Family Property Law: Learning from Best Practice in Teaching Controversial Topics

This chapter aims to investigate the teaching of family property law, a family law sub-specialism, the pedagogy of which has received little academic attention to date. Having considered the emergence of a body of laws accurately referred to as “family property law,” it investigates and identifies the challenges in the teaching and learning of the subject. In particular, it highlights the potential of topics covered thereunder to be both personal and controversial for students. In this context, it considers what family property law teachers can learn from the leading academic commentary on the teaching of controversial topics. It concludes that while the implementation of some of the recommended techniques may be challenging, it is important for family property law teachers to at least be cognisant of the personal and controversial nature of many of the topics under discussion.