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ABSTRACT
As the world has grown more interconnected, many political science programs have added courses on international law, international organizations, the laws of war and peace, international human rights, and comparative judicial politics. While in many cases these are relatively new offerings within international studies, all of these subjects have long been part of the law school curriculum. There is, therefore, a long pedagogical history to be examined in terms of the techniques and content used in law schools to teach these courses. This paper examines a number of these techniques and discusses how they may be used in political science courses to enhance student learning opportunities.
As the world has grown more interconnected, many political science programs have added courses on international law, international organizations, the laws of war and peace, international human rights, and comparative judicial politics. While in many cases these are relatively new offerings within international studies, all of these subjects have long been part of the law school curriculum. There is, therefore, a long pedagogical history to be examined in terms of the techniques and content used in law schools to teach these courses. Moreover, since these subjects cut across the disciplines of law and international relations, using techniques from the law curriculum provides added depth to the field of international studies.
This paper examines a number of techniques frequently used in international and comparative law courses at the law school level and discusses how they may be used in political science courses to enhance student learning opportunities. These include the use of legal cases as opposed to descriptive texts to guide the learning process, the use of the IRAC analysis technique, and the use of simulation exercises such as moot court to bring the subject matter to life in the classroom. Drawing on my own experience in both law and undergraduate classrooms, this paper provides some examples of techniques drawn from the law school classroom and how they can be applied to undergraduate classes.
WHY LOOK TO LAW SCHOOL TECHNIQUES?
The teaching of undergraduates is not the same as the teaching of law students. Part of the purpose of law school is to take students who have shown an aptitude and interest for legal reasoning and teach them...