This book is on the nature and practice of legal education in Nigeria, with comparative material sometimes deployed to shed light on current local situation. The primary goal of legal education is to prepare students for the profession. To do this, a faculty will need to pay attention to a theory of learning to guide it in implementing a programme that will serve the mission. It is hoped that the basic information here provided on the basic structure and content oflegal education and ensuing challenges should point in more fruitful directions to all in the legal profession in Nigeria.

A Handbook on Legal Languages and the Quest for Linguistic Equality in South Africa and Beyond is an interdisciplinary publication located in the discipline of forensic linguistics/ language and law. This handbook includes varying comparative African and global case studies on the use of language(s) in courtroom discourse and higher education institutions: Kenya; Morocco; Nigeria; Australia; Belgium Canada and India. These African and global case studies form the backdrop for the critique of the monolingual English language of record policy for South African courts, the core of this handbook, discussed in relation to case law and the beleaguered legal interpretation profession. This handbook argues that linguistic transformation and decolonisation of South Africa’s legal and higher education systems needs to be undertaken where legal practitioners are linguistically equipped to litigate in a bilingual/ multilingual courtroom that enables access to justice for the majority of African language speaking litigants, enforcing their constitutional language rights.

Whilst educational theory has developed significantly in recent years, much of the law curriculum remains content-driven and delivered traditionally, predominantly through lecture format. Students are, in the main, treated as empty vessels to be filled by the eminent academics of the day. Re-thinking Legal Education under the Common and Civil Law draws on the experience of teachers, practitioners and students across the world who are committed to developing a more effective learning process. Little attention has, historically, been paid to the importance of the application of theory, the role of reflective learning, the understanding and acquisition of lawyering skills and the development of professional responsibility and wider ethical values. With contributions from across the global north and south, this book examines the history of educating our lawyers, the influences and constraints that may shape the curriculum, the means of delivering it and the models that could be used to tackle current shortcomings. The whole is intended to represent what might be desirable and possible if we are to produce lawyers that are fit for purpose in the 21st century, be that in either in civil or common law jurisdictions. This book will be of direct assistance to those who wish to understand the theory and practice of legal pedagogy in an experiential context. It will be essential reading for academics, researchers and teachers in the fields of law and education, particularly those concerned with curriculum design and developing interactive teaching methods. It is likely to be of interest to law students too – particularly those who value a more direct engagement in their learning.

This text is a collection of writings on assigned topics by some scholars and lecturers in the Faculty of Law at Benson Idahosa University and those invited from outside the university. The idea to write a text for use in the study of legal methods for law students was borne out of the desire to present a range of updated material in this area of study. The focus of this text is Nigeria. The book is written in simple, easy-to-understand language, and meant essentially for law students in the first year of the five year course in Law, as structured by the National Universities Commission (NUC). Nevertheless, persons who are in need of information or education on different aspects of the Nigerian legal process will also find aspects of the text useful. The contributors come from diverse backgrounds and experiences, which is reflected in their styles of presentation. However, each has endeavoured to present the assigned topic in such a form as to enhance comprehension by the primary beneficiaries. The inclusion of chapters on advocacy and mooting skills, as well as examination skills and strategies, makes this text unique, and allows it to offer more detailed analysis than existing texts in Nigeria provide.

Lawyering with Integrity is presented as a collection of essays in appreciation of the profound contributions of a Nigerian agent of change in legal education and the profession, Professor Ernest Ojukwu, SAN. Ernest or "Teacher" as he is fondly called is renowned as a great law teacher, and more specifically for legal education reforms, and institutionalization of clinical legal education, ethics and professional integrity advocacy. This Teacher's illustrious work has thrown him into limelight in the international legal education community. He is a great law teacher, lawyer and administrator, elevated to the revered rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2014 in recognition of his contributions to legal academics in Nigeria. As the title suggests, the subject of this collection has carried on with integrity, and demonstrating and preaching values, especially integrity. He is our model of lawyering with integrity as endorsed by most contributors here.

A critical history of the Americanization of legal education in fourteen countries The second half of the twentieth century witnessed the export of American power—both hard and soft—throughout the world. What role did US cultural and economic imperialism play in legal education? American Legal Education Abroad offers an unprecedented and surprising picture of the history of legal education in fourteen countries beyond the United States. Each study in this book represents a critical history of the Americanization of legal education, reexamining prevailing narratives of exportation, transplantation, and imperialism. Collectively, these studies challenge the conventional wisdom that American ideas and practices have dominated globally. Editors Susan Bartie and David Sandomierski and their contributors suggest that to understand legal education and to respond thoughtfully to the mounting present-day challenges, it is essential to look beyond a particular region and consider not only the ideas behind legal education but also the broader historical, political, and cultural factors that have shaped them. American Legal Education Abroad begins with an important foundational history by leading Harvard Law School historian Bruce Kimball, who explains the factors that created a transportable American legal model, and the book concludes with reflections from two prominent American law professors, Susan Carle and Bob Gordon, whose observations on recent disruptions within US law schools suggest that their influence within the global order of legal education may soon fall into further decline. This book should be considered an invaluable resource for anyone in the field of law.