The Worrisome State of Legal Literacy among Teachers and Administrators
Globally, societies are becoming more litigious. As one consequence, educators are developing an increased sensitivity to the legal context that shapes their professional work. While this trend is being led by the United States, its effects are felt in Canada and elsewhere. Accordingly, there has been an observed increase in the fear of litigation amongst educators, which, in turn, impacts their educational practices. This paper argues, however, that this fear is borne more of a lack of legal knowledge amongst educators than it is of the actual prospects of being involved in a lawsuit. It also suggests possible means by which this lack can be overcome which would also serve as a corrective to educators’ misplaced fears.
Making the law work for everyone : legal empowerment in public schools / Mohd Haris Abdul Rani
Legal education is not meant for law students alone. It is for the mass public. Law contain rules and regulations which target principally towards the proper administration of the general public. Basically, law entails legal rights and duties of all citizens, therefore lacking this crucial knowledge, social justice is meaningless. Society would not be able to achieve the ultimate structural harmony it hopes to establish. Disputes will keep on increasing and court 
cases will multiply. Sentencing and remedies clouds the society. The legal maxim Ignorantia Juris Non Excusat (ignorance of the law excuses no one) should be seen as an encouraging the enhancement of legal consciousness rather than a negative connotation of it. Global society lacks this legal knowledge and awareness which are the critical tool to overcome many legal issues faced throughout their life. Current legal awareness of most people is more about knowledge of procedural rules as compared to substantial laws, which in reality, are more significant. It is the aim of this paper, to investigate this unrealized stigma of the 
society. This exploratory research invites future research, qualitative or quantitative methods, in discovering the possibility of implementing such awareness program in schools via the proposed ‘empowerment model’ using the reflexive law concept. The model is expected to enhance the empowerment of law in the society by ensuring that law knowledge is for everyone and not only for a certain segment of the population. The paper concludes that even though legal illiteracy is a social fact, there are great possibilities for further research towards acknowledging and substantiating the importance of empowering the public in legal education in achieving a global social legal justice.
The New ‘U’
Today's talk about tenure must be framed within broader discussions about the role of the university. Our university system is now over one hundred years old, the “Old-Time College” is gone, the “cold war” university is no longer viable, and the foundations of the modern “multiversity” are cracking, so it is time to talk about change. But change is not necessarily reform, and resisting change probably will not keep things the way they are, so academics must understand the forces reshaping the university. Whenever I listen to colleagues defend the status quo by saying that the United States has a university system that is the envy of the world, I hear echoes of the Detroit automobile industry's casual dismissal of foreign competitors in the early 1960s. The decision not to change did not preserve the auto industry, and it is unlikely to preserve public universities as we know them. The current debates about tenure began with ideological attacks on “tenured radicals” who used their secure jobs to subvert conservative cultural values. The attack on tenure gathered steam as fiscal hawks in financially-strapped states looked for ways to save money and found huge state university systems with budgets to match. When asked why he robbed banks, the legendary Willie Sutton replied, “Because that's where the money is.” When asked why they are robbing tenure, legislators, regents, and administrators reply, “Because that's where the money is.” Personnel costs are a large share of university budgets and tenure ties the hands of administrators and legislators accustomed to using purse strings to control universities.