Online Undergraduate Trial Advocacy Training in Malaysia During the COVID-19 Pandemic
| Author | Simon Alexander Wood |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23220058221125165 |
| Published date | 01 January 2023 |
| Date | 01 January 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Online Undergraduate Trial
Advocacy Training in Malaysia
During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Simon Alexander Wood1
Abstract
One of the significant challenges in legal education during the coronavirus pandemic 2020–2022 was
effectively conducting remote practical advocacy courses. This article addresses that issue by reporting
results of a study conducted of final-year undergraduate law students taking part in a civil trial advocacy
course conducted over two semesters, as part of their regular studies in their degree course. Candidates
were surveyed at the conclusion of their studies on issues including what technology students used to take
part in the course, technological issues encountered as part of their studies, whether they perceived that
remote training was inferior or superior to in-person training, and what were their attitudes to specific
issues in the remote course on advocacy including witness cheating, making objections, team cooperation,
sharing of workload and assessment of student participation and performance. The survey results have
validated the author’s hypothesis that in-person trial advocacy training provides better training than a
remote course. However, none of the five supposed limitations of remote training were validated. In fact,
for many students, specific aspects of the remote course were viewed as conducive to better student
training or at least reducing the practical inconvenience of some aspects of in-person advocacy training.
This provides some reassurance to educators that remote training provides an effective, if slightly less
preferable, mode in which to teach practical advocacy. This is encouraging when it seems that remote
advocacy in the legal profession appears likely to remain a feature of legal practice indefinitely. Based on
the salutary information received from the study, it is recommended that legal educators periodically
conduct such voluntary surveys for the remote teaching of skills-based courses
Introduction
One of the signicant challenges in legal education during the coronavirus pandemic 2020–2022 was
effectively conducting remote practical advocacy courses. This article aims to address that issue by reporting
results of a study conducted of nal-year undergraduate law students taking part in a civil trial advocacy
course conducted over two semesters, as part of their regular studies in their degree course. Candidates
were surveyed at the conclusion of their studies for their views on various aspects of the course, particularly
with regard to the online nature of teaching and learning. Issues addressed included what technology
Asian Journal of Legal Education
10(1) 23–42, 2023
© 2022 The West Bengal National
University of Juridical Sciences
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DOI: 10.1177/23220058221125165
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1 Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Law, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Corresponding author:
Simon Alexander Wood, Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Law, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
E-mails: Simonalexanderwood@um.edu.my; simonalexanderwood@gmail.com
24 Asian Journal of Legal Education 10(1)
students used to take part in the course, technological issues encountered as part of their studies, whether
they perceived that remote training was inferior or superior to in-person training, and what were their
attitudes to specic issues in the remote course on advocacy including witness cheating, making objections,
team cooperation, sharing of workload and assessment of student participation and performance.
Remote or online learning2 brings with it a number of challenges that educators and educational
institutions have had to deal with at a rapid rate in the last two years during the SARS-2 coronavirus
pandemic, requiring constant adaptation and innovation. These matters include inadequate time for
adaptation, inequality of access, pedagogical approaches, mental health (of educators and learners), student
skill and knowledge assessment, resource access and institutional cooperation.3
These challenges certainly affect tertiary students also, who even early in the pandemic reported
increased difficulties managing not only their study obligations but also life in general.4
The Law Faculty at the University of Malaya runs a civil trial advocacy course for students in their final
year. It takes place over two semesters, and students must form teams representing either plaintiff or
defendant, and then prepare and argue a civil trial, taking it in turns to act as counsel for the mock litigants.
The course was first introduced into the curriculum over a decade ago as a way for students to gain practical
experience in civil trial advocacy. It was structured in a way to maximize the experiential learning that
students may have and enable them to implement many of the techniques and guidance given in the
guidebook Civil Trial Advocacy.5
The course is structured so that weekly lectures are given throughout both semesters in which various
aspects of trial advocacy are taught, so that students have a theoretical basis for understanding and applying
the key aspects of practical advocacy. Furthermore, tutors also give introductory classes in which the more
practical aspects of running a trial and the important procedural aspects (both pretrial and trial) are explained
and discussed.
As part of the course, students are required to draft the evidentiary and legal documents that are required
to prepare for and participate in any civil trial in Malaysia. This of course helps the students conceptualize
and comprehend how critical documents are in the civil trial process.
Although it is impossible to give complete training regarding all the procedural and evidentiary issues
that are relevant to trial practice, students study other courses during their ultimate year on civil procedure,
evidence and legal drafting which supplements and consolidates instruction and learning in addition to the
advocacy subject.
In early 2020 when the coronavirus struck the world, it was made compulsory for all courses within
University Malaya to be taught using a remote method of instruction. At that stage, the advocacy course
then in progress was in semester 2 and all the trials being undertaken for the 2019/2020 final year batch
of undergraduate law students were well underway. Because of the skills emphasis of the subject and the
unique practical methodology used, it was decided that the trials should be continued for the remainder
of the course and be conducted remotely using an appropriate remote audiovisual software platform.
The teaching staff decided that it was necessary to make additional guidelines for the remote conduct of the
trials for the remainder of semester 2. As it was a novel situation, staff made the guidelines flexible, meaning
that they could be subject to the discretion of the lecturer acting as judge controlling each of the 10 trials then
in progress. The guidelines covered all the practical aspects of the procedural and substantive issues of the trial
2 The terms are used interchangeably in this paper.
3 Conrad Hughes, Some Implications of COVID-19 for Remote Learning and the Future of Schooling (Series: In-Progress
Reflection No. 36 Current and Critical Issues in Curriculum, Learning and Assessment) UNESCO & International Bureau of
Education (19 April 2020, 3:35 pm), https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373229.
4 Kari Almendingen et al., Student’s Experiences with Online Teaching Following COVID-19 Lockdown: A Mixed Methods
Explorative Study, plos one (31 Aug. 2021), https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250378.
5 Gurdial Singh Nijar, Civil Trial Advocacy (2001).
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