avatar OPEN UNIVERSITY(THE) Services
  • Location: BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 
  • Founded:
  • Website:
Download the Report of OPEN UNIVERSITY(THE) for year 2020

Pages

  • Page 1

    OPEN JUSTICE CENTRE ANNUAL REPORT 2020 law-school.open.ac.uk/open-justice

  • Page 2

    CONTENTS Overview 3 A Four Nations Approach 3 Open Justice Centre Activities and 2019/2020 updates Open Justice Law Clinic 4 Prison PLE projects 5 Street Law in Schools 6 Online Public Legal Education 7 Freedom Law Clinic 8 Mediation 9 Digital Justice and technology 9 Open Justice Partnerships Developing student professionalism 10 Engaging national and local partners 10 St Giles Trust 10 Support Through Court 11 Citizens Advice 12 Mentoring scheme - UK Government Legal Profession 12 United Nations 12 Learning and Education Activities and Outputs Video and YouTube resources 13 OU and BBC Collaborations 13 W360: Justice in action 2019/2020 14 Publicity, Knowledge Exchange Activities and Outputs 15 Open Justice Centre website (www.open.ac.uk/open-justice/) 14 The Open Justice Blog 16 Twitter account report 16 Award shortlists and nominations in 2019/2020 17 Open Justice Student Awards 2020 18 International lectures, conferences, workshops and events 20 Open Justice in the media 24 Research Outputs 25 Research projects in 2019/2020 25 Centre members and participants in 2019/20 25 Centre Contact details 26 Student Ambassadors 2020 26 Associate Lecturers and project support 2019-2020 26

  • Page 3

    OVERVIEW A FOUR NATIONS APPROACH Open Justice leverages the expertise of The OU The Open Justice Centre is unique in being able Law School for the public benefit. Over the past to engage with communities across the four academic year we have experimented with a nations of the United Kingdom. The majority of range of online and offline projects which draw on our students are based in England, but a healthy the enthusiasm, commitment and professionalism proportion of our student base is drawn from of our students and academics in a variety of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which has ways, but which all seek to reimagine the social allowed us, with the support of the OU national justice mission that was at the heart of The Open offices, to develop a range of localised initiatives. University’s founding vision a little over 50 years This has included public legal education events in ago. Belfast, school-based workshops in Scotland and prison-based engagements in Wales. This is in Our work has continued to capture the interest addition to our online work on policy issues, legal and imagination of the sector and has once advice and public legal education which reaches again attracted a number of award nominations. across national boundaries. The Centre has been the subject of increasing attention, as other university law schools attempt to meet the challenge of continuing to deliver clinical legal education during a pandemic. Our webinar in May 2020, ‘Taking clinical legal education online’, attracted legal academics from across the globe. This, along with a range of peer- reviewed research outputs, is indicative of the currency and relevance of our work, which aims to realise the potential of digital technologies to deliver high-quality legal education experiences for students while also providing meaningful pro bono legal support for the public. Open Justice Team in Edinburgh We remain grateful for the support of the Faculty of Business and Law at The Open University and to our growing list of external partners including, but not limited to, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Support Through Court, Citizens Advice, the Freedom Law Clinic, St Giles Trust, HMP Altcourse, JustRights Scotland, Young Citizens, Inverclyde Advice Centre as well as our school partners across the UK. Thank you for taking the time to read our annual update on the progress Open Justice Team in Belfast with colleagues of the Open Justice Centre. fom the Northern Ireland office We remain committed to developing opportunities for students across the four nations and are actively seeking opportunities to further develop our portfolio of projects both nationally and internationally in the coming year. Hugh McFaul Francine Ryan Director Director 3

  • Page 4

    OPEN JUSTICE CENTRE ACTIVITIES AND 2019/2020 UPDATES Open Justice Law Clinic The award-winning Open Justice Law Clinic provides free, professional-standard legal advice to members of the public on a variety of different areas of law. The clinic is the result of a successful collaboration between students, ALs, supervising solicitors and academics which has created a unique online, student-led service. This year we have expanded our areas of advice to include family law, wills and benefits. Since July 2019, we have provided detailed legal advice on Francine Ryan, Liz Hardie and students 46 cases, and signposted over 150 cases. Since at Rawtenstall January 2020 the clinic began in late 2017 it has provided the equivalent of £230,400 worth of free legal advice. In addition to our virtual law clinic we also ran a pop-up law clinic in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. We delivered this service in partnership with Types of cases the clinic 9% has advised on Lancaster University, Rawtenstall Social Justice 24% Centre and MP, Jake Berry. We saw 18 clients and Employment provided advice on welfare benefits, employment, 20% consumer and family law issues. Jake Berry visited Civil litigation the clinic and talked to the students about the Business value of pro bono legal work and supporting 4% Administrative communities. We are continuing to develop links 43% with MPs and hope to replicate the pop-up clinic Family project in other parts of the country. Although COVID-19 has meant we have been unable to continue with our pop-up clinics, the virtual law clinic has been able to increase its capacity to support clients during the pandemic. We are seeing a rise in employment and family cases. We have been particularly busy during the pandemic supporting other law clinics to transition to online delivery. I’m incredibly happy with the service I received from the Open Justice Law Clinic; they dealt with my case professionally, communicated well and I’m very grateful for the advice they gave. Their guidance really helped in a time of hardship where I otherwise would have had no access to legal advice. Their work and mission are admirable. Client feedback 4

  • Page 5

    Prison PLE projects HMP Altcourse prison radio project Our prison projects are just one strand of the public legal education (PLE) service provided by the Open Justice Centre. Five prison projects ran from January to March 2020 across England and Wales, for prison peer advisers trained by St Giles Trust. A sixth project which ran at the same time was for ex-prisoners working within St Giles Trust. In all, around 35 law students took part across the six projects. Five projects in partnership with St Giles Trust In 2020 these projects took place at: HMP Leicester, HMP Wandsworth, HMP High Down, Keren Lloyd Bright, prison project lead (L), students HMP Send and St Giles Peer Hub in Cardiff. and Paul Dale, tutor (R) at HMP Altcourse March 2020 This project has now been running for three successive years. Internally, the prison’s education department has named the project ‘The Legal Eagles’. Prisoners pose general legal questions during a tour of the prison. The students then record a radio show called ‘Castaway’ which is broadcast on prison radio. It takes a ‘Desert Island Discs’ style format, with student presentations, a Q&A and a piece of music chosen by each student. This project was completed the week Tutor Kate Ritchie (L), Piero Izzolino from before lockdown began. Unfortunately, two of St Giles Trust (4th from L) and students the five students could not take part in the final at HMP High Down, March 2020) programme this year because they were self- isolating. Each project provided law seminars for prisoner In November 2019 our prison radio project at and ex-prisoner peer advisers trained by St Giles HMP Altcourse was featured on the BBC Radio Trust. The peer advisers chose the subjects, 4 programme ‘Law in Action’. Recent graduate which have included: family law; sentences of Sarah Couling, from the previous cohort of imprisonment for public protection; release on students visiting the prison, talked about her temporary licence; deportation; and legal issues experience of taking part in the project and Hugh around employment after prison. Students McFaul discussed how prisoners study with The develop resources, seminar activities and give Open University in general. interactive presentations on the chosen subjects. One project was successfully completed but the other four unfortunately had their final seminar cancelled during the first week of lockdown. These prison projects were finalists in the LawWorks Pro Bono Awards 2019 in the ‘Most Effective Pro Bono Partnership’ category. Sarah and Hugh are shown with BBC journalist and programme host Joshua Rozenberg, who is holding a copy of the Open Justice Centre’s Annual Report 2019, outside HMP Altcourse 5

  • Page 6

    Street Law in Schools The Open Justice Centre and the Open University Law Society paired up in November 2019 to launch a new Street Law project. The project offers PLE ‘Street Law’ workshops in secondary schools and community groups with Lauren Shanahan Smith, Natalie Healy and Sarah the aim of promoting a greater understanding Mowlem at Glenmoor and Winton Academies of law and legal issues. Through the interactive workshops involving a range of activities, audiences engage on legal issues that are of At Winton Academy, our students delivered an particular relevance to them. assembly to 150 girls then did workshops with all of them in groups of 30. Plans for the same activity in Although the project got off to a promising start the boys’ academy had to be postponed. In Milton with over 12 student groups busy preparing Keynes our students presented to 15 cadets. sessions, the timing coincided with the COVID-19 outbreak and in the end only three groups went Student Lauren Shanahan Smith who was on the ahead. One took place in Scotland at Whitburn Glenmoor and Winton Academies project said: Academy in Stirling, one at Glenmoor and Winton Academies in Bournemouth, and one with Milton Keynes Police Cadets. At Whitburn Academy, Kirsty and Sonata When the Open Justice team put a call delivered a session to promote interest and an out for volunteers to run a workshop in understanding of criminal law in Scotland, flag up issues with knife crime as it affects the pupils a local secondary school I jumped at the and discuss awareness of the study of law as a opportunity. Being able to teach law to the university subject and the role of a solicitor. younger generation is something I think is important. The school was great and incredibly accommodating. They picked two topics – consent, and social media and the law. Our workshop was designed for Year 9 students (13-14 year olds). We worked in a group and communicated regularly through the forum, had catch ups in the online rooms and a group WhatsApp. Over a few weeks we built a workshop that was going to run for Students Sonata Arlauskaite and Kirsty Calder 13 lessons and two assemblies, speaking to at Whitburn Academy 300 students over four days. It was a fantastic opportunity and working hard pays off. It takes up time but it’s all worth it. Sadly, the virus cut short our workshops, but we will be back to the school at the earliest possible opportunity. We hope to resume our Street Law activities in the early part of 2021. 6

  • Page 7

    Online Public Legal Education Young Citizens We were invited to undertake a brief on behalf of In 2019-20 the students worked on a brief provided the Young Citizens charity where we revised and by JustRight Scotland, a human rights charity. updated its ‘SmartLaw’ resources. As part of that, In 2019 the Scottish Parliament brought forward our students also created factsheets relating to the the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Protection areas of law they were supporting on. The group (Scotland) Bill, to strengthen and improve looked at the emergence of social media and protection for women at risk of FGM in Scotland. how the way people communicate is affected and The Open Justice Policy Clinic was asked by covered by Law in England and Wales. This project JustRight Scotland to produce a report on the covers important areas such as cyberbullying, draft bill and to provide policy recommendations defamation, and data protection. to strengthen and improve protection in Scotland for victims of FGM. The report recommended Rights within the workplace better education in respect of FGM and enhanced We received a brief from Inverclyde Advice protection for victims of FGM. The information and Employment Rights Centre to produce a provided will be used by the charity in its advocacy handbook which outlines sources of support in the work. Central Belt of Scotland. This group also produced a handout relating to rights within the workplace. More information about the Open Justice Open Justice Policy Clinic Policy Clinic’s work with just Right Scotland can be found on our website: http://law-school.open.ac.uk/open-justice/ open-justice-week In the Open Justice Policy Clinic students work in small groups to provide legal and policy consultancy to a charity or organisation under the supervision of legal academics. Following a brief provided by the organisation, they research a specific area of law or issue and produce a report which the organisation can use in its policy and advocacy work. 7

  • Page 8

    Freedom Law Clinic In the second project, 10 of our law students explored race and policing in the UK and USA. The project was launched following recent events THE FREEDOM LAW CLINIC in the USA, namely the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and subsequent The Freedom Law Clinic (FLC) is a not-for-profit response. company providing pro bono research and advice The OU students compared the legal framework on appeals for people who have been convicted in the UK and USA and considered the historical of very serious criminal offences but who are parallels and important differences between maintaining their innocence. Law students from the legal developments in both countries. After eight UK law schools collaborate using the online reading challenging materials and literature they platform Slack, to research grounds for criminal were invited to form their own views on the issues appeals. OU students have been appointed as and submit an essay. The student behind the best case workers to mentor new students from other essay will be awarded with a £500 prize fund when higher education institutions. Our students have the project concludes in September 2020. valued the rare opportunity to engage in pro bono criminal work. Feedback we received from students concerning their experiences was positive. More information on the FLC is available here: Student Lisa Gamble (pictured left) said: “It http://freedomlawclinic.org/ was my first experience volunteering for a law Over the summer, 20 Open University law students clinic. I didn’t know took part in two extra-curricular FLC projects with what to expect so seven other universities. everything was a new experience. It opened In the first project, 10 students considered the a door for me into civil effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on civil liberties. liberties, something I The students attended online seminars with am now passionate about. I learned to work as part leading speakers, to support them in creating a of a wider clinic team in allocating and delivering research paper looking in detail at the emergency tasks that included reading and interpreting legislation. statute, writing a daily development diary (for The research paper is expected to be published 100 days), listening and contributing to debates later in 2020 and will include examples of where and expert seminars, speaking to a protestor and the emergency legislation has been used, as well making attendance notes on several occasions. I as testimonies from those affected by the law. It also attended a lot of webinars from Chambers. It will be used to develop ways to help people who has refreshed my interest and reminded me why I need support and to offer pro-bono legal advice to wanted to study law.” those who have been negatively impacted. Post- Lisa has since completed a second research lockdown, the research will be used to lobby for programme with the FLC on Race and Policing changes to the law. and was invited to work with the clinic on a more permanent basis. Lisa is now a caseworker at the clinic and working on an international civil liberties research project. 8

  • Page 9

    Mediation mediation, introductions to different mediation techniques, consideration of the differences in face-to-face and online mediation and the various skills needed to successfully complete a mediation. In 2019-20 we trained 15 students who then successfully mediated two different scenarios, the last one involving other tutors and students who played the part of clients in an employment Our e-Mediation Project transfers traditional law dispute. The clients provided feedback on mediation training to an online environment. the students’ work and this was overwhelmingly Students undergo training in online mediation positive, as students put into practice the skills and skills including online training sessions, group techniques they had learnt during the project. All work and individual work. They then have the students brought their mediation to a successful opportunity to put these skills into practice by conclusion which was agreed by both clients. acting as co-mediators in two training-simulated The training and experiences students received mediations. also prepared them well for the move to online Our two trained mediator solicitors wrote and communication following the COVID-19 lockdown, delivered three online training sessions and which occurred towards the end of the project. provided additional work for the students to The skills they developed in online communication complete between sessions, both individually and conflict resolution will be of wider benefit to and in small groups. This included the theory of them going forward. Digital Justice and technology Student feedback on the project has been very positive: “The digital justice project was a very insightful practice on the work of translating legal The team is committed to embedding our instruments into the pedagogic practice across disciplines. everyday language of the potential user of services. Our Digital Justice project was introduced in The project allowed me 2018-19 and involves collaboration with the OU’s practice teamwork in the computing and learning technology departments. legal field. The support I received from the course Students have explored the challenges of mentors/instructors was very professional and exploiting technology to provide legal help and courteous. I would recommend any law student acquire technical and project management skills. goes through this experience.” This year we were we the first English university Eily Kimmerling, Digital Justice student to partner with Josef which is a world-class legal automation platform in Australia. Our students “I would highly designed and developed chat bots that enable recommend this to future self-help in an area of family law. They can be students as it is a great accessed at the Digital Justice page of our website. way to spice up your CV and also to widen your One of the strengths of this views on different sectors project is that our students of law. Team leaders are amazing too, they were can collaborate anywhere there to aid whenever we needed help as a group across world including or individually. Overall, an amazing experience.” from a ship bound for Antarctica! Kelsey Armoogum, Digital Justice student We are delighted with the success of this project Digital Justice student and we will be continuing to use Josef to engage Lucy Pettinger studying from more students in developing and designing chat her base in Antarctica bots. 9

  • Page 10

    OPEN JUSTICE PARTNERSHIPS Developing student professionalism St Giles Trust Providing opportunities to participate in pro bono We have developed a strong partnership with activities is a means by which we assimilate our the St Giles Trust, a national charity with award- students into professional legal culture. For this winning prison and ex-offender projects, to reason, we have prioritised the development of develop OU student-led prison-based projects. a professional partnership relationship with our We have run projects with around 100 students students. The execution of each project relies on serving prisoners in 11 prisons across England and students taking ownership of their project, in Wales. Projects consist of between three and five close collaboration with their tutors and the core half-day visits over a three-month period and have team. We provide a set of clear aims in project included legal research and guidance projects in handbooks which outline professional standards, collaboration with prison-based peer advisors, and training, safeguarding and levels of supervision an innovative prison radio project. Students taking and support expected. This includes fostering part in Open Justice projects are encouraged to online skills to support the development of a reflect on their experiences on the Open Justice culture of collaboration amongst dispersed teams. Blog, which provides a public forum to raise the profile of our project in and beyond the University. Blog posts on the prison projects illustrate the impact of these opportunities on our students: I began to look forward to each visit, not only to present the prisoners with the legal information they wanted, but to learn from them. I found their positive attitude infectious and I was pleasantly surprised at their legal knowledge and enthusiasm to acquire more. “I was not expecting the prison project to benefit me in the way that it did. I feel privileged to have met the prisoners we worked with. I was also incredibly happy to discover at the final session that one of the prisoners who had been incarcerated for quite some time was finally able to access the professional legal help they required and was due to be released a few days later. HMP High Down project student Roseline Egbejimba 10

  • Page 11

    Support Through Court Support Through Court (STC) provides support for litigants in person, who are attending court without legal representation, helping them to navigate our complex civil and family legal systems. We are now in our third year of this partnership and are delighted that our students are continuing to make a positive contribution to the work of this important charity. We recently collaborated with STC to launch a free open online resource for learners, themed around domestic abuse. Its timely launch coincides with the rapid rise in numbers of people in domestic abuse situations seeking help during the UK This work was raised by Milton Keynes North MP lockdown. The Open Justice Centre has produced Ben Everitt during oral questions to the Justice the digital course to train STC’s 750 volunteers to Secretary Robert Buckland MP (pictured above) in work with both survivors and alleged perpetrators the House of Commons in July. It was referenced of domestic abuse. Approximately one in 10 cases together with that of the Milton Keynes-based they work on involves domestic abuse. charity MK Act which offers domestic violence support. Mr Buckland responded by saying: “I am delighted to hear of the excellent work done by those organisations in Milton Keynes … I am aware of the collaborative work done between The Open University and Support Through Court. That work was funded, in part, by a Ministry of Justice grant.” We hope to continue this collaboration over the coming year. According to Refuge, the number of calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline rose 25 per cent during the first two weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown period. Following media coverage, visits to the Refuge website increased by 700 per cent overnight and helpline calls increased by 120 per cent. The online course’s domestic abuse modules will make useful learning for anyone who is thinking of volunteering to work with domestic abuse charities, as well as STC’s own volunteers. It has been made available to the public through OpenLearn Create and is totally free of charge. Learners can enrol at any time and work at their own pace. 11

  • Page 12

    Citizens Advice Mentoring scheme – Our students are continuing to volunteer with UK Government Legal Profession Citizens Advice (CA) and can use their experience This year (2019-20) included the third iteration towards the assessments in the W360 ‘Justice in of the Open Justice professional mentoring action’ module. project. A result of close collaboration with the COVID-19 has affected the CA Witness Support OU Careers and Employer Engagement team, we Service this year but we are hoping that this can have succeeded in developing a prestigious link resume once it is safe to do so. We continue to with the UK Government Legal Profession which liaise with the Employer Engagement team at The provides practising Government lawyers to mentor Open University and have recently assisted with 10 competitively selected students over nine a recruitment drive for CA where students can months. Sustained contact with UK Civil Service volunteer for the organisation but still work from lawyers is an invaluable tool in raising our students’ home. career aspirations. United Nations E4J is part of UNODC’s Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, which calls for the integration of crime prevention and criminal justice into the wider agenda of the United Nations. E4J is one of the Programme’s four components, with the others being: judicial integrity; prisoner rehabilitation; and youth crime prevention through sports. Sigall Horovitz, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer at UNODC, said: Hugh McFaul and Francine Ryan with colleagues from UNODC in Bandung, Indonesia 2020 The Open Justice Centre and the United The course is particularly appropriate in Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) the current global circumstances, as an are continuing their partnership to deliver the innovative distance learning tool which Education for Justice (E4J) initiative. E4J has guides lecturers on integrating anti- been developed to prevent crime and promote lawfulness – by supplying integrity and ethics corruption, integrity and ethics issues in education resources for schools, colleges and their curricula as they move to a digital or universities around the world. blended teaching environment. The original certified five-hour online train-the- trainer course, launched in November 2019, introduces the core teaching methods, learning principles and ethical concepts that underpin the E4J Integrity and Ethics modules. UNODC To find out more, visit https://e4jlearning.org/ has now asked us to update the course with additional material from the E4J anti-corruption modules. The update – which has just gone live in September 2020 – will also be translated into Spanish, further widening its appeal. 12

  • Page 13

    LEARNING AND EDUCATION ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUTS Video and YouTube resources The Centre is continuing to expand its presence on the Law School’s YouTube channel and we now have a dedicated playlist. Titled ‘Open Justice Centre’, it features videos about our student projects, messages from the centre directors and a recording of our ‘Taking clinical legal education online’ webinar. OU and BBC Collaborations Hugh McFaul and Francine Ryan have been appointed as Academic Advisors to The Detectives; a three-part BBC2 documentary following Greater Manchester Police as they tackle complex and organised crime. This is due to be broadcast early in 2021 and is an excellent opportunity to raise the public profile of the OU Law School and the Open Justice Centre. Hugh was advisor for the previous series which reached millions of viewers who were invited to explore the legal issues raised in the series on OpenLearn, the OU’s public platform. 13

  • Page 14

    W360: JUSTICE IN ACTION 2019/2020 W360: Justice in Action provides our Open Justice Despite the disruption caused by the lockdown, students with an opportunity to gain academic our students performed very well and once again credit for participating in our pro bono projects. achieved the highest pass rates in the OU Law Since 2017 we have supported approximately School. For 20/21 we have focused on offering 800 students through the module and related online pro bono projects, until we can be sure that extracurricular projects. For 2019/20 the module our face-to-face engagements can safely resume. was updated to provide more flexibility for students and to provide a greater emphasis on the development of online collaboration skills. During the module, students engage with topics of social justice, professional identity and legal ethics which help them contextualise their experience of engaging in pro bono work. Student numbers increased to 150 in 19/20 and we expect 183 students to be studying the module in 20/21. So far it has been the best module during these three years. I have been waiting for it since my first year and it is worth waiting and paying for. I am so grateful to Open Justice administration for letting me join prison radio project. It changed my life and me. My tutor was incredible, one of the best I had. Well done. W360 19J Student Feedback 14

  • Page 15

    PUBLICITY, KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUTS Open Justice Centre website open.ac.uk/open-justice Most popular pages 2018/2019 The Centre website is a source of updated 5,292 Total visits information about our activities, public access to the online law clinic, knowledge exchange, open justice | the open university law 3752 school events and news. Our new website (which is now independent from the main Law School site) went get legal advice | the open university 1326 live in June 2020. law school Between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020 there public legal education | the open 738 were 4,342 unique visitors to the site, 572 more university law school than during the same period the previous year. news and events | the open university 440 Including return visits, the total rises to 5,825. law school Some 47.4% of users typed our address directly open justice law clinic – online form | 421 or bookmarked us to find us, 43.2% used a search the open university law school engine. 8.8% came from social networks and just under 1% accessed us through other websites. meet the open justice team | the open 408 university law school The site was accessed by users in five geographic locations: the UK (85%); United States (5.4%); open justice week 2019 | the open 313 Finland (0.6%); Ireland (0.6%;) and the Netherlands university law school (0.6%). open justice week 2020 | the open 282 The site was accessed by means of a variety of university law school devices, 73% being ‘unspecified’ (most likely open justice research | the open 152 through a PC or Mac), 22% with an Apple iPhone, university law school 3% with an Apple iPad and 2% with a Samsung Galaxy. frequently asked questions | the open 106 university law school becoming a client | the open university 75 law school open justice week 2018 | the open 18 university law school 15

  • Page 16

    The Open Justice Blog We published 25 blog pieces from July 2019 to July 2020, below is a screen shot of a popular post. open.ac.uk/blogs/openjustice The Open Justice Blog is where students, alumni, team members, wider OU staff in associated areas of the University (and anyone that wishes to apply) can publish writing that is accessible to the public. The Blog was incorporated into our new website in spring 2020 and visitors now have the option to sign up for a monthly newsletter that details the recent blog posts. Twitter account report Between June 2019 and August 2020, we gained 285 new followers taking us to over 1,000 followers. We are delighted with this progress. This year we continued to concentrate our efforts on promoting our events, student activities, webinars, news coverage and blog posts which resulted in more than double the amount of visits to our Twitter page than we had during the previous year. The busiest period traffic wise was between November 2019 and May 2020 when we had 1,804 visits and 102,686 ‘impressions’ (the number of times a tweet showed up in somebody’s timeline). Our student visits to prisons and the Rawtenstall pop-up clinics provided us with some popular tweets as well as Open Justice Week. Our most viewed tweet was about the Support Through Court domestic violence course which was mentioned in the Houses of Parliament in July 2020. 16

  • Page 17

    AWARDS SHORTLISTS NOMINATIONS IN 2019/2020 Open Justice was shortlisted with St Giles Trust Francine Ryan, Co- for ‘Most Effective Pro Bono Partnership’ at the Director of the Open 2019 Annual Law Works Pro Bono Awards in Justice Centre, has recognition of our prison project collaborations. been nominated for a prestigious Law W360 tutors Teacher of the Year Paul Dale and Award. Sponsored Kate Ritchie with by Oxford University colleagues from Press (OUP), the Award is designed to recognise St Giles Trust at the exceptional teachers in the legal field. Francine is award ceremony in one of six shortlisted. December 2019 The winner was due to be announced at the OUP Annual Celebrating Excellence in Law Teaching (CELT) Conference, but this has been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Co-Director of the Law School’s Open Justice Centre, Hugh McFaul (pictured), was chosen as the University’s Open Justice was shortlisted for the prestigious submission in the Thomson-Reuters Teaching Law with ‘Most Innovative Technology Prize 2020. Teacher of the Year’ category for the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2020, in which he has been announced as a shortlisted nominee. This recognises the academic whose imagination and passion have transformed a course and inspired students. The Awards will take place virtually on 26 November 2020. 17

  • Page 18

    Open Justice Student Awards 2020 Our annual awards are given to individual students or groups of students that make outstanding contributions to the projects they are involved in. Students are nominated by their tutors or project managers. Outstanding individual contribution to Open Justice | joint winners: Heidi Key and Olivia Leeper Heidi Key – Individual winner Heidi took part in a group project with the Freedom Law Clinic (FLC). Heidi said: “This opportunity changed my life. I had a great team and tutor that helped boost my confidence giving me the ability to make the most of the skills I had and work on new skills. I worked with the Freedom Law Clinic (FLC) on a complex criminal case which I thoroughly enjoyed; I have also been accepted to further work with the FLC. This experience has resulted in my growth as a person and professionally. I intend to go into pro bono work in the future.” Olivia Leeper – Individual winner Olivia also took part in the Freedom Law Clinic project. Olivia said: “I was excited about the Open Justice course for both the practical exposure to different elements of the world of law and also because it gave me the opportunity to contribute towards social justice by providing advice and support for those who were unable to access it through other means. What I did not anticipate was how incredibly helpful the activities would be for my personal development. The skills I have learnt have not only given me a much-needed boost of confidence, but I have also gained insight into where my skills lie. This has been invaluable when applying for training contracts. I have loved studying for my LLB with the Open University, and for me, Open Justice can best be described as the icing on the cake.” Neil Burlinson – Individual runner up (Prison project) Neil took part in a group project visiting HMP Send in Surrey. Neil said: “W360 was a great opportunity to put some legal skills into practice, helping others whilst also helping myself. It allowed me to develop and apply existing skills in a very different environment to what I am used to, meeting and learning from some interesting people.” 18

  • Page 19

    Outstanding individual contribution to Open Justice | Daniel Doody, Elizabeth Walker, Jack Brown, Kelly Louise Martin, Lilly May Seddon The team award this year went to a group of students who worked on a face-to-face pop-up law clinic in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. Elizabeth Walker from the team said: “The Rawtenstall legal clinic was truly a unique experience to apply the knowledge I have learnt during my studies with the OU along with giving back to the community. It distilled in me that once I am qualified I wish to practice in a social area of law relating to family and housing and aid in bridging the gap for those accessing justice.” Daniel Doody from the team said: “W360 Justice in Action has been by far the module that has knitted together all the work put in over the past years whilst studying. The pro bono project work in the ‘pop-up law clinic’ not only provided great experience in the practical side of working in law, but also allowed me to give something back to a community I grew up in.” Team Runners up (Street Law) Lauren Shanahan-Smith and Natalie Healey worked together on our Street Law project which was unfortunately cut short this year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lauren (pictured here with her award certificate) said: “Taking part in the open justice projects will help develop the kind of skills valued by future employers.” 19

  • Page 20

    INTERNATIONAL LECTURES, CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS Open Justice academics have contributed to a range of national and international public engagement events this year. Hugh McFaul, UN colleagues and students at Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia In addition we have disseminated our practice the Open Justice Centre continues to develop internally via OU events including the ‘Learnabout online resources to support the programme’s Fair – Business and Law Festival’ in July 2019, aim of delivering the United Nations’ Sustainable Law School Research Seminar presentations and Development Goals. the Student FBL Conference and Open Fest in October 2019. We presented as part of an online eLearning Community Event – The Open Justice Centre: Innovations in Teaching and Learning in November 2019. We have been active in supporting international workshops to support the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Education for Justice initiative. Hugh McFaul spoke at events in Moscow (pictured right), Vienna (pictured right) and Bandung and 2019 STREET LAW CONFERENCE 9TH PAN COMMONWEALTH FORUM Septemberber 2019 Septemberber 2019 W360 ‘Justice in Action’ alumni and Open Justice In September 2019 Open Justice Centre Manager team member Lidia Dancu and OU Tutor Gillian Jon-Paul Knight represented the Centre at the Mawdsley presented a session on preparing Street Pan Commonwealth Forum in Edinburgh, raising Law activities at the 2019 Street Law Conference, awareness and brokering collaboration with Queen Mary University in London. delegates from across 61 nations. 20

  • Page 21

    CONFERENCE ON EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING STREET LAW WORKSHOP (IN PARTNERSHIP AND INNOVATIONS IN LEGAL EDUCATION 2019 WITH MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY) October 2019 October 2019 To support our Street Law training we ran our annual weekend event at Middlesex University in October 2019 with colleagues from the University of Middlesex, The Law Society of Ireland and Georgetown University. Although COVID-19 may cause delays we hope to be running a workshop for the new student cohort in early 2021. GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE EDUCATION (GAJE) CONFERENCE December 2019 In December 2019 Hugh McFaul and Francine In October 2019 Francine Ryan presented a Ryan presented an interactive session on ‘legal paper entitled ‘The integration of technology into technology and education’ at the GAJE conference clinical legal education: an exploration of a virtual at Pasundun University in Bandung, Indonesia. law clinic’ at the Hong Kong University (HKU). The presentation was simultaneously broadcast to universities in China. In September 2020 an e-book containing the conference presentations was published, a PDF of the e-book can be found at https://50.law.hku.hk/ELNI/wp-content/ uploads/2020/09/Conference-Publication_Full- Version.pdf 21

  • Page 22

    IMPLEMENTING THE E4J INITIATIVE IN YOUR UNIVERSITY December 2019 Open Justice launched its new course which was co-produced with the UNODC (@UNODC). ‘Implementing the E4J initiative in your university’ was presented on 4-5 December at University of Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE – LAW AND CRIMINOLOGY IN THE NEW DIGITAL ERA January 2020 In January 2020 Francine Ryan, Hugh McFaul and David Byrne presented a paper on ‘The Impact of new technology on legal education’ in Seville, Spain. OU EMPLOYABILITY CONFERENCE March 2020 Francine Ryan and David Byrne presented a paper at the ‘OU Employability Conference: expanding the narrative for a rapidly changing world’ in Milton Keynes on 11 March 2020. They presented on the Digital Justice project with a paper entitled ‘Digital Justice: Designing Smartphone Apps to Promote Legal Literacy’. 22

  • Page 23

    ‘TAKING CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION ONLINE’ LAW TECH EDUCATION NETWORK (ONLINE) WEBINAR / CONNECTING LEGAL EDUCATION EVENT (ONLINE) May 2020 June/July 2020 Liz Hardie presented the work of the Open Justice Policy Clinic at the Connecting Legal Education event on 14 July 2020. Joining Liz on the panel were Dr Rachel Dunn from Northumbria University and the Law Commissioner Professor Nick Hopkins who talked about how academics can become more involved with the Law Commission’s work. The Centre’s co-director, Francine Ryan, also presented at the Law Tech Education Network on 25 June 2020 where she shared her experiences of running the Digital Justice project. Professor The Open Justice team held a 90-minute online Rebecca Williams from the University of Oxford workshop on 15 May 2020, designed to support started the network to bring together legal legal industry colleagues who have suddenly academics interested in the emerging trends in found themselves needing to teach clinical legal legal technology education. education online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Sixty educators from as far as Australia and Trinidad took part in the event. It focused on how the Open Justice Centre successfully uses the OU’s widely celebrated expertise in online teaching within the clinical legal field. You can access a recording of the webinar or on our YouTube channel. IRISH ASSOCIATION OF LAW TEACHERS SEMINAR SERIES (ONLINE) September 2020 Neil Graffin (pictured right) and Francine Ryan were invited to give a presentation to the Irish Association of Law Teachers on online teaching. Neil discussed online pedagogy and the particular challenges and opportunities this might create. Francine focused on the work of the Open Justice Centre in developing and delivering online experiential learning projects for students. The event was well attended by law schools across Ireland and it was a really good opportunity to share the OU’s expertise in teaching law online. 23

  • Page 24

    OPEN JUSTICE IN THE MEDIA Francine Ryan has continued to publish regular blog posts in Lawyer Monthly, a well-respected legal publication with a UK readership of 43,100. They can be accessed at the following link: https://www.lawyer-monthly. com/?s=francine+ryan We have also published blog posts in the National Association of Licensed Paralegals. The Wigan Observer covered our prison radio project at HMP Altcourse in July 2019 as did Wigan Today. We appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Law in Action’ taking about our HMP Altcourse radio project and also appeared on Radio Lancashire where we talked about our pop-up clinic in Rawtenstall. Dan Doody wrote about his experience of volunteering at Citizens Advice for Student Volunteer Week in February 2020: https://wearecitizensadvice. org.uk/a-lightbulb-moment-396971cd6099 An article about our Digital Justice project appeared in MK Business PLUS magazine (page 30): http://cleverpaper.co.uk/woburn_media/business_ plus/mobile/index.html#p=1 Blog posts by Liz Hardie and Hugh McFaul appeared in the blog for Centre for Innovation in Legal and Business Education (SCiLAB): Liz Hardie – http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/scilab/index.php/2020/07/01/ collaborative-group-work-on-level-3-law-modules/ Hugh McFaul – http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/scilab/index.php/2020/05/13/ taking-legal-outreach-online-how-law-students-can-help-bridge-the- justice-gap-during-lockdown/ A Digital Justice project article appeared in ‘The Student Lawyer’: https:// thestudentlawyer.com/2020/06/26/ou-law-students-develop-chatbots-to- support-the-public-with-domestic-abuse-injunctions-and-legal-aid/ The Freedom Law Clinic Project appeared in Celebrate:MK Lifestyle Magazine, August: https://celebratemk.co.uk/2020/08/22/open-university-students-join- freedom-law-clinic-race-and-policing-forum-project/ and also appeared in: FE News The UNODC project update appeared in FE News (September 2020): https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases/79-sp-821/53833-the-open- university-and-the-united-nations-office-on-drugs-and-crime-expand- education-for-justice-online-course 24

  • Page 25

    RESEARCH OUTPUTS McFaul, Hugh; Hardie, Liz; Ryan, Francine; Bright Lloyd, Keren and Graffin, Neil (2020). Taking Clinical Legal Education Online: Songs of Innocence and Experience. International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Hardie, E. McFaul H, and Ryan, F. (2020) 50 years of Clinical Legal Education, The Open University, (In Press) Ryan, Francine (2020) The Integration of Clinical Legal Education: An Exploration of a ‘Virtual’ Law Clinic, Conference on Experiential Learning and Interest in the Centre’s research and scholarship Innovation in Legal Education, 2019,HKU continues to grow and has been the subject of Ryan, Francine (2020). Rage against the increased attention due to the relevance of online machine? Incorporating legal tech into legal teaching methods during the pandemic. Some education. The Law Teacher (In Press) highlights are given below. Bleasedale, Lydia; Rizzotto, Beverley; Stalker, The Open Justice Centre’s Co-Directors, Hugh Rachel; Yeatman, Lucy; McFaul, Hugh; Ryan, McFaul and Francine Ryan, have been invited to Francine; Johnson, Nick and Thomas, Linden edit a special issue of the International Journal of (2020). Law Clinics: What, why and how? Public Legal Education (IJPLE) on responding to In: Thomas, Linden and Johnson, Nick eds. the COVID-19 outbreak. This is due to be published The Clinical Legal Education Handbook. in Autumn 2020. This invitation to set the agenda University of London Press, pp. 7–56. for the pre-eminent international clinical legal education journal follows the Centre’s successful McFaul, Hugh; FitzGerald, Elizabeth; Ryan, ‘Taking clinical legal education online’ webinar. It Francine and Byrne, David (2020). A mobile app is further recognition of the ground-breaking and for public legal education: a case study of co- sector-leading work of the Centre in opening up designing with students. Research in Learning, clinical legal education to distance learners. Technology, 28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt. v28.2434 URL: https://journal.alt.ac.uk/index.php/r All publications below are available for free, for personal use from The Open University’s Open Ryan, Francine and McFaul, Hugh (2020). Access library or by request to the first author, who Innovative technologies in UK legal education. can be contacted via open-justice@open.ac.uk In: Jones, Emma and Cownie, Fiona eds. Key Directions in Legal Education National and Many are published journal articles which can also International Perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge, be obtained through university libraries for those pp. 67–79. with access. McFaul, Hugh (2020). Does Clinical Legal Education Need Theory? Asian Journal of Legal Education, 7(2), pp. 152–163. McFaul, Hugh and FitzGerald, Elizabeth (2020). A realist evaluation of student use of a virtual reality smartphone application in undergraduate legal education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(2), pp. 572–589. Ryan, Francine (2020). A virtual law clinic: a realist evaluation of what works for whom, why, how and in what circumstances? The Law Teacher Vol 54 (2) . 25

  • Page 26

    Centre Contact details Hugh McFaul, Centre Director, H.J.McFaul@open.ac.uk Francine Ryan, Centre Director, F.M.Ryan@open.ac.uk Jon-Paul Knight, Centre Manager, jon-paul.knight@open.ac.uk Student Ambassadors 2020 students who may not have previously had contact with members of the public in an advisory role and often have many questions. The Ambassadors also represent the volunteer students and ensure the student voice and perspective are heard by the Open Justice team. In return for this voluntary work, the Ambassadors gain valuable skills in mentoring and experience another legal project third-hand, which is useful Current student ambassadors: Maurice Doona, additional exposure for their own future careers. Millie Swaby-Pritchard and Hannah Vo Associate Lecturers and project The enduring nature of the benefits gained support 2019-2020 by students engaging on the Open Justice Open Justice is an incredible team effort. We work programme is supported by the wish for alumni in partnership with our tutors and consultants to to offer their insights to the current cohort. Our 12 deliver our pro bono projects. We want to thank student Ambassadors were appointed in 2019 to everyone for their commitment and support. serve a two-year voluntary term. Alicia Babaee (publicity and media support), The Ambassadors work on different projects Arj Arul, Elizabeth Benoit, David Byrne (Digital providing support and advice to the project leads, Justice consultant), Hazel Clark, Emma Curryer, as well as assisting with induction and training of Paul Dale, Lidia Dancu (clinic support), Alan East, students at the outset and then offering ongoing Bryony Gilbert, Mike Green, Avril Martin, mentoring. Gillian Mawdsley, Andrew Maxfield, These former students offer a bridge between Siobhan McCormack, Tamsin Morris, Kate Ritchie, academic staff and professionals, and the current Allison Wollfreys. students, which is invaluable role for current FIND OUT MORE Email open-justice@open.ac.uk Members of the Open Justice Team 2019-2020 Visit www.open.ac.uk/open-justice at the OU Edinburgh Office, July 2019 Twitter @OU_OpenJustice 26

  • Page 27

  • Page 28

    FIND OUT MORE Email open-justice@open.ac.uk Visit open.ac.uk/open-justice Twitter @OU_OpenJustice The Open Justice Centre The Open University Law School, Michael Young Building, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA

  • Page 29

    • View More

Get the full picture and Receive alerts on lawsuits, news articles, publications and more!

Create Account