The HYPATIA Project. Models of Legal Knowledge and Legal Reasoning in Computer-assisted Instructional Materials for Learning the Law

The HYPATIA project aims at designing computer-assisted instructional materials for law students. The focus is on new additional instructional materials intended to support students where they experience difficulties in acquiring legal knowledge and legal skills, though materials are not yet available. The HYPATIA project is divided into specific projects that seek to realize instructional environments for acquiring legal concepts, for learning to use statutes on the basis of insight in the system and structure of statutes, for learning to use precedents on the basis of insight in the structure and elements of precedents, and for learning to solve legal cases. The emphasis is on a model-based approach. Models of legal knowledge and legal reasoning are the basis for designing the instructional environment. To (re)construct these models a variety of theoretical sources are examined. Next to this it is necessary to gain insight in the specific difficulties students experience in acquiring legal knowledge and legal skills. Remedies are suggested on the basis of both the models of the legal knowledge and skills and the specific difficulties experienced. The research also results in an explicit instructional model, which is an important part of the instructional environment to be realized.