A Legal ‘Dweller On The Threshold'

Carlin, Niall and Vincent, Jonathan (2025) A Legal ‘Dweller On The Threshold'. The Law Teacher. ISSN 0306-9400

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Abstract

A case study was conducted at one of the largest providers of legal education in the UK to seek to ascertain what, if any, threshold concepts there may be in legal education. An online survey gathered data from 212 students across undergraduate and postgraduate law programmes. Findings indicated ‘thinking like a lawyer’ was a possible threshold concept. A more unexpected development was the idea of a contract being identified as a possible threshold concept. This potential threshold concept had not been found or even raised in speculation in literature previously. Possible developments in light of findings include increased legal skills activities and assessments in Contract Law studies across legal education. The practical focus of such a step would hopefully assist students to ‘think like a lawyer’ as per the other apparent threshold concept identified. It is hoped such a step would also serve to aid student understanding in this apparently particularly troublesome and valuable area, while also being consistent with increased use of authentic assessment methods in legal training and across higher education. It could be argued efforts in this regard are particularly timely, given the recent, significant changes to the solicitor training regime in England and Wales in 2021.