The consortium partners of MELE intend to enhance the transversal competences and academic skills of students by improving the teaching skills of academic staff among all consortium partners. Moreover, the project’s objective is also to raise awareness of cross-cutting topics, like gender issues, Green deal and climate change, digitalisation and multilevel governance, for legal studies. Effective education and professional training systems are the cornerstones of equitable, open and democratic societies and of sustainable growth and employment. In this context, it is increasingly questioned whether education and teaching methods, especially in the field of legal studies, are still up to date to meet the profession’s needs. Currently, students are trained in very traditional methods, exclusively focusing on legal knowledge and not beyond it. This despite the fact that evidence demonstrates that an increasing number of graduates will most likely not work in traditional legal professions. Hence, additional competences and skills are required to ensure high employability of law graduates. Such needs have been triggered by the globalisation of the legal profession and the increased need for understanding of cross-cutting subjects, e.g multilevel governance, Green Deal and climate change, as well as global digitalisation of societies and automatisation of legal procedures. Furthermore, the working environment of nationally trained ‘traditional’ lawyers will be undergoing considerable changes in future, varies from increased numbers of claims and computerised procedures to complex international cases, which include multiple jurisdictions. These changes in the traditional legal labour market require revisiting of legal education approaches and teaching methods to ensure that graduates are prepared for such emerging challenges. The delivery of legal education requires a holistic engagement with requirements and needs of today’s global job market. To achieve these goals MELE plans four intellectual outputs: - a survey on teaching transversal competences in legal studies (O1) to analyse the current state including transversal competences in the existing teaching and learning and to serve as a basis for the development of the intellectual output “Method tool box” (O3); - an online course for academic skills in European and international context (O2) which will be used for teaching students and PhD candidates the necessary skills for scientific research and work focusing on a European and international background; - a method tool box for new and innovative teaching methods and transversal competences (O3) which compiles handouts and samples of new and innovative teaching methods, like legal clinics and moot scenarios, that improve the teaching skills of academic staff. This toolbox will provide teaching staff with necessary teachings skills for transversal competences whereby students skill will be improved and their employability strengthened. - a publication/collection of articles “Law and beyond” which explains the links of cross-cutting topics for legal teaching and research (O4) and opens up new research fields for legal scholars. MELE will be supported by the implementation of four LTT activities. The workshop for the online course (LTT1) will train teaching staff in the necessary basics for designing an attractive, didactically based and innovative online course. Moreover, it provides possibilities to discuss the structure of this course. The “train the trainers” event (LTT2) will give an overview of relevant transversal competences and their application in legal teaching. Additionally, it will make teaching staff familiar with various innovative teaching methods that can be integrated in the method tool box. The learnt methods will be tested in the summer school (LTT3) so that the participating students will be exposed and trained in transversal competences. Finally, cross-cutting topics will be discussed in the legal context, including a publication, at the workshop “Cross-cutting topics in legal studies” (LTT4). All these activities will be accompanied by dissemination activities by all consortium partners and four multiplier events that will present the intellectual outputs to other academic institutions, stakeholders in the education sector and other interested parties. MELE targets teaching staff, especially young academics, students and PhD candidates of all consortium partners. The project consortium consists of nine different partners across Europe with expertise in the relevant fields. The trans-European composition guarantees a broad horizon, multiple approaches to teaching and different legal backgrounds as well as diverse expertise. MELE creates a forum and network for exchanging and enhancing ideas, experiences and best practices for innovative teaching and research, especially addressing transversal competences and cross-cutting topics, for all consortium partners and beyond.
The objectives of the project focused primarily on improving and modernising legal education in order to close the considerable gap between the skills required by future European lawyers and those currently taught in legal education at European academic institutions. Traditional teaching methods, while valuable for imparting legal knowledge, are not sufficient to prepare students for their role in today's dynamic legal profession. The project objectives were overarching and ultimately led to the creation of mechanisms for effective and efficient modernisation of legal education. The focus of the project was on the training of teachers. To this end, teaching methods were imparted that call for key competences and cross-cutting issues. The project aimed to raise awareness of new and innovative topics and their relevance to law studies. It aimed to bring cross-cutting issues such as gender aspects, the Green Deal and digitalisation into legal research and teaching.
The main objective of the project is to adapt legal education to the demands of the global labour market. Changes in the legal labour market, including automation, require a re-evaluation of training and teaching methods to prepare graduates for the new challenges. The needs assessment has shown that there is an increasing need to qualify academic staff in new teaching methods and cross-cutting competences, such as teamwork skills, analysis, foreign languages, decision-making skills, etc. So far, universities offer only limited support in this area. In addition, it was found that students have less and less knowledge in the area of scientific work. The practical skills and cross-cutting competences of students are only developed to a limited extent by students in teaching. Therefore, the aim is to improve the quality and relevance of legal education in this context and to ensure that both academic staff and students are well prepared for the evolving demands of the legal profession and the labour market.