ABSTRACT
Child protection law is in many ways sui generis and students who study it have often not encountered anything quite like it before. Child protection matters, and other legal matters concerning children, are fraught with emotion. Lawyers who work with children and families must be equipped to deal with both legal and non-legal issues, and work collaboratively with other professionals, particularly social workers and psychologists. “Child law,” therefore, provides students with a unique opportunity to investigate important ethical, practical and theoretical issues. In this chapter, I will argue that effective education in child law must be skills-based. Students should be encouraged to engage in role-plays, mediations and mock proceedings that involve complex fact scenarios where there is no “right” answer. Students should also be actively encouraged to view the matter from all possible perspectives if the complexities of legal practice in this area are to be appreciated.
