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ABSTRACT
Law Student Oaths, Honour Codes and Pledges have been variously used as a way to communicate and regulate standards of law student behaviour and to inculcate them into the ethical and professional values and attitudes seen as important for future legal professionals, such as a commitment to honesty and integrity. Variations of Oaths, Codes and Pledges are used extensively in America and in many other parts of the world. However, they have never really featured in the Australian university landscape. This article reports on the introduction of a Law Student Pledge as part of the first year law experience at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in New South Wales, Australia. Through focus groups held with students, feedback from first year teaching staff, and through a practice of collaborative review, this article reports on the impact, benefits and challenges of introducing the Pledge at UOW, as well as the research team’s learnings and the future development of the Pledge.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See University of Wollongong Student Charter. (Citation2017), Available at: https://www.uow.edu.au/student/charter/UOW093830.html.
2 Note: In the United States, Law is a graduate degree, unlike the majority of LLB degrees offered in Australia (although the graduate JD has gained momentum here in recent years). This distinction is considered relevant to discussion of the motivations behind the UOW Law Student Pledge, discussed below.
3 See, for example, the University of San Diego (Citation2016) Incoming Law Students Take Oath of Professionalism. Available at: http://www.sandiego.edu/law/school/news/detail.php?_focus=56018, & Duke University (Citation2008). Available at: https://www.law.duke.edu/curriculum/pdf/HonorPledge.pdf.
4 Economides, K & Webb, J’s ANZLEC5 Colloquium 2015 presentation in Melbourne.
5 This requires a strong leadership role for law schools: Elman (Citation2009), p. 93.
6 Ibid: Just as the lawyer’s oath marks the “transition from students to practitioner of law” so too is the aim of a law student oath to mark the transition from pre-student to “student-at-law”.
7 Legal Profession Uniform Law Citation2015 (NSW) s17 (1)(c) requires that an applicant for admission to practice be a “fit and proper person”. All Australian jurisdictions have a similar requirement.
8 This is obviously different for Law Schools offering the post-graduate JD qualification.
9 An independent evaluation of the UOW First Year Program found that students identified the “Pod experience … as the most positive aspect” of the program, facilitating an “easy transition” into university: Walker (Citation2006) The First Year Experience 2006: a Report of Four Focus Groups Conducted for the First Year Working Party. University of Wollongong. 32006 Report, p. 3. Additionally the UOW First Year Team has been recognised with the UOW Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Learning and Teaching (2013) as well as an Australian Award for University Teaching: Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2015).
10 An important element for wellbeing and transition – see, eg, Krieger (Citation2007) p. 247.
13 We will return to this in the Findings below.
14 As required by the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) s17.
15 These figures were taken as at 27 February 2017.