During the Digital Study Project - jointly organized by Startup LEX superior, the Federal Association of Law Student Representatives (BRF) and the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA) Germany – in 2019 a nationwide survey took place for the first time among students, legal trainees, law faculties and judicial training authorities on the topic of digitization in legal education.
Partitioned into areas of digitization in teaching, e-learning proposals and attitudes towards a possible digital examination, the survey asked where universities and educational courts stood in terms of digitization, what was planned and what needed to be done in the future. More than 2,600 students and trainees from all over Germany participated in the study.
The results were presented on December 4, 2019, in Frankfurt am Main, during the Legal Revolution, one of Europe's most important trade fairs for legal innovation and tech. It is here that the 2019 Digital Awards, which were bestowed by the partners based on the results of this study, took place.
Bucerius Law School won over the jury with its particularly innovative learning methods, such as the digital case book, video corrections of exams and the opportunity to obtain a technology certificate and a certificate in IP, Media & Technology Law as well as a Summer Program on Legal Technology and Operations.
Meinhard Weizmann, Managing Director of Bucerius Law School, accepted the 2019 Digital Awards “Innovation Prize” on behalf of the professors and staff members involved in the digitization of Bucerius Law School.
Weizmann sees this award as “on the one hand a recognition of our previous commitment and on the other hand, a confirmation that we are heading on the right track with the digitization of basic legal education and the provision of new learning opportunities".
The digital case book has been used as part of the exam preparation program since January 2018. Every week, a new case can be solved from the case law. The concept allows students to "click" interactively through a guided scenario. They are asked questions in order to help grasp the facts of the case, read the law as well as analyze it. The guided solution is supplemented by additional materials (legal texts, videos, extracts from judgments, quizzes).
The video correction provides a new method, used since April 2018, to correct practice exams at Bucerius Law School. Instead of a conventional correction method with marginal remarks and a final vote, the students receive a video file. The video shows the proofreader as he or she goes through the candidate's scanned exam. In this manner, the strengths and weaknesses of a case can be dealt with more individually, less "core legal" optimization possibilities are shown and the understanding for the exam tactics is strengthened.
