While teaching Procedural Tax Law, Van Hout noticed that her Master's students were highly proficient at applying legal rules. However, helping them understand the human considerations underpinning legal decisions proved more challenging. ‘Simply applying rules adds little value if you are a lawyer or tax specialist,’ she says. ‘This is particularly true in tax law, where legislation and regulations are constantly evolving. You need to learn to look beyond the rules and understand why they exist. Otherwise, there is a real risk that those very rules will cause people serious hardship.’
According to Van Hout, it is essential that students learn to think in terms of the spirit of the law. ‘I want them to keep asking themselves: why does this rule exist, and what are the consequences of my decision? Rather than applying rules mechanically, they need to remain critical and reflective. My aim is to educate critical thinkers, not mere rule followers.’
Making ethical dilemmas more tangible
The inspiration for a different approach to teaching came when Van Hout encountered a narrative-driven game in which players' choices determined the storyline. ‘A game allows you to visualise stories more effectively and engage students more directly with reality. In a textbook, scenarios remain somewhat distant, whereas a game evokes emotions and places students right in the middle of a case. You experience what it is like to make important decisions in a split second. That makes ethical dilemmas far more tangible.’
Together with Radboud University's Educational Design & Technology team, Van Hout developed a game called ‘Game On!’. Students take on the role of Director-General of the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration and are presented with realistic cases based on actual case law. They decide how to respond to situations involving, for example, unlawfully obtained evidence or suspicions of fraud. There are no right or wrong answers; every decision leads to new dilemmas.
‘Legal issues are rarely black and white,’ Van Hout emphasises. ‘That is precisely why I wanted to open up the debate with students. Why do you choose a particular solution? Which arguments do you take into account? The quality of your legal reasoning is at least as important as the outcome.’
A huge impact
According to Van Hout, having students work from the perspective of the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration is a deliberate choice. ‘The Tax and Customs Administration makes decisions that can have an enormous impact on taxpayers. Looking at cases from that perspective exposes the ethical dilemmas involved and allows students to experience just how complex those decisions can be.’
The game always begins with the question of whether stolen documents may be used to issue tax assessments. ‘Students choose either “yes” or “no”. Depending on their answer, they follow a different path. The game is essentially a decision tree that branches out further and further, with each choice creating new situations and ethical dilemmas.’
Developing the various storylines proved to be the greatest challenge, Van Hout explains. ‘Case law consists of separate individual cases. I wanted to weave them into one continuous narrative, regardless of the choices students made. I wrote the script, after which Booike During and Mark Graner from Educational Design & Technology turned it into a visual experience. They really were an enormous help.’
Choices and legal reasoning
The game was used for the first time during the last academic year. ‘Students played it during what we called a game lecture, after all the theoretical material had been covered,’ Van Hout explains. ‘During the first hour, they played the game twice, deliberately making a different choice at the first decision point so that they could explore multiple storylines. In the second hour, we discussed their reasoning to assess whether they had mastered the subject matter and were able to justify their ethical considerations. The game requires students to combine their legal knowledge with critical thinking while taking ethical aspects into account.’
The game has also proved valuable for Van Hout herself as a lecturer. ‘Not many people get excited about tax law, let alone procedural tax law. It has a rather abstract and dusty reputation. But once you experience what the subject is really about, you begin to love it. The game enables me not only to explain my field better, but also to let students experience what it is really about.’
The initial feedback from students has been encouraging. ‘They found the game enjoyable and unlike anything they had experienced before. I was particularly pleased to hear that they consider ethics an important topic and would like to learn more about it. We have only used the game for one semester so far, so I am curious to see what insights future cohorts of students will bring.’
Van Hout hopes the game will also demonstrate more broadly how university teaching can be renewed. ‘Games offer a new way of helping students engage with the real world. We do discuss a great deal during lectures, but those discussions still revolve primarily around theory, whereas practice is far more complex. I see legal scholarship as a holistic discipline: it is a three-way relationship between people, society and the law. It is about human behaviour, emotions and ethical standards. A game allows students to experience all of that in a much more realistic way.’