Teaching how to search for case law and legal documentation. A complement to the curricula of the Bachelor's Degree in Law and the Master's Degree in Advocacy

This paper describes an educational experience consisting of a workshop on case law and legal documentation search for students of the Bachelor's Degree in Law and the Master's Degree in Advocacy. The empirical evidence gathered in the study seems to show that students' knowledge in this field can be greatly improved. Due to the constraints of the curricula, which do not contribute to the deepening of these skills, a workshop was designed, structured, and conducted during the 2021/2022 academic year, within the framework of non-formal education, to complement and improve the legal training of the participants. The workshop was divided into three main blocks: one focused on the presentation of different case law databases and the tools and knowledge required to maximise their usefulness; a second aimed at familiarising students with legal documentation (not only doctrine) and its search, compilation, and processing; and a third dedicated to the introduction of different software that can be applied to the legal sphere, such as OCR technology (optical character recognition), voice typing systems, and several complementary tools for word processors. Considering the high number of participants, its development, and the evaluation surveys, the workshop can be considered successful. The aim of this paper is that, if deemed appropriate, the experience can be replicated (and improved) in other Faculties of Law where a similar need in the field is detected.