FACILITATING LAW STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF ETHICAL ISSUES IN LEGAL EDUCATION THROUGH REFLECTIVE LEARNING AND CREATIVE WRITING: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Evidence from disciplinary proceedings indicates that a significant proportion of complaints against lawyers arise from property transactions, underscoring the urgent need for more effective and practice-oriented approaches to teaching legal ethics. Traditional legal education has largely prioritised doctrinal mastery, often at the expense of equipping students with the skills necessary to critically engage with the complex ethical dilemmas encountered in real-world legal practice. This gap is particularly pronounced in property law, where issues such as conflicts of interest, client mismanagement, and professional misconduct frequently emerge. This article evaluates a curriculum intervention designed to enhance law students’ understanding of legal ethics within the context of property law transactions. The intervention integrates reflective learning and creative writing exercises and was implemented as part of a structured learning and teaching pilot project at the Nigerian Law School. By encouraging students to engage with simulated ethical scenarios and articulate their reasoning through narrative forms, the approach seeks to deepen ethical consciousness and practical judgment. Adopting a qualitative research methodology, the study analyses students’ reflections and written creative narratives to assess the impact of the intervention on their ethical awareness and professional reasoning. The findings suggest that incorporating reflective and creative pedagogical tools into ethics and property law teaching significantly improves students’ ability to identify ethical dilemmas, critically evaluate competing obligations, and apply the Rules of Professional Conduct in practical contexts. The study contributes to ongoing debates on legal education reform by demonstrating the value of experiential and reflective learning in fostering ethically responsible legal practitioners.