Playing Games with Law

Z. Bankowski, M. Del Mar and P. Maharg, eds., (2011) Beyond Text in Legal Education

18 Pages Posted: 17 Aug 2014

See all articles by Suzanne Bouclin

Suzanne Bouclin

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section

Gillian Calder

University of Victoria - Faculty of Law

Sharon Cowan

University of Edinburgh - School of Law

Date Written: 2011

Abstract

This collaborative piece explores the experiences of three friends, in three different law schools, who have used the same non-textual pedagogical classroom exercise. The exercise, which is based on a card game, is played without verbal or written communication and has been employed with undergraduate and graduate students, from within civil and common law systems. One objective of the exercise is to invite students to learn in a performative way by doing rather than simply reading or writing. Another is to foster classroom conditions in which students experience social (and legal) rules as context-specific, and recognize that these experiences are complicated by their individual commitments, which may or may not be reconcilable with broader and more entrenched group norms and practices. In this essay we reflect upon the challenges of teaching with this non-textual tool in the law-school classroom and celebrate the ways in which students are eager to confront and develop their own learning techniques.

Keywords: critical pedagogy, law and aesthetics, law and learning

JEL Classification: Z00, I20, I21, K00

Suggested Citation

Bouclin, Suzanne and Calder, Gillian and Cowan, Sharon, Playing Games with Law (2011). Z. Bankowski, M. Del Mar and P. Maharg, eds., (2011) Beyond Text in Legal Education, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2281062

Suzanne Bouclin (Contact Author)

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section ( email )

57 Louis Pasteur Street
Ottawa, K1N 6N5
Canada

Gillian Calder

University of Victoria - Faculty of Law ( email )

PO Box 1700, STN CSC
McGill at Ring Rds (Fraser Bldg)
Victoria, British Columbia V8W 2Y2
Canada

Sharon Cowan

University of Edinburgh - School of Law ( email )

Old College
South Bridge
Edinburgh, EH8 9YL
United Kingdom

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