The Place of Restorative Justice and Experiential Andragogy in the Curriculum

This paper is centred on three fundamental and overlapping points. First and foremost, students in many disciplines, notably Law are, more often than not and regardless of jurisdiction, largely passive participants in their learning, frequently being the recipients of content-driven curricula delivered primarily through lectures and assessed at end of study periods through written and/or oral examinations. Secondly, although based on a specific case study – the creation and delivery of a new course/module at a leading UK University – we believe that what has resulted from the innovation involved has significant lessons for (legal) education elsewhere and as such we are keen to share our own experience in the hope of informing and inspiring others. Finally, and with specific reference to the subject matter concerned, most dispute resolution systems in general and criminal ‘justice’ processes in particular take little account of longer-term consequences of adjudications and outcomes for all concerned. This claim is explored as we discuss the course/module itself below. The purpose of this paper it to describe and analyse how a more constructive approach to legal education can take place, exampled by this study of restorative justice (RJ) and forms of experiential and reflective learning and the impact of this.