Legal Education Films for Law Students

Colette R. Brunschwig

1. Legal Education Films for Law Students, Legal Information Films, and Law-Related Movies

In my posting of April 24, 2011 (see <http://community.beck.de/gruppen/forum/audio-visual-law/legal-information-films-for-the-general-public-film-project-at-coventry-university-law-sc>), I conveyed some information about legal information films for the general public. Apparently, the English-speaking world also calls them "public legal education films" (see, for example, <http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/blog/social-innovation-blog/know-your-rights-a-public-legal-education-film/>). In his blog "Recht anschaulich" ("Graphic Law"), KLAUS F. RÖHL generally speaks of "Jura-Videos" (see <http://recht-anschaulich.lookingintomedia.com/?category_name=jura-videos>), without, however, making precise distinctions between legal information films and legal education films.

Today, I would like to take a closer look at legal education films for law students, also called "legal instructional films." In the German-speaking world, we might call them "juristische Lehrfilme" or "juristische Lernfilme," depending on whether we look at them from the law teacher's or the law student’s point of view. In doing so, I do not refer to law-related or legal movies (fiction films) that are also used as educational tools (see, for example, ELKINS, J. R., Popular Culture, Legal Films, and Legal Film Critics, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Vol. 40 (2007), 745–792; GREENFIELD, S., OSBORN, G., and ROBSON, P., Film and the Law, Oxford and Portland, OR, 2010, 23 sqq.; <http://albanylawtech.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/new-copyright-ruling-movies-in-law-school/>, and <http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/film04/>). I am not referring to them here, since these movies are not specifically made for educational purposes.

Already in the fifties, the late JAMES M. SPIRO observed:

"Many legal educators will be surprised to learn that law students have given serious consideration to the use of audio-visual materials in the law schools. Even more surprising may be the news that students overwhelmingly favor development and utilization of such materials" (SPIRO, J. M., Law Students and Audio-Visual Aids, Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 6, Issue 3 (1953-1954), 382–385 (382)).

Legal education films for law students prompt questions particularly pertaining to audiovisual law and legal education or legal didactics (Rechtsdidaktik). For example: 1. Which legal or legally relevant contents do these films cover? 2. What purposes do they have? 3. How can legal education films be delimited from legal information films? 4. What cognitive interest do audiovisual law and legal education have in these films? 5. What epistemological interest do these two disciplines share, and how are they distinct?

Working with examples, this posting only touches on the first content-specific question.

2. Legal Education Films for Law Students and their Contents

a) Legal Education Films for Law Students in the German-Speaking World - Examples

RECHT SCHNELL (see <http://rechtschnell.com/jsf/extern/start.jsf?id=1000620>) and TELE-JURA (see <http://www.telejura.de/and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tele-Jura/314489895679>) audiovisualize legal cases in different fields of law.

Apart from ELLEN SCHLÜCHTER (see http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Schl%C3%BCchter), FRITJOF HAFT was one of the first to produce education films on specific penal law issues. For example, his film concerns § 142 of the German Penal Code (deutsches Strafgesetzbuch), ruling the illegal leaving of the scene of accident (unerlaubtes Entfernen vom Unfallort). Unfortunately, this instructive film entitled "Fahrerflucht" ("Hit and Run") is not publicly available. What about streaming it in order to post it in the community on multisensory law at C. H. Beck publishers (forum "audiovisual law") or in the emerging international network on audiovisual law at FACEBOOK (the page has not been published yet)? KLAUS PETER BERGER audiovisualized § 823 of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) dealing with the liability for damages (Schadensersatzpflicht) (see <http://www.central.uni-koeln.de/content/823-rap,in conjunction with http://bundesrecht.juris.de/bgb/__823.html>).

ANDREAS THIER uses e-lectures  (see <http://www.rwi.uzh.ch/lehreforschung/alphabetisch/thier/person.html>) to introduce law students to legal history (see <https://cast.switch.ch/vod/channels/2e8wbooy2e>).

b) Legal Education Films for Law Students in the U.S. - Examples

In the U.S., universities provide their students (and the general public) with online video lectures on different branches of law. It is, for instance, possible to watch the online video lectures on copyright law at MIT (see <http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-912-introduction-to-copyright-law-january-iap-2006/video-lectures/>).

Further, films teach law students how to conduct searches for primary and secondary sources of law. THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL LIBRARY, for example, offers such online videos (see <http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/research/tutorials/research_video_series.html>).

DAVID STEINBERG, professor at THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL OF LAW (see http://www.tjsl.edu/directory/david-steinberg), provides law students with online legal education films on different topics, such as "Surviving Law School," "Most Common Law School Exam Mistake," "Exam Advice for Law Students," "Building a Law Student Resume," "Your Law School Playbook." (see <http://wn.com/thomasjeffersonlaw?upload_time=all_time&orderby=viewCount>). RICHARD K. SHERWIN’s "The Living Law Archive" contains online films covering similar topics relevant to law students (see <http://www.nyls.edu/centers/projects/law_archive/>). The Harvard Law School Interactive Video Project provides legal instructional films covering issues relevant to legal practice. (<http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n92-41877>).

3. Results and Further Questions

Looking closer at the contents of these legal education films, different aspects have become apparent. There is a great variety of educational legal contents, both in the German-speaking and the English-speaking legal teaching-communities. These films also distinguish themselves through their qualitative and quantitative use of visual and verbal elements, and the combination thereof. Some are still verbocentric, that is, they do not make full use of the visual potential of the new media through visualizing contents. Moreover, their educational design varies. The scientific community, it seems, has still not agreed on uniform terms to refer to these films.

Given these results, further questions need to be addressed: 1. How and how much should legal education films employ verbal and visual elements to convey their contents? 2. How should the verbal and visual elements integrated into these films relate to each other? 3. Does the way in which language and pictures are deployed depend on the legal contents covered? If so, would it be possible and therefore make sense to formulate standards of good practice? 4. Are there any standards of good practice as regards the educational design of the contents of these kinds of audiovisuals? If so, what do they stipulate? If not, what should such specific standards of good practice prescribe? 5. How would these standards relate to audiovisual law standards of good practice? 6. What would be an appropriate name or term for these films? 7. What are the characteristics of German and American Legal Education Films?

(For further information on legal education films, see also RÖHL’s posting "Die Jura-Videos kommen," available at <http://recht-anschaulich.lookingintomedia.com/?p=211>; for a skeptical comment on legal education films, see RÖHL, K. F./ULBRICH, S., Recht anschaulich, Visualisierung in der Juristenausbildung, Köln 2007, 94 sqq.)

(Please note: all websites were last accessed on June 2, 2011.)

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