Trials for Scottish Schools
by Anthony Kinahan
“MiniTrial”, at www.minitrial.org.uk, is an initiative by Scottish lawyers to help schools learn more about the Scottish legal system by conducting their own realistic mock trials. The case materials are all made available through the internet.
The site also features a unique interactive court scene which illustrates who does what in a
Scottish criminal court.
Note: to see the interactive features, you do need to go to the actual site!
Visitors can download all the materials that they require to conduct a simulated court case lasting for approximately two double periods - just under 3 hours. At present, the site offers cases based mostly on what actually happens in the Sheriff Court which is roughly equivalent in jurisdiction to an English Crown Court. Teachers assign roles to their students for trials involving (1) assault to severe injury and (2) possession of drugs with intent to supply. The pupils conduct their own trials and return their own verdicts.
At a time when citizenship and social responsibility is being emphasised in schools these materials provide a welcome way of stimulating awareness of the working of the judicial process through role play. Teachers can download free of charge all the materials needed. Arrangements can also be made to have the case materials adapted to the area in which they are teaching, using local names and places, and then posted on the site for ease of access and distribution. The materials have already been adapted for five different local authorities in Scotland. There have also been nine all-day MiniTrial events on Saturdays involving hundreds of pupils and using real courtrooms in Kilmarnock, Edinburgh, Paisley Dundee and Ayr. More events are being planned.
A substantial amount of the work in writing and creating MiniTrials has been done by Sandy Wylie QC, recently elevated to the College of Justice (Scotland’s High Court) where he sits as Lord Kinclaven. Until his appointment as a judge, Sandy was also a member of the Scottish Council of Law Reporting, a charitable body whose role is to publish Scotland’s “official” series of law reports, Session Cases. (See www.scottishlawreports.org.uk).
All readers of this piece will also be familiar with the case of Donoghue v. Stevenson 1932 SC (HL) 31 although perhaps not so many will be aware that the case arrived in the House of Lords from Scotland. The Scottish Council of Law Reporting (SCLR) have been active in developing materials on their website about this seminal case.
The most recent development on the SCLR site has been the posting of materials for the first civil mock trial - entitled The Paisley Snail MiniTrial. This is a “remixed” version of that famous case – based on the original facts but incorporating some aspects of more modern Scottish Court of Session procedure and a little bit of artistic licence in relation to some specially created “new materials”.
The facts of the original case were simple. On 26th August 1928 Mrs May Donoghue was in the Wellmeadow Café in Paisley with a friend who bought her a drink. Mrs Donoghue had consumed part of a bottle of ginger beer – as part of an ice-cream float. At that point all was well. However, when the rest of the bottle was poured into her glass out floated what appeared to be the rotting remains of a decomposing snail. That caused May Donoghue to feel very unwell – or so she claimed. She sued the manufacturer of the ginger beer – David Stevenson – and after much legal argument the House of Lords held that in principle she had a good claim as a matter of law.
Unfortunately, the original case never proceeded to a trial so no-one knows what might have actually happened if the case had gone ahead. This remix MiniTrial builds on the actual facts and invites students, in a properly structured “court setting”, to argue the case. Sandy Wylie has written all the materials that teachers will need to conduct the MiniTrial and has indicated some of the issues that students might debate. All the papers and instructions needed are on the site and may be quickly downloaded in PDF format.
For the latest internet developments in relation to the Paisley Snail, visit thepaisleysnail.blogspot.com. “The Wellmeadow Café” is intended as a new meeting place for all those interested in Scots Law and Education.
With over 20 years of experience in the Sweet & Maxwell group, mostly at Board level, Anthony Kinahan has worked as a publishing consultant since 1998. One of his clients is The Scottish Council of Law Reporting.
email anthony.kinahan@btopenworld.com.
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