There is scope to make greater use of flowcharts and broadsheets in the law. As a teaching and learning technique, they find application in the law in statutes, cases and textbooks, and become more common as the law becomes more extensive and complex.
They have two main advantages. In hard copy format flowcharts provide a basis upon which a lecturer can organise his or her materials; they can also be hyperlinked to both primary and secondary law materials in electronic format. And from a students perspective, flowcharts can act as a road map or guide to their learning, showing where they are going, where they have got to, and from whence they have come.
This presentation demonstrates the application of flowcharts to a subject in Income Tax law, using both hard copy and online formats. If time permits we will also look at how the technique is being replicated in Intellectual Property law.
Finally, we consider how in this age of digital technology judgments could be written and delivered in broadsheet format.
More from Ian Iredale about representing legal data visually.
