Developing global citizens through legal education

Project contact: Tracey Varnava (e-mail: t.varnava@warwick.ac.uk)
Project summary: an exploration of the concept of sustainability literacy within legal education
Completion date: July 2008
Funding: £4,000 (Higher Education Academy)

This two year project, funded by the Higher Education Academy’s Education for Sustainable Development Project, explored the concept of sustainability literacy within legal education.

The project aimed to:

• assess the extent to which the law curriculum is already making a contribution to sustainability literacy
• identify opportunities for, and barriers to, the development of sustainability literacy in legal education
• raise awareness, encourage debate and generate the development of a shared understanding within the academy and the profession of the ways in which legal education can prepare students to be ‘global citizens’

During 2007 a survey was undertaken with the aim of developing a strategy for bringing education for sustainable development (ESD) into the mainstream of the law curriculum. Following a discussion session at Learning in Law Annual Conference 2007 a consultation paper put forward a range of proposed survey questions. The survey was sent to UKCLE key contacts and stakeholders in March 2007 – see the survey questions and summary of responses.

We also commissioned a set of case studies on how law schools are integrating sustainability literacy into the curriculum and set up an education for sustainable development mini-site

Last Modified: 6 July 2010