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DOI: 10.15507/1991-9468.099.024.202002.276-295
“To Follow the Law and Conscience”: Hard Skills and Soft Skills in the Legal Education
Ekaterina A. Koval
Professor of Chair of Criminal Procedure Law and Criminalistics, Middle-Volga Institute (Branch) of All-Russian State University of Justice (6 Fedoseenko St., Saransk 430003, Russia), Dr.Sci. (Philosophy), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0069-5335, Scopus ID: 57202425856, ResearcherID: A-5797-2015, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Andrey A. Sychev
Professor of Chair of Philosophy, National Research Mordovia State University (68 Bolshevistskaya St., Saransk 430005, Russia), Dr.Sci. (Philosophy), Professor, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3757-4457, Scopus ID: 57205759512, ResearcherID: N-7591-2015, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Natalya V. Zhadunova
Dean of the Faculty of Continuing Education, National Research Mordovia State University (68 Bolshevistskaya St., Saransk 430005, Russia), Ph.D. (Philosophy), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9058-0488, ResearcherID: V-7451-2018, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Liliya Yu. Fomina
Associate Professor of Judicial and Law-Enforcement Activity Arrangement Department, The Russian State University of Justice (69 Novocheremushinskaya St., Moscow 117418, Russia), Ph.D. (Law), Associate Professor, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4273-2280, Scopus ID: 57191502688, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Introduction. The study is devoted to investigation of methods to integrate “hard” and “soft” skills of law students. This approach is necessary for teaching students to make decisions in situations of value and norm uncertainty, which require the integration of law and morality, general cultural and professional competencies. The public use of hate speech is chosen as an example of a value-ambiguous problem. This problem involves the search for a certain balance of public and private interests, the right to freedom of expression and protection against discrimination, insult, stigmatization, the right to respect for private and family life.
Materials and Methods. 62 students of legal specialities and areas of training were involved in the case study. Case materials were structured according to the levels of educational goals in accordance with Bloom’s classic taxonomy. The case is devoted to the analysis of the controversial commentary of Savva Terentyev.
Results. The use of the case-method for decision-making under conditions of value-normative uncertainty (using the example of counteracting hate speech) made it possible to integrate the general cultural and professional competencies of law students, to involve students, who do not usually participate in discussions, in active group work. However, there are limitations to the use of the case method for integrating “hard” and “soft” skills: preparation for the lesson is resource-intensive for both teacher and students; case materials quickly become obsolete and require constant updating and processing; the choice of material and its presentation in the classroom require a special pedagogical tact and a clear arrangement of axiological accents.
Discussion and Conclusion. The results can be used to develop educational cases where general cultural and professional competencies of law students can be integrated, as well as to teach students how to make decisions in the face of value and norm uncertainty and to carry out personal and professional development.
Keywords: law, morality, integration of hard skills and soft skills, case method, legal education, valuenormative uncertainty, hate speech, personality development, human rights education, right to respect for private and family life
Funding: The study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research according to the research project No. 18-011-00710 and No. 18-011-01080.
For citation: Koval E.A., Sychev A.A., Zhadunova N.V., Fomina L.Yu. “To Follow the Law and Conscience”: Hard Skills and Soft Skills in the Legal Education. Integratsiya obrazovaniya = Integration of Education. 2020; 24(2):276-295. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15507/1991-9468.099.024.202002.276-295
Contribution of authors:
Ekaterina A. Koval – case study development; conduct of empirical research; analysis and interpretation of research data; conceptualization of research results; writing the text.
Andrey A. Sychev – research problem statement; development of methodology; analysis and interpretation of research data; writing the draft.
Natalya V. Zhadunova – scientific literature review; analysis and interpretation of research data; conceptualization of research results; writing the text.
Liliya Yu. Fomina – scientific literature review; writing the text.
All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Submitted 20.01.2020; revised 11.03.2020; published online 30.06.2020.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
