Training for Better Decisions: Designing a Computer-Mediated Distance Education Subject for Tribunal Members

Abstract

[Extract] In 1991 Carrie Menkel-Meadow argued that even when law teachers think they are teaching law, they cannot avoid teaching legal ethics as well. “By the very act of teaching, law teachers embody lawyering and the conduct of legal professionals” and give students implicit messages about appropriate lawyering. What, then, do we teach when we do explicitly set out to teach legal ethics? Should we merely expect students to learn some rules and laws that apply to the conduct of legal practice? Can we really expect students to learn to be more ethical in a university course? Should we expect them to learn moral judgment? Perhaps we should be teaching them the skills of legal practice? The d..