Plenary session at the SPTL conference
Cardiff 1995
reviewed by
Professor Alan Paterson
University of
Strathclyde
alan@law.strath.ac.uk
The highlight of the Society for Public Teachers of Law (SPTL)
conference this year at Cardiff University (20-23rd September 1995)
was not meant to be the Annual Dinner but the Friday afternoon
session where BILETA took over responsibility for the plenary
sessions. The afternoon began inauspiciously. Delegates had been
induced to dally at the bookstalls by a combination of a
publisher's buffet lunch and the onset of a downpour. Moreover the
stock of conference umbrellas - an excellent idea for any readers
planning to be conference organisers - was stuck in the main law
school building. Nothing daunted Richard Susskind, the doyen of
legal IT gurus, who kicked off proceedings with a stimulating
address on how technology will revolutionise the lawerying process
into that of information provision. Abdul Paliwala, the redoubtable
Secretary of BILETA followed this up with an insightful account of
the implications of the greater availability of technology
including Computer Based Learning for the legal teaching and
learning environment. John Dale (Technical Director of the Law
Courseware Consortium) elaborated on this by discussing the future
direction of law courseware.
Question time followed with a tongue in cheek enquiry from the
Dean of one well resourced law school as to how the cost of
implementing mass PC labs for law schools wishing to use IOLIS , could
be met. The Chair played this googly with a straighter bat than the
England cricket team managed in South Africa and the discussion
took a stickier turn with a sharp critique of CAL from one of the
luddites in the audience.
A robust reply from the academic consultant to the package
concerned (and a member of the RAE panel to boot) amongst others,
sent us off to tea in a contemplative mood. The Chair invited the
more energetically minded members of the audience who had not yet
seen the packages (aboult half of them, judging by the show of
hands) to brave the elements by crossing the road to visit
Cardiff's well appointed IT Labs.
The after tea session began late (too many biscuits and the
counter attractions of IOLIS and Scots courseware) with Ian Lloyd
of Strathclyde University explaining the innovative aspects of the
Electronic Law Journals project and the publication of the Journal
of Information, Law and Technology (self evident to those of you
still reading this piece). Bruce Grant of Newcastle University
described the progress which he had made with the Web Journal of
Current Legal Issues and the problems which his journal and the
proposed new Electronic Law Journals project would have to
overcome. The session ended with Andy Terret of the CTI Law
Technology Centre discussing the implications of the Web for legal
academics and in particular the Information Systems for Law Schools
project.
The discussion which followed was on the one hand concerned with
the nuts and bolts issues of electronic journals and with the role
of the internet in legal education. However, the crucial issue
raised was the academic credibility of electronic publications. On
this we were informed of Funding Council directions to the effect
that electronic publications should be considered on a par with
paper publications, otherwise there would be no sense in major
funding for electronic publications by the Councils.
We filed out into the damp evening enlightened but a little
drained. Ah well there was always the conference dinner to look
forward to ....
