Keywords: legal affairs mock trial practice teaching
I. Introduction
Western legal proverbs believe that the life of law lies in practice, which shows that practice is an inherent feature of law. Attaching importance to legal education must be closed
Practical teaching of note rules. Simulated trial practice teaching promotes the combination of legal theory and practice, and cultivates and exercises students' legal foundation.
The role of legal skills is immeasurable. The results of practice teaching of mock trial in most colleges and universities have proved this point. However, many problems have seriously affected the quality of mock trial practice teaching. "Law education is not only a simple knowledge transfer and academic training, but also a kind of vocational training." In order to give full play to the "vocational training" function of mock trial, we must find out the main problems existing in the current practice teaching of mock trial, and put forward and solve these problems is the purpose of writing this paper.
Second, the main problems in mock trial practice teaching
1. The practical content is not reasonable.
The content of mock trial practice teaching should be reasonable, that is, it should meet the requirements of cultivating legal talents needed by society. However, the focus of mock trial practice teaching in most colleges and universities is still "mock trial" with traditional flavor, which means that the work of teachers and students is carried out around the trial, and it is not difficult to imagine that its content is mainly "litigation" legal affairs. In fact, most colleges and universities are also conducting simulations of "litigation" legal affairs such as criminal, civil and administrative cases. The author believes that this is quite different from the content of social legal affairs and far behind the development of social legal affairs. This is a manifestation of the disconnection between current legal education and social legal practice. As we all know, with the development of China's socialist market economy, not only the content of "litigation" legal affairs is increasing day by day, but also the number of "non-litigation" legal affairs with the main purpose of preventing legal risks and seeking peaceful settlement of disputes is increasing at an alarming rate. As a law educator, the author has been thinking about this question: can the practice teaching of mock trial, which focuses on "litigation" legal affairs, meet the social requirements for legal talents? As the base for training "legal person", should the mock trial practice teaching conform to the requirements of the times, make students familiar with the "non-litigation" legal affairs with corporate governance, shareholding system reform, company establishment, asset operation and credit investigation as the main contents, and cultivate students' ability to deal with such legal affairs? The present situation of mock trial practice teaching in most colleges and universities shows that only a few "non-litigation" legal affairs are included in the scope of mock trial practice teaching. The author believes that its teaching content can not meet the requirements of social legal practice and should be reformed.
2. The design of practical links is unscientific.
As mentioned above, "mock trial" has always been the focus of most colleges and universities, and it is also a very traditional link in the practice teaching of mock trial in most colleges and universities. Therefore, the design of this link is always carefully prepared and painstaking. In fact, this kind of practice teaching of mock trial centered on "mock trial" is easy to be narrowed and centralized, thus deviating from the goal of practice teaching of mock trial, and it is also easy to get quick success and instant benefit by ignoring specific operating rules. The consequence is that it can only simulate the "shape" of the real court and cannot realize its "spirit". Social and legal practice tells us that "trial" is only a link in handling cases, and more work is reflected outside the court. Of course, we should cultivate students' professional ability in the "mock trial", and at the same time, we should also cultivate students' ability to deal with trivial matters outside the court and things that are easily overlooked, because in the current legal practice, the trial is no longer going through the motions or formalism as in the past. For any party, the key to the success of the actual trial lies in whether the preparatory work in advance and the out-of-court investigation are solid enough. Then, the related ability training is particularly important. The author thinks that the current design concept with "mock trial" as the main practical link is really worth thinking about. This design not only makes the practice teaching in mock trial seem too simple and unscientific, but also is not conducive to comprehensively cultivating students' abilities at all levels.
3. The practice teaching environment is too closed
Simulated trial practice teaching should not only help students master, understand and consolidate professional knowledge, but also cultivate their professional ability to observe, discover and know legal facts, summarize and summarize legal relations, collect, analyze, judge and accept evidence. Different from the clinical legal education in the United States, Australia and other countries, the practical teaching in mock trial in China generally appears in the form of classroom and is closed. Its closed characteristics are mainly manifested in the specificity of participants and the limitations of time and space. Firstly, the particularity of the participants is almost pure teacher-student activities, and experienced lawyers, judges, prosecutors and other legal workers rarely participate in the guidance; Secondly, the particularity of the participants also implies that the role orientation of teaching and learning makes it difficult for students to become spontaneous and conscious subjects, which inevitably makes students have all kinds of doubts, including doubts about the social environment in which the case is located, doubts about the instructor's ability to guide the case, doubts about the handling results and so on. There are too many doubts that can not be answered in time in social and legal practice, which weakens the enthusiasm of students to use their hands and brains, and it is difficult for students to devote themselves wholeheartedly. This is also an important reason why many students find mock trial practice teaching boring. The limitation of time and space indicates that students and teachers must complete related tasks within the time and space specified in the classroom. In fact, due to various social factors, legal affairs are complicated and changeable. It is a severe challenge for students and teachers to solve certain legal problems and cultivate certain legal skills in an isolated and closed time and space. In a word, this closed practical teaching is difficult to fundamentally motivate and spur students. The author believes that the closed practice teaching of mock trial in most colleges and universities is one of the important reasons for the unsatisfactory effect of mock trial practice teaching. This too closed practical teaching will inevitably lead to "teachers lose the source of innovation ability because of their lack of realistic foundation;" Because of the narrow or backward knowledge, students can't adapt to the needs of society smoothly, thus wasting huge manpower and material resources. "
4. The relevant safeguard measures are weak.
Through the investigation of the current situation of mock trial practice teaching in most colleges and universities, the author finds that the weak supporting measures are a common problem and one of the main reasons that restrict the quality of mock trial practice teaching. (1) Teacher problem. The practical teaching of mock trial involves a wide range of knowledge and strong practicality, which requires high ability of instructors. However, teachers in many colleges and universities are only proficient in one or two subjects, and there are few opportunities for their own practice. Some teachers have no practical experience even after graduating from school, and the teaching effect can be imagined. (2) The problem of case base. The quality of cases has a great relationship with the quality of simulated trial practice teaching. A good and appropriate case can stimulate students' interest and inspire their thinking. At present, the construction of case database in most colleges and universities is not ideal. Many schools either have no case base, or the cases in the case base are old and few, which undoubtedly affects the choice of teaching cases and thus the teaching quality. (3) funds. The shortage of practical teaching funds has always been a difficult problem for most colleges and universities. The practical teaching activities of mock trial belong to the basic teaching of the school, so the investment is less and the funds are insufficient. Some colleges and universities don't even have special funds to maintain the operation of mock trials. In fact, contradictions and conflicts caused by financial problems are not uncommon in practice. (4) Institutional problems. For a long time, one of the manifestations of attaching importance to theoretical teaching and neglecting practical teaching in China's legal education is that various rules and regulations related to mock trial practice teaching have not been fully established. Even though some colleges and universities have established supporting rules and regulations, due to the influence of ideas and other factors, it is easy to take the formalistic route, which invisibly affects the quality of mock trial practice teaching.
Third, countermeasures.
1. Broaden the content of practical teaching
Market economy is a legal economy, and people regulate market activities, prevent disputes and resolve disputes through laws. The future legal person must be proficient in relevant knowledge and skills. In the practice teaching of mock trial, most colleges and universities tend to cultivate students' ability to solve disputes, while ignoring the ability to prevent disputes. The best proof is that "litigation" is the main content of mock trial practice teaching. The content of social legal practice is constantly changing with the development of social politics, economy and culture. The practical teaching content of mock trial should match the practical content of social law. Although social legal practice lags behind legal theory, the author thinks that the content of mock trial practice teaching must develop with the update of legal theory knowledge and coordinate with social legal practice. Only in this way can the "professional training" function of mock trial be fully exerted, and only in this way can "competent" legal talents be trained to meet the requirements of future development. Therefore, in the practice teaching of mock trial in most colleges and universities in the future, we should not only strengthen the simulation of traditional "litigation" legal affairs, but also bring the simulation of "non-litigation" legal affairs with a sense of the times and focusing on preventing disputes into the scope of practice teaching. Through the simulation of "non-litigation" legal affairs, students' ability to prevent disputes is cultivated. The author believes that it is a new goal of mock trial practice teaching to cultivate students' ability to prevent and solve disputes in order to meet the social demand for legal talents. In the simulation of "non-litigation" legal affairs, we should pay more attention to the simulation of legal affairs closely related to social and economic activities, such as corporate governance, shareholding system reform, company establishment, asset operation and credit investigation.
2. Scientific design practice teaching link
In the 20th century, higher education in China has changed from elite education to mass education, which has greatly changed our views on talents, education quality and curriculum. Innovative spirit and practical ability have become the basic characteristics of talents and the needs of society, and also become an important measure to evaluate the quality of education. Practice teaching should also be designed and implemented around this basic requirement. Whether the new goal of mock trial practice teaching can be achieved smoothly depends on the scientific design and implementation of specific practice teaching activities. "The correct theory must be elaborated and developed according to the specific situation and existing conditions". The author thinks that according to the specific content of each subject, designing diversified interesting and characteristic practical teaching links and cultivating students' legal professional ability and innovative spirit at all levels are the development direction of mock trial practice teaching in the future. Taking the simulated "litigation" legal affairs as an example, the author thinks that not only the "simulated trial" should be the design focus, but also the practical links such as simulated filing, simulated evidence investigation, simulated examination and prosecution, simulated mediation and so on should be scientifically designed according to the handling process. Another example is the simulation of "non-litigation" legal affairs. According to the specific situation, we can design a variety of practical teaching links. For example, in the practice teaching of contract law, contract review simulation and contract negotiation simulation can be designed; In the practice teaching of company law, we can design a simulation of the articles of association and the boss of the company; In the practice teaching of tax law, tax declaration simulation and tax agent simulation can be designed. This design not only helps students to master specific knowledge points, but also helps to cultivate students' ability to implement various professional knowledge points into specific legal practice.
3. Enhance the openness of practice teaching.
Practice is an open field. The purpose of enhancing the openness of the practice teaching of mock trial is to create a practical teaching environment conducive to guiding students to learn actively, and to improve students' abilities of autonomous learning, cooperative communication, problem analysis and problem solving. In my opinion, at least the following measures can be taken to enhance the openness of mock trial practice teaching: (1) Establish a long-term cooperation mechanism with public security organs, law firms or enterprises, encourage them to bring social and legal affairs around them into the classroom in time, analyze and discuss with teachers and students, and achieve a win-win situation in resources, academic innovation and interests. (2) Call on all teachers and students to actively participate in the practice teaching activities of mock trial. Schools can formulate effective measures to encourage them to submit their own contradictions and disputes to mock trial for settlement, which can not only provide students with a platform to directly implement their professional knowledge into concrete social and legal practice, but also maintain the harmony and stability of the campus. The combination of off-campus opening and on-campus opening has undoubtedly injected new blood into the originally isolated mock trial practice teaching. This will greatly motivate and spur students, enhance their enthusiasm for participating in mock trial practice teaching activities, and solve practical social problems on the basis of simulating various legal affairs, which will invisibly improve students' comprehensive ability and professional ethics and responsibilities.
4. Improve various safeguards.
Perfect safeguard measures are the premise and foundation for the smooth development of simulated trial practice teaching activities, and also an important embodiment of scientific and standardized simulated trial practice teaching. Attaching importance to the practical teaching of mock trial requires the construction of supporting measures. For example, in terms of teachers, we should first take measures to encourage our teachers to participate in social legal practice activities, such as taking part-time jobs or participating in social legal aid, so as to strengthen their practical ability. Secondly, in the process of establishing a long-term cooperation mechanism with public security law, law firms and enterprises, experienced public security law personnel, lawyers, corporate legal department personnel or other relevant personnel should also be hired as mentors. In short, it is necessary to establish a practical teaching guidance team that combines teachers on campus and appointed personnel off campus; In the construction of case base, it is necessary to collect the surrounding cases in time, update the case base and fully protect the case source; In terms of funds, we must first ensure that financial investment is in place. Secondly, we can consider absorbing social funds to get sponsorship by providing legal aid. In terms of system construction, we should pay attention to the standardization and scientificity of mock trial system construction. The advantages of standardization and scientification are to overcome the arbitrariness of the determination and implementation of practical teaching content, improve teaching efficiency and form a good teaching culture.
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