Fostering active student participation and engagement in company law education through the use of role play

Abstract

This paper examines the possibility and feasibility of role play as a pedagogical tool or even an assessment tool in enhancing student participation in company law learning. Mooting has been widely used in legal education. However, the day-to-day operations of companies and the decision-making of companies do not always generate disputes that need the court’s intervention or to be solved by the court. Companies need legal advice on corporate governance compliance and strategies to enhance corporate governance efficiency, which are generally provided by company non-litigation lawyers. Company non-litigation lawyers’ skills cannot be simply trained through traditional mooting. In this regard, this paper conducted an action research project with students taking the LW51007 Corporate Governance module at Dundee Law School — a role play of one simulated listed company’s corporate governance evaluation. Based on the practice and the feedback, it is concluded that role play can be an effective pedagogical tool for corporate legal issues surrounding various stakeholders in a corporate setting, such as shareholders, directors, and outside creditors. It is a good student participation and engagement strategy. However, there is no clear conclusion concerning role play as an assessment tool.