Search
This area does not yet contain any content.
Justinian News

Unread emails ... Family law barrister in Adelaide neglects to attend to emails ... Reminders to renew her ticket studiously ignored ... Unravelling chaos ... Trials invalidated ... Liability of Law Society and Conduct Commissioner ... Breach of statutory requirement ... Damages ... From our Team on the Torrens ... Read more >> 

Politics Media Law Society


An Australian Abroad ... An essay with pictures … Egypt and the Grand Museum … No end to the antiquities … Down the Nile on a dahabiya … Tombs and temples … Paris and industrial-scale tourism … The Yarts & Kulture ... Read on >> 

Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Annihilation of the now ...Trump's campaign of destruction ... Fake emergencies ... Pointless and farcical executive orders ... Gangsterism ... Looting ... Corruption ... Shakedowns ... White rage ... Christian nationalism ... Roger Fitch unloads ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


 

South Australian lawyer practising without a ticket ... Latest developments in Law Society of SA v Betro ... As an alternative to invalidating all the family law trials involving the unlicenced barrister, the Full Court has been approached re possibility of granting a retrospective practising certificate ... The mother in relevant proceedings applied to be joined to argue against this ... Joinder granted on a limited basis to make written submissions. See also Unread emails 

Justinian's Bloggers

Letter from London ... Weather report ... Starmer sinking ... Farage rising ... Fake law firm ... Fake cases ...  NHS employee cleans up with woke case for hurt feelings ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt files from Blighty ... Read more >> 

"In its self-image, Australia has changed from a nation of tough, resilient Anzacs to a snowflake society of victims. This can be seen in the rise of identity politics, cancel culture, trigger warnings, unconscious bias, workplace Broderickism, LGBTQIA+ pleading, colonisation impacts, hidden disabilities and welfare dependency. Hurt feelings, offensive words, micro-aggressions, workload stress and anxiety now form the basis of workers compensation claims."

Mark Latham MLC - a dissenting statement in a parliamentary report on proposed changes to workers compensation law ... May 2025 ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Zeilgeist litigation ... Matt Collins KC on live-streaming of high-profile trials ... Social media nightmare ... Abuse of barristers ... Chilling emails ... Trials as a form of public entertainment ... Courts sleepwalking into a dangerous zone ... Framework needed to balance competing interests ... Paper delivered to Australian Lawyers Alliance Conference ... Read more >> 


Justinian's archive

Justice Jeff Shaw's bingle ... Supreme Court judge's drink-drive experience ... Cars damaged in narrow Sydney street ... Touch driving ... Missing blood sample ... Equality before the law may not apply to judges ... Judges behind the wheel ... From Justinian's Archive ... November 4, 2004 ... Read more >> 


 

 

« Manus case goes upstream | Main | Outwitted »
Friday
May052017

Not so wonderful Copenhagen

Denmark ... Great at furniture design, but wanting in legal education ... Maybe it's because university education is free ... (N.B. Malcolm Turnbull) ... An LLM exchange student looks for the rigour ... Hygge more important than a high paying job ... Hannah Wootton files from Copenhagen 

University of Copenhagen: could try harder

Scandinavia has long been the go-to example of anyone wanting to cite ideal ways of living, governing and working. From happiness to social welfare to schooling, the "Scandi" approach gets a lot right.

Imagine my surprise to find that, as an exchange student at the University of Copenhagen, Australian law schools seem to offer a much better education than their Scandinavian counterparts.

Ideally, university expands students' minds, challenges their ideas and provides educational discipline. In Australia, this comes from rigorous assessment, stimulating lectures and intellectual investment from students.

This does not seem to be a priority in Copenhagen.

In terms of workload, for example, my LLM electives in Copenhagen have just 4,500 words of assessment. They are worth more credit points towards my degree than those at my home university, yet have about half as much marked work.

While it is possible to gain a lot from a subject beyond the material that is examined, assessment generally is what pushes students to gain a comprehensive understanding of a course. It requires students to go to a deeper level of engagement.

A 4,500 word essay that focuses on only part of the course means students can get away with not developing this level of understanding.

Practically, this limits the reliability of university degrees as far as employers are concerned. 

More importantly, it means students are not pushed to get as much as possible from their education. If you can get away with doing less work, most people will. 

Opportunities to gain as much as possible from classes and lectures are under-utilised in Denmark.

At most Australian law schools, getting through all your subjects without attending lectures or tutorials is very difficult. At my university you can't pass without attending a certain percentage of your classes. Furthermore, contributions are often a marked assessment element. 

Before coming to Copenhagen, I thought this was harsh. Indeed, compulsory participation is a controversial topic due to valid concerns regarding its impacts on mental health and fairness to students.

Having witnessed the alternative, mandating participation is much better than having zero participation. Here, students rarely show up to class. I have seminars in which some students have only attended once.

When they do show up, it is unusual for people to actively contribute in an argumentative or analytical way. Although we discuss the readings, contributions rarely go beyond the surface.

The obvious impact is that class discussion is less stimulating compared to Australian universities (at least, the ones I have attended). On a practical level, it also limits the development of professional skills. Argument, analysis and inquiry are central the the discipline of law. These skills are arguably as important to professional success as knowledge of the law itself.

Employers know this. Many of the major firms here actively court international students in the hope of employing them, knowing that most possess a strong set of legal skills as a result of a rigorous education. 

It is not clear why there is such an apathetic approach to law school here.

One of my lecturers, originally from the UK, believes that the lack of involvement in law school stems from university being free. He argues that since there is no financial investment by students, they do not lose anything tangible by not fully utilising the education on offer.

Another argument is that students just care less about marks and academic development than in other countries. There is less pressure to gain employment that is financially or intellectually fulfilling.

The social welfare net combined with high taxation means that there is less difference in income levels of various jobs than in Australia, leading to less incentive to get high-paying work.

In Scandinavia there is a greater emphasis on finding happiness and personal meaning than having a "fulfilling" job. Hygge (core to Danish concepts of happiness) is about enjoying the small moments in life. These do not come from work, rather from recreational time.

Consequently, Scandinavian students do not experience the levels of depression and anxiety that are endemic in Australian law schools.

Legal education is supposed to be challenging and mind-expanding. As great as Scandinavia is at so many things, it is a great pity that it does not utilise this opportunity to its full potential. 

[Here's another version of Copenhagen - "salty old Queen of the sea". Take it away Danny Kaye ...]

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Member Account Required
You must have a member account on this website in order to post comments. Log in to your account to enable posting.