Law curriculum using the tropics as a thematic lens; or, how to meet contemporary challenges in higher education

Abstract

The distinctiveness agenda in higher education is an issue that is not going away. In the recent national discussion about the discipline standards for law, a discipline-specific take on this was evident as various law schools expressed concern about homogenization of law degrees under the forthcoming standards regime. While some perceive distinctiveness as a shallow marketing ploy, this paper argues that it has potential to shift our tradition-bound content-focussed law curriculum into a more sophisticated realm through adoption of a thematic lens to form a cohesive conceptual foundation for the LLB. Such an approach to curriculum design has additional benefits of meeting a variety of contemporary policy issues facing higher education. This paper reports on approaches to curriculum in terms of distinctiveness, of a selection of Australian law schools and reports on how the James Cook University LLB is working with JCU's 'tropical agenda' to inform its curriculum design.