ADR in legal education: learning by doing

Practice-based courses have grown in Australian law school curricula, along with the idea that law schools must provide the forum for students to learn what lawyers actually do. Teaching and learning in a theoretical framework on its own results in deficiencies in legal education. In 2005, La Trobe University Law School introduced Dispute Resolution as a compulsory first-year stand-alone law subject. In addition to the traditional method of a lecture or seminar-discussion session, a simulation exercise is used to teach the mediation process. This article explores the mediation role-play assessment exercise which is the culmination of skills teaching and learning in the subject.