Preparing Law Students for Global Practice: An Innovative Model for Teaching Lawyering Skills and Social Justice in a Large Enrolment Law Course
| Author | Supamas Chinvinijkul,Lisa Radtke Bliss |
| DOI | 10.1177/2321005813505456 |
| Published date | 01 January 2014 |
| Date | 01 January 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Military-Madrasa-Mullah Complex 1
India Quarterly, 66, 2 (2010): 133–149
A Global Threat 1
Article
Preparing Law Students for Global
Practice: An Innovative Model
for Teaching Lawyering Skills
and Social Justice in a Large
Enrolment Law Course
Lisa Radtke Bliss
Supamas Chinvinijkul
Abstract
This article describes how the authors collaborated to create a large enrolment law course that had
equally weighed pedagogical goals: to teach Thai law students how to read, understand and communicate
legal terms using English, to teach social justice and to teach fundamental lawyering skills employing
clinical legal education methodologies. The article demonstrates how such goals can be accomplished
in large enrolment courses in which students are unfamiliar with participatory learning models. In the
context of discussing innovations in a 300 student Legal English course, the article illustrates how a law
course can both impart knowledge and help students develop a wide range of lawyering skills as well
as develop their identity as thoughtful, reflective, professional practitioners for whom social justice is a
value, regardless of their professional goals.
Introduction
Law teachers in Asia and elsewhere face a multitude of challenges as they seek to develop law students’
knowledge, skills and values. Across the globe, the emphasis of law teachers traditionally has been on
developing students’ knowledge of legal concepts. In western countries, students’ knowledge traditionally
has been developed via reading appellate judicial opinions and engaging in an in-class dialogue with
their professors to dissect those opinions in an effort to understand legal rules and reasoning. In Asian
Lisa Radtke Bliss is Associate Clinical Professor, Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta, Georgia.
Supamas Chinvinijkul is a former Full-time Lecturer, Mae Fah Luang University School of Law, Chiang Rai,
Thailand.
Asian Journal of Legal Education
1(1) 1–13
© 2014 The West Bengal National
University of Juridical Sciences
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/2321005813505456
http://ale.sagepub.com
Acknowledgements: The authors thank collaborator and co-teacher, Lecturer Sopit Cheevapanich and Dean Apirat Petchsiri, Mae
Fah Luang University School of Law. The authors also thank Co-directors Bruce Lasky and Wendy Morrish of Bridges Across
Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative for their support in the development of this and other projects at
Mae Fah Luang University School of Law. The authors also thank lecturers Smarat Mahapiyasilp and Kiratiphong Naewmalee for
their assistance and participation in the class, BABSEA CLE Law Fellow Klanarong Kaikrong for his valuable assistance,
Professor Ved Kumari from Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, India and lecturers Damon Kumtrai and Suwijak Chandapan for
their participation in classroom role plays and for showing students that learning can be fun. The authors thank Professor Andrea
A. Curcio for her thoughtful review of earlier drafts of this article.
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