IN OTHER news recently…A schools programme run by the Law Society of Scotland called Street Law won a top European award.
Street what, I hear you say. Okay, maybe not the most eye-catching story but perhaps, in the long run one of the more important. The idea anyway is to give pupils at schools in disadvantaged areas a taste of how the law works. In lessons delivered by university law students themselves.
Young people teaching young people. You know how that usually goes down well.
What sparked this initiative was apparently the realisation that less than one in 12 students signing up to do law degrees in Scotland come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Now, do we really need more lawyers, I hear you thinking out loud. Hmmm, but that’s not really the point. The point is to teach people about the law. Early.
Generally. In fact the scheme which started off in eight schools just over two years ago is now in 46 schools and growing fast. It’s growing almost as fast as the law itself which just in case you ain’t noticed, and why would you because its not the hottest of topics either, never stops growing.
The swiftest of glances at the Scottish Parliament website will reveal an avalanche of consultations, impending legislation, new legislation. That’s what parliaments do. Make laws. But who even has time to glance at these things? Unless they are paid to do so, or have a duty to do so?
Do the public take part in these consultations in a meaningful way at the stage where they could have an impact on things that will impact on them? How are the folks supposed to keep up?
I’ll tell you this: I’m a lawyer and even we lawyers struggle to keep up.
Down at the GBA, the association that represents court lawyers in Glasgow, we have three postgraduate students, two members of staff and umpteen volunteer lawyers trying to respond to this stuff. And some of these impending changes are very, very significant indeed.
But what about at street law level? Street Law itself is a great thing - for everyone involved. And it begs the question: how far should we go in plugging an understanding of the law into the education system? Should it now be part of the curriculum? In primary school? In secondary school?
Along with say teaching at the earliest stages on how to handle money and banks and appreciate things like credit scores and credit records.
Now, and surely even more in the future, an increasingly powerful determinant of lifestyle. What about disclosure issues?
Possibly one of the biggest changes in the consequences of going to court in recent years. Once upon a time someone would go to court for a relatively minor matter, take their punishment and outside court it wouldn’t impact on their jobs say. Is that still the case? There’s also all those quirks in the criminal law that probably should be explained to everyone at an early age so youngsters can make the right decisions when tough situations arise. Anyway, what’s the answer to all this? I dunno. But maybe Street Law is the question.
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