Creative Thinking as Critical Thinking in Law Project

In 2024, I launched a longitudinal project on creative thinking in law with collaborators Dr Sarah Hook (UTS) and Sheridan Clark (UoN). The project examines how creative assessments can foster critical engagement with law, aiming to build students’ capacity to understand legal concepts both critically and in context, and enhance communication skills.

Our key research questions are:

  • Do creative assessments support students to engage in critical thinking about the relationship between law and society?
  • What is the student experience of completing a creative assessment in law?
  • What are lecturer perspectives on the efficacy of creative assessments for achieving learning outcomes and encouraging critical thinking about law?
  • How do creative outputs—designed as both legal commentary and learning exercises—impact public understanding of law, and are they perceived as communicating a clear legal message?

As part of our project we have surveyed 54 students from three cohorts of students who have completed a creative assessment as part of their law studies at two different Australian Universities: LAWS3032/7033 Intellectual Property Law: Western Sydney University (2024) and LAWS6087 Internet Law: University of Newcastle (2024; 2025). Students overwhelmingly describe the assessment as an experience that is engaging, stimulating, and challenging.

We have also conducted personal interviews with UoN students (2025); interviewed members of the public about the impact of the students’ creative works as a form of communication about law (2024); and conducted personal reflections, as markers of this task, on assessment design, assessment criteria, and learning outcomes (2024; 2025).

You can learn more about the creative assessment developed Dr Sarah Hook and adapted by myself by watching the videos on page 2 of the Flipbook here. Both assessments involve a creative project and a reflection (see below, ‘Resources’) and have been designed to support our specific course learning outcomes.

Survey Results

Intervarsity Showcase of Creative Works (2024)

In 2024, more than 80 students from WSU and UoN participated in an Intervarsity Showcase that exhibited and presented their creative works. As part of this public event, a flipbook was created of the works that covers topics including copyright, trade mark, privacy, content regulation, and internet governance. You can view the flipbook here. 

Graphic Novel Images by Nick Wall (2024)

Book Cover by Kaito Suzuki (2024)

… I think it’s interesting, like as academics or as teachers, you think about law in a specific specialised kind of way sometimes, and I think it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it affects real people in everyday life in a lot of different ways. Like, it’s not just when people are litigated or like. Law is kind of everywhere, right?” 

Marker, personal reflection on Intervarsity Showcase, 15 November 2024

Student Experience

Word cloud of survey responses: “What words come to mind when you think about the creative assessment task you completed?”

Resources

Creative Assignment Instructions & Rubric (Marie Hadley; 2025)

  • Click here for Creative Assignment Instructions (Internet Law)
  • Click here for Assignment Rubric (Internet Law)
  • View HD exemplars that respond to the above instructions and marking criteria:
      • When Will the Internet Forget? A song by Eleora Tawake (2025) on privacy law: Click here
      • They’re Going Too Fast. A political cartoon by Dean Attard (2025) on AI regulation: Click here
      • A Balance Unmade. An object by Courtney Linton-Hall and Ella Bailey (2025) on AI and authors’ rights: Click here
      • Knitting Cowl Pattern by Alanna Ryan (2025) on platform dominance, generative AI and structures of oppression: Click here

Creative Assignment Instructions & Rubric (Sarah Hook; 2024)

  • Click here for Creative Assignment Instructions and Rubric (Intellectual Property Law)

Other

  • Click here for a short video that provides students with tips and advice for completing a Creative Assignment in law.
paovernmental reform proposal efforts

Contributors

  • Sarah Hook: Senior Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney.
  • Sheridan Clark: Sessional Academic, University of Newcastle.