Should law become a mandatory subject in secondary school?

As a child, I vividly remember the maths pitch. Yes, the maths pitch. If you know, you know.? If you don't, here is what it looks like:

Parent : 'You know, studying maths is so important! You will use it everyday.'

Kid: 'What if I don't want to become an engineer or a scientist though?'

Parent : 'Still! You will use it ALL the time. You know Obama used to wake up at 4 AM to do maths everyday when he was young?'

If my parents see this... you didn't see a thing.

Were they right though? To a degree, yes. I still use many transferable skills from my maths classes today and I would struggle without having learned the subject. However, learning about how Jessica can calculate the surface area of her football may not exactly be as relevant to every single person. Can I tell you what is though? Law. You will most likely at some point in your life be a defendant, claimant, trustee, beneficiary etc. That's why I think it's essential to teach students some basic elements of law in school.

You've heard the maths pitch... now here's my law pitch to you:

It was only recently when I started studying my LLB at university that I came to the conclusion that law should really be a mandatory subject at some point during middle/high school.? This may be the case in some places, although I'm speaking across the board here.

Yes... I know, studying law isn't for everyone. But does the law apply to everyone, everyday and everywhere? Undoubtedly yes. Therefore, in my opinion we are really setting our future generations back if we don't at least teach them the basics of how the law applies to their lives.

I've had moments where I've explained to people that you can enter into many types of contracts orally and they looked at me with a shocked expression on their face. Many actually thought that all contracts had to be written down in order for them to be valid. The point is that educating the masses about general concepts in law allows them to make more informed decisions in life. It is also highly likely that they will have a better understanding of their general rights and obligations in society.

A great example of how my law degree helped me in my personal life is when my flight on ‘Carrier A’ was delayed. In light of this, I missed my connecting flight and I had to stay overnight at the airport I was transiting through.? After this, I decided to look for ways to claim compensation on Carrier A’s website but the page only referenced EU legislation and mentioned nothing about the UK. My first instinct if I didn’t have a law degree (and it may not be the case for others), would have been to think that because of Brexit, these laws wouldn’t apply to me and therefore I might not be able to get compensation.?

However, using the skills I learned in law school, I was able to search up the relevant piece of EU legislation (EU Regulation EC 261/04) and see if it was retained or amended after Brexit. To my delight, I was able to find out that the Regulation was originally retained under s.3(2) of the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and that it was amended by the Air Passenger Rights and Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (Amendment)(EU Exit) Regulations 2019 to reflect new values for compensation. My research also showed me that the new regulations operated roughly in the same way as the EU ones, hence I didn’t have to worry too much about having to check again if my claim qualified for compensation or not. Long story short, after an email to the customer claims team at Carrier A explaining the above, I was able to secure just about ￡500 in compensation for my flight being delayed.?

This is just one of the many times where I’ve managed to use my legal skills for more than just assignments. I still maintain that even if I decided to stop studying law today, I would be left with a plethora of direct and transferable skills that would help me throughout my life.?

*Please note that this article does not constitute legal advice. All of the legal conclusions reached within this article are my own and it is recommended that you seek independent legal advice in relation to any matters stated herein.