The next
four speakers seemed to be well connected in terms of looking at the law beyond
the constraints of written statements, arguments, opinions, rules etc. Firstly, Zenon Bankowski set the scene with a
new AHRC funded project to look at uncovering the hidden information that is
not perhaps visible through a textual approach to the law. In particular, the problem a museum curator
has when visitors refer to the catalogue to gain information on the object
before them; and Wayne Rooney’s tempero-spatial awareness to know the past,
present and future location of fellow players have commonalities that can be
introduced to legal education.
Next, in a
rather exciting outdoor session, Gary Watt took the audience on a guided walk around
Warwick campus – in the manner of a school trip – identifying things relating
to the law.
First stop,
in the quasi-Roman amphitheatre, the hierarchical nature of the steps led on to
discuss the building and edification of the campus. Second up was the tree, sharing qualities with
law such as branches, roots, growth, and a tendency to hurt if you run into
it! Lastly, the water feature
highlighted qualities such as fluidity, man-made constraints yet eroding qualities
and attempting to settle on an even level.
This was
made interesting by noting the name given to Aristotle’s students
(peripateikos) as they followed him walk around the gardens and courtyards; and
the pedagogus slave who was
responsible for walking a child to school safely.
The next two
speakers looked at the narratives and versions of the facts. Robert McPeake and Marcus Soanes gave a
practical BVC perspective to identifying basic plots, story framing and
identifying ‘outsiders’. This also 'involved the audience' to look at the characters in a case and identify their role/plight/motives with a basic plotline such as tragedy, quest, rags-to-riches, comedy, rebirth etc. Audience participation was certainly appearing to be a key theme of LILAC09!
Lastly, an
excellent story was told by Dawn Watkins who will attempt to engage her
students in more dry subjects (in this case final year trusts and equity, but
could be done in tax or revenue) by empathizing with the key characters in a
case, adding, perhaps, intrigue, mystery or even humour. The gist of the story involve academics in hi-vis jackets on JCBs shouting through megaphones at students to "find the ratio!" whilst they sat on top of a hole in the ground that had been filled in, but previously contained a mass of lawyers, boundary disputers, mouners, judges and others! It made sense at the time!
