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56 Law Tchr. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/lwtch56 and id is 1 raw text is: THE LAW TEACHER 2022, VOL. 56, NO. 1, 1-4 Association of 3 Routledge https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2022.2033494 Law Teachers Taylor&Francis Group EDITORIAL Legal education for wellbeing: design, delivery and evaluation Over the past five or so years, it has become almost trite to refer to the significant wellbeing issues which arise within higher education among both the student body generally and law students in particular.' In the UK, the increasing acknowledgement of these issues is demonstrated by the publication of the Universities UK Step Change: Mentally Healthy Universities Framework and the University Mental Health Charter.2 Both of these advocate a whole university approach to wellbeing, viewing wellbeing as fundamental to all aspects of university life, not just those traditionally viewed as pastoral in nature. The starting point for this special issue is that it is vital for law schools to adjust to this whole university approach in the way they design, deliver and evaluate their teaching, foster learning, interact with their students and facilitate their students' experience. Whilst mental health, wellbeing and other pastoral services have a crucial role to play in higher education, they are not sufficient on their own. Neither are generic central policies and processes for recognition of wellbeing as a curricular matter. An effective whole university approach also requires each individual school and department to consider how to acknowledge the value of wellbeing and integrate it into the curricu- lum in an evidence-based and sustainable manner appropriate to their discipline. For law schools in particular, there is a rich body of international evidence demon- strating that the culture, norms and approaches common in legal studies can be potentially harmful to student wellbeing.3 As a result there is a strong ethical imperative upon them to address their role in this as part of implementing such a whole uni- versity approach.4 Given the bi-directional relationship between wellbeing and 'The Insight Network, University Student Mental Health Survey 2018 (The Insight Network, March 2009) <https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/561110743bc7e45e78292140/5c7d4b5d314d1 63fecdc3706_Mental% 20Health%20Report%202018.pdf> accessed 19 January 2022. For an interesting analysis of trends in the general population, see Lucy Foulkes, Losing Our Minds: What Mental Health Really Is and What It Isn't (The Bodley Head 2021) 13-27. 2Universities UK, Step Change: Mentally Healthy Universities (Universities UK 2021) <www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/ sites/default/files/field/downloads/2021-07/uuk-stepchange-mhu.pdf#page=12> accessed 17 January 2022; Gareth Hughes and Leigh Spanner, The University Mental Health Charter (Student Minds 2019). 3Kennon S Sheldon and Lawrence S Krieger, Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test of Self-Determination Theory (2007) 33 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 883; Norm Kelk and others, Courting the Blues: Attitudes towards Depression in Australian Law Students and Lawyers (Brain & Mind Research Institute 2009); Caroline Strevens and Clare Wilson, Law Student Wellbeing in the UK: A Call for Curriculum Intervention (2016) 11(1) Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education 44; Emma Jones, Rajvinder Samra and Mathijs Lucassen, The World at Their Fingertips? The Mental Wellbeing of Online, Distance-Based Law Students (2019) 53 The Law Teacher 49. 4Nigel J Duncan, Caroline Strevens and Rachael Field, Resilience and Student Wellbeing in Higher Education: A Theoretical Basis for Establishing Law School Responsibilities for Helping Our Students to Thrive (2020) 1(1) European Journal of Legal Education 83. © 2022 The Association of Law Teachers