Legal Language Teaching in Austrian Secondary Education: Introducing a Legal Literacy Class in Vienna

Article 2 of the Austrian School Organisation Act (Schulorganisationsgesetz, SchOG 1962) provides that school should equip students withthe knowledge and skills necessary for their life and future profession, and train them in the independent acquisition of education. However, legal literacy has been largely neglected in the Austrian education system. To counteract the status quo, an adult secondary school in Vienna offers a two-semester legal literacy course (German: “Sprache und Recht”, English:“Language and Law”) as an elective subject in its regular secondary school curriculum. Focus is placed on the development of critical thinking and problem solving, as well as analytical writing and basic research skills from the fields of law and linguistics. Based on the analysis of a legal literacy questionnaire, this article presents students’ self-perceived legal literacy and attitudes towards legal competence in secondary education. It aims to make a case as to why standardised curricula for legal literacy classes in secondary schools may be highly beneficial to students in Austria and potentially throughout the European Union.