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The usefulness of systemic reviews of teaching, learning and assessment of law in social work education is questioned. Observations are made on the extent to which such reviews can provide knowledge to policy makers, practitioners, researchers and academic tutors.

The teaching of welfare law to social workers has recently been the subject of critical scrutiny. Concurrently the relationship between social work practice and the law, the place that legislation should occupy in daily working practice, has been openly debated. This paper, based on our teaching and practice experience and a small evaluation exercise, criticizes the principal positions taken in the debate on that relationship. It also evaluates two approaches to teaching law to social workers. We argue that teaching law to social workers and using legal knowledge and provisions in practice is not as simple and straight-forward as some commentators allege. Rather, we argue that, for social workers to learn and apply the law effectively, both teaching law and any subsequent application of this knowledge must be considered in a conceptual frame of practice dilemmas which confront every practitioner and create role conflict, uncertainty, ambiguity, and insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]