Pay attention to the students’ epistemic barriers. A key for teaching Evidence Law

Abstract

This essay proposes to teach the competence of “solving legal conflicts” in an undergraduate Evidence Law module using “legal problems”, instead of cases or questions. Legal problems are didactic devices characterized by two elements. First, students are compelled to develop the skills to produce, organize and assess evidences that confirm or refute relevant facts in contexts analogous to judicial. Second, teachers are allowed to know the line of thought of their students, and consequently, by making epistemic barriers visible, to modify the student’s thinking routines. The analysis places special emphasis on the concept of epistemic barrier and its difficulties.