Rethinking Assessment in Legal Education

Introduction

This book explores one of the pressing questions in legal education today: how assessment can be reimagined to better support learning, promote equity, and reflect the realities of modern legal practice. The collection focuses on reforming assessment in legal education in England and Wales, aiming to promote more inclusive, diverse, and authentic assessment strategies that recognise assessment's role in driving student experience, engagement, and professional formation.

Format and Approach

The book adopts a distinctive dialogic format where contributors outline proposals for redesigning elements of legal assessment, grounded in their pedagogical experience and responsive to concerns of fairness, accessibility, professional relevance, and student voice. Each proposal is followed by a commentary from an academic in a different jurisdiction, offering comparative insight and reflective critique. This structure brings international perspectives into conversation with domestic debates, highlighting shared challenges whilst identifying context-specific solutions across diverse legal education systems.

Target Audience

This volume will be essential reading for legal educators, curriculum designers, and academic administrators seeking evidence-based approaches to assessment reform. It serves academics in legal education, higher education policy researchers, and practitioners involved in curriculum development, whilst providing valuable insights for law schools internationally looking to enhance their assessment practices and promote more equitable learning outcomes. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Law Teacher.