On the 26th September 2017, Emily Carroll organised a one day workshop at Birmingham Law School, sponsored by the Centre for Professional Legal Education and Research (CEPLER) with the aim of re-imagining the teaching of land law. The workshop was an opportunity to reflect on the changes in government, society and the legal market, which potentially shape the organisation, aims and delivery of legal education.

Land law provides one of the clearest opportunities to consider the cultural and political context of legal regulation and to develop an insight and criticality about the basic principles of these legal systems in students and yet the SRA’s introduction of the Solicitors Qualification Exam has thrown the teaching of land law into the spotlight. Should the practice of land law have any bearing on the land law curriculum? And, if so, how might regulatory change impact on the content and method of teaching land law?

The workshop presented the prospect of considering whether law schools are intending to ‘teach to the SQE syllabus’, or whether land law was considered to better taught through black letter doctrine, or in a more overtly political, theoretical and socio-legal manner.

Below is the agenda, with the speakers and the title of their presentations. Their slides also appear next to their names, and you are welcome to download them.

Agenda
9.30-10am Registration and coffee
10-10.15am Welcome

Professor Robert Lee, Head of Birmingham Law School

 

Re-Imagining the Teaching of Land Law 

Emily Carroll, Birmingham Law School
10.15-11.45am

 

 Practice Driven vs Research Led: A Mixed Approach from Swansea [slides]

Michael Draper, Swansea Law School
Assessing Land Law: Oral Presentation Skills [slides]

Adam Baker, University of Leeds

 
Online Exams: Preparation for the SQE? [slides]

Sandra Clarke, The School of Law & Centre for Criminology, University of Greenwich
The Importance of Theory in Property Law and Practice [slides]

Martin George, University of Leicester

 

The Customer is Always Right

Mark Wonnacott QC, Maitland Chambers
11.45am-12pm Coffee break
12-1.15pm

 

 Virtual Land Law Field Trip Project [slides]

Verona Ni Drisceoil, School of Law, University of Sussex
What is Land Law? [slides]

Professor Antonia Layard, University of Bristol Law School
Teaching Land Registration [slides]

Amy Goymour, University of Cambridge & Professor Ben McFarlane, UCL Faculty of Laws
1.15-2.15pm Lunch
2.15-3.45pm

 

 There is Life in Black Letter Land Law Yet [slides]

Professor Warren Barr, University of Liverpool
‘T’ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it – That’s what gets results’ (Ella Fitzgerald) [slides]

Graham Ferris, Nottingham Law School

 
Land, Litigation & The SQE

Abigail Jackson, University of East London
Problem-Based Learning: Perspectives from York Law School

Dr Emma Waring, York Law School
3.45-4.00pm Coffee break
4-4.20pm Consumer Perspectives – the Impact on End Users: Advocacy and Legal Advice

Professor Elizabeth Cooke, Principal Judge, Land Registration Division First-tier Tribunal

 
4.20-4.30 Closing discussion
From 4.45 pm Wine reception in the Senior Common Room, Law School