhaps because of, a knowledge of the regulatory framework which would shame any legal practitioner, has always been receptive to the idea that academic lawyers have a team role to play.) Since both modules have field trips, it is delightfully easy to frame the law coursework so that the focus is on the legal aspects which have most significance for the field trip of that year.

It has not yet been attempted, but it would seem to be relatively straightforward to have two projects based on the same site where two groups of students attend at the same time – and each could profit from the work of the other.

Closer to home, of course, the perfect sites are very often on campus.

To mention one site the development on the east side of Cowcaddens Campus was used as the basis for two case studies. One class reading the law of contract was required to consider the implications of a contract with the local authority to share a sports facility. The contract was fictitious, but the City of Glasgow District Council has a record of ‘partnership development’. Details of typical contractual arrangements were readily accessible on the Web (The Herald website was especially valuable and provided useful links elsewhere – making the point that good broadsheets make good sources), but the site was real and the university actively encouraged student interest in the project.

A second group looked at the significance of consultation in the planning process. At Cowcaddens, a railway tunnel passed below the site and there were very specific issues. On its own there was not enough meat on the individual site and students were required to contrast the site with two other adjacent sites – both of which were listed, but one of which required very sensitive handling given the existence of a residential area close by.

If these issues sound esoteric, then the point has been missed. Students have to be able to carry out a micro-analysis of a specific legal issue and that issue, in practice, will almost always be esoteric. In any event, an essay title such as ‘The role of consultation in the planning process’ would not raise an eyebrow any more than would say“The assignation of contracts and the impact on performance in building contracts’ or ‘Reparation and the impact of the Construction Design and Maintenance Regulations’. Which is more real to the student and which has more relevance in the workplace – the site based report or the essay?

National Trust properties

Here, of course, one should bear in mind that there are many different charities and organisations, all of which can play host to a student group. National Parks, heritage bodies, churches and any number of small but effective charitable organisations are all contenders.

With a bit of imagination, one can identify charities dealing with, say, riding for the disabled who must surely have to be aware of the reparation potential, or local events which will result in doors being opened which might otherwise be shut (the author’s personal favourite event is the Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival, but sadly Yorkshire is too far from Glasgow to run a student project) – it detracts not one whit from one’s social life if each venue for a family outing is viewed for future potential.

In Glasgow there are numerous National Trust properties, and if a mini-bus is available there are fascinating sites everywhere.

A ‘tenement house’ in Glasgow is a flatted dwellinghouse which has been maintained exactly as it was in the 1920s. Numbers are restricted, but 20 conveyancing students were able to consider the sort of title conditions (restrictive covenants in England) which such developments would require. In England, for example, an essay on ‘floating freehold’ could be replaced by a project on a similar sort of building – surely such exist elsewhere than in Glasgow. Moving further afield – but only a bus journey away – lies Culzean Palace set in a wonderfully restored 17th century town. The project there was on conservation sites. In both, and in many other cases, a qualified conservator is able to speak knowledgeably to students and an afternoon’s teaching is (that word again) fun but informative. Look around!

Is there, for example, close at hand, an Ancient Monument or an Industrial Heritage Site? The former can play host for a planning law project and the latter for a project on industrial injury. The size of the class may dictate the sort of premises sought, but there are many large covered areas which can be used for teaching purposes and which can illustrate perfectly a set of legal problems.

Relevance

The projects described reflect the teaching specialisms of the presenter of this paper. What emerges, however, is the potential of such sites in the context of:

• planning law
• construction law
• health and safety law
• employment law
• environmental law
• commercial law
• clinical legal skills
• inter-personal skills

The ‘clients’ have a range of legal problems which actually go well beyond the obvious substantive law.

Facilities management introduces contractual issues, site mangement, negotiation of securities, human resource management and the whole gamut of management skills.

Students are encouraged therefore to appreciate the problems on the ground and see legal advice as part of business rather than as a self standing discrete topic.

Truly this is not just the business of law – but, in a very real sense, is law for business.

Results

It would be comforting to report that this methodology has produced results of such earth shattering significance that the Holy Grail of teaching can truly be said to have been found. Alas, such is not the case – albeit there are encouraging indications. To understand the statistics, the group dynamic must be established and some explanation is required.

The first chart shows the 12 principal law modules for third year law students – bearing in mind that Scotland has a four year degree profile for Honours or three years for unclassified degrees.

What emerges is an improvement in progression figures but a slight drop in marks awarded. That, however, is not the whole story. Coursework is weighted at 30% of the total mark; coursework marks tend to be higher than the average, but the exam results are disappointing. Student feedback is excellent. The only conclusion which can be drawn is that students rely on good coursework to pull them through. Frankly, this needs to be looked at, and the longer term goal is to revisit the end testing strategy. Comments are attached to the chart in an attempt to identify possible causes.

(The content of the Planning Law modules have now been substantially amended and the two classes merged following programme redesign.)

Level 3 subjects	Relationship to Class Average Mark (%)	Progression/ Pass Rate (%)	Comment
ATS	+9	100	vocational trading standards subject
CLS	+5	93	clinical law
Employment Law	-2	85	core subject
Enforcement Law	-4	88	vocational subject
European Law	+4	96	core subject
Law of Evidence	-8	85	shared with non-law students
Jurisprudence	-1	96	core subject
Consumer Credit	+5	100	option
Social and Welfare Law	+1	100	option
Media Law	-3	77	shared with non-law students
Planning Law A	-6	100	for direct entry students as an extra subject for professional accreditation
Planning Law B	-4	100	option

The second chart shows the Honours profile across the six main law modules. Here the subjects fall into two main categories. The lower marks are the practical law subjects and the higher marks of the purer substantive law variety. On that basis, the marks are pretty well identical. The weaker academic students will tend to avoid the purest academic subjects. However, it was also noticeable that within the group of environmental law students were found the highest dissertation marks. In other words, the so called ‘weaker’ students can outperform their peers when end testing is not involved. Different skill sets seem to be at play. Again assessment methodology for end testing needs to be scrutinised more carefully.

(Environmental Law has been redesigned with 40% weighting on coursework – the above figure was based on a coursework weighting of 30%, which did not truly reflect student effort.)

Honours options	Relationship to Class Average Mark (%)	Progression/ Pass Rate (%)
Law of Obligations	-5	87
Administrative Justice	+4	100
Competition Law	-4	100
European Law	+4	100
Human Rights Law	+6	100
Environmental Law	-5	100

The third chart deals with non-law students. Mark comparisons are not helpful here, as engineering students studying, say, applied maths, can achieve 100% if their calculations are flawless.

What can be said is that at level 2 the students consistently produce results whereby law is the third highest mark (out of four subjects). At level 3, the pattern is that law will be the second highest mark out of four. In the last ten years the progresion rate has been a solid 100%. At level 4, the pattern is that law is again the third highest. Again, over a ten year period the progression rate has been 100%. The law module tends to be a popular module, and again there appears to be a good co-relation with high dissertation marks.

Level	Pass Rate (%)	Class Progression Rate (%)
Second Year	85	85
Third Year	100	85
Honours Year	100	100

Conclusions

The impact of innovation on programme design cannot be ignored. If students have to carry out significant research, then the weighting must reflect student effort.

Provisionally, it would seem that once established this form of teaching does not produce marks which are inconsistent with marks in more conventionally taught subjects, but modest improvements in pass rates can be expected. Where this methodology is introduced for the first time, there can be a drop in grades initially, unless the module design is re-visited so as to reward and recognise student effort.

Given, however, the higher percentage of the population entering further education – currently 50% of school leavers in Scotland – there is likely to be a broader spread of student ability. Increased class sizes make it difficult to motivate students without the personal contact which smaller class sizes facilitate.

Lecturers have to produce more for less in the current quality regime, which can make for pressure on time for routine on-going research. If student input in that regard can be increased, then the students in fact become a learning resource for staff and student body alike. Taking teaching into the ‘real world’ does enthuse students, however, and this in itself energises staff. By involving outside agencies, there is a hands-on input which eases some of the pressure on the academic. ‘Quality’ demands a closer contact with the world of practice, and by lecturing in a live environment contacts are established with fellow professionals across several disciplines.

From the student perspective, the students can see themselves more clearly as stakeholders and are able to accept responsibility for their own learning. Teaching becomes skills based, and the links between ‘town and gown’can even be exploited by students who may well establish a network with potential employers. Above all, the process makes learning fun – which can be no bad thing.

Innovation, of course, is a two edged sword. The successful innovator is lauded but innovation seldom meets with unqualified success at the outset and can inflict wounds on the unwary. Today, however, an enlightened management does not expect unqualified success at the first pass. If we, as academics lose the ability to innovate then we are failing both ourselves and the students.

Lecturing really is the best game in town and the logistical problems associated with teaching larger classes with fewer resources are there to be faced down. It is for the individual to decide what suits best as a teaching style, but if this paper has prompted a re-evaluation of the individual’s approach to learnng and teaching and stimulates fresh ideas then the presenter will be well pleased.

At the end of the day, the role of any lecturer is to stimulate debate and prompt a train of thought – hopefully that has been achieved.

About Peter

---

Peter is Subject Leader in Planning and Environmental Law and Undergraduate Admissions Tutor in the Division of Law at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Last Modified: 12 July 2010