This From the Field Report, based on a single clinic case study, advances the proposition that strategically placed drop-in clinics at the outset of the summer period can serve as an effective intervention to mitigate the operational challenges faced by university law clinics due to reduced student participation during this time. Such an approach is particularly vital in South West England, where rurality and limited pro bono legal assistance contribute to the region being recognised as a legal advice desert. A collaboration with Newcastle University, Australia, to adapt their innovative ‘Law on the Beach’ initiative to the coastal communities of Devon led us to think about how to counteract the seasonal decline in student participation and the resulting strain on legal clinic services. In 2024, we piloted a series of drop-in legal advice days at coastal locations, targeting areas where there was high client demand. Seaside towns often face distinct challenges that contribute to a lack of free legal provision in the locality. These communities typically have a more transient population than other areas, with many residents employed in seasonal, low-wage industries such as tourism and hospitality. During these events many individuals received same-day advice, while those requiring continued support were referred to our summer clinic for ongoing assistance. This model has since been adapted from the beach idea inspired by the Australian model to meet the specific needs of Devon: in 2025, the clinic operated in the city of Exeter, and in 2026, it is scheduled to expand into the rural setting of Mid Devon, further enhancing access to justice in underserved rural areas.
This article will discuss the need for legal education programs for Persons with Disabilities, how an innovative Street Law Program was created, and the benefits of such a program. Jigme Singye Wangchuk School of Law’s (JSW) Human Dignity Clinic (HDC) developed a multi-faceted legal community education program for Persons with Disabilities soon after the law school was founded in 2015. This article will discuss a law clinic project at JSW in the Kingdom of Bhutan, where the HDC reaches out to educate Persons with Disabilities about their legal rights and responsibilities. This is an ongoing, law student led clinic project. Surveys were conducted of students and participants to gauge the success of the project. Some of the results will be shared in this article. It is hoped that the readers may adapt some of the lessons learned from this project to similar projects in their communities.
Access to justice for the indigent in Nigeria has been a growing concern over the years and has drawn governmental and private efforts towards achieving this feat. Civil societies and law clinics have also taken advantage of this opportunity to centre their activities towards meeting these needs. Indeed, a lot has been done through the instrumentality of these groups amidst growing challenges one of which is the hindrance caused by the inability to adequately communicate in a language common to these service providers and the recipients of their services especially in a country with over 400 indigenous languages. This article therefore through empirical and doctrinal research, probes what these challenges are, in the six geopolitical regions in Nigeria, for the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) – a civil society - and the Law Clinics run by the Nigerian Law School. It explores the constitutional framework with respect to the recognition of the use of indigenous languages. It also identifies the pragmatic approach utilised by FIDA and the law clinics in addressing these challenges, and makes recommendations on how these language challenges can be surmounted to an extent to enhance access to justice. It affirms that harnessing the use of indigenous languages for enhanced life and livelihood is crucial to national development.
The 2019 revised law student practice rule mandating clinical training has reenergized Philippine clinical legal education. Despite the pandemic that followed its promulgation, the revised rule spurred law schools to launch programs serving a range of marginalized communities. The new programs follow a long history of skills education and access-to-justice programs in the country. In this article, the authors trace the development of Philippine clinical legal education and, drawing on local, regional, and international experience, call on educators and reformers to harness the momentum created by the revised rule and deepen its institutional and pedagogical foundations and create a dedicated clinical professoriat.
This article presents a reflective and practice-based analysis of the Model United Nations (Model UN) and Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Project at Birmingham City University, highlighting their role as an innovative approach to human rights education within legal studies. Against the backdrop of ongoing debates about curriculum reform and experiential learning in UK legal education, the article examines how simulation-based teaching methods can enhance students’ engagement with international human rights law, diplomacy, and accountability. Drawing on pedagogical theory and critical reflection, it explores the project’s design, intended learning outcomes, and potential to foster legal and civic competencies such as critical thinking, advocacy, and global awareness. It argues that initiatives such as Model UN and the UPR Project enable law students to move beyond abstract legal theory toward practical, values-based learning, preparing them for roles as globally aware, socially conscious legal professionals. The article concludes with recommendations for embedding experiential learning into the human rights curriculum as a strategy to enhance student engagement, civic literacy, and the professional relevance of legal education.
This article explores the critical role of law schools in advancing Public Legal Education (PLE) and the unique contributions of law students in fostering a more legally literate society. By examining the impact of law students as ‘Street Law’ teachers, the article highlights how these programmes not only benefit communities through increased legal awareness but also enhance students' practical skills and legal consciousness. The discussion extends to PLE initiatives in non-traditional settings, such as prisons, where legal education contributes to rehabilitative cultures and supports reintegration efforts. The incorporation of legal capability and the Capabilities Approach into PLE is proposed as a means to enrich these programmes, ensuring they are more effective in empowering individuals. The article also addresses the challenges and importance of evaluating PLE programmes, reviewing successful models and offering recommendations for future assessments. Ultimately, the article calls on law schools to deepen their commitment to PLE, emphasising the need for strategic expansion and innovative partnerships to build a more legally literate society. Future research directions are suggested, focusing on the long-term impact of PLE and its potential to enhance legal education. Through these efforts, law schools can fulfil their vital role in promoting legal literacy and social justice.
Globalization has led to opportunities for legal professionals to engage beyond national boundaries in advising and representing their clients making legal practice a global affair. But the prospect of this global legal practice has met a strong protectionist counter as ‘Right to legal practice’ in a country has been conventionally right of its citizens only. To this extent the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the case of A.K Balaji v. Bar Council of India (2018) had held that right to practice of law in India including international law and matters concerning foreign laws should be exclusively limited to Indian citizens. However, some members of the legal and academic fraternity have expressed concerns about the competence of the Indian lawyers to meet the professional demands of global legal practice. It has also been widely canvassed that the restriction on foreign lawyers will cause a serious vacuum and strain on the legal system. In recent years the debate over entry of foreign lawyers have again come into prominence with the introduction of Bar Council of India Rules for Registration and Regulation of Foreign Lawyers and Foreign Law Firms in India, 2022 and the draft bill for amendment of the Advocates Act (2025). Correctness and feasibility of allowing entry of foreign lawyers in India is subject of a separate debate, but in this paper the objective is to analyse the opening up of opportunity for Indian lawyers to engage in the global legal practice and preparing them to encounter its challenges. Introduction of an effective and mandatory system of Continuing Professional Legal Education (CLE) has potential to make Indian lawyers partake this new professional role. CLE is a recognized tool for professional development of lawyers. Its objective is to augment the information, integrity and confidence of lawyer to enhance new skills, knowledge and competence to cope with the changes in the legal order. The paper recommends design of an effective CLE curriculum to strengthen the skills and competence of Indian lawyers for meeting the demands of global legal practice.
Background: In a context of neoliberal policies where social, health and legal services are increasingly scarce, legal or interdisciplinary clinics can play a pivotal role in defending the rights of the most marginalized, in addition to training students on the structural and political dimension of the law and social-work practices. Purpose: Based on students’ experiences of collective advocacy at the Outaouais Interdisciplinary Social Law Clinic Law Clinic, this article explores the nature and impact of learning through community engagement and collective advocacy. Methodology: A case study conducted through semi-structured interviews with 9 clinic students and analyzed using an inductive approach. Findings/Conclusions: The learning experiences transform students’ conception of justice, by integrating the basic needs of all community members along with ending oppressive police and judicial practices, but also the role they wish to play as future professionals for social justice. Implications: These findings demonstrate the importance of addressing the political dimension of higher education.
This article explores the impact of Higher Apprenticeships in Law in England on clinical legal education and the evolving pedagogy of using the legal workplace as a site of learning. While existing literature has addressed elements of work-based legal learning and clinical pedagogy separately, there remains a significant gap in understanding how the apprenticeship model interacts with – and potentially reshapes – clinical legal education frameworks. Drawing on the author’s extensive and long-standing experience within the Northumbria University Student Law Office, one of the UK’s leading law clinics, this article offers a practitioner-informed perspective on how Higher Apprenticeships are influencing the design, delivery, and pedagogical assumptions of legal education. It sheds new light on the challenges and opportunities of integrating structured workplace learning into academic clinical environments, offering original insights into how these dual systems can be aligned to better support student development and ethical practice. In doing so, this article makes an original contribution by bridging the theory-practice divide and identifying practical strategies for enhancing clinical pedagogy in the context of legal apprenticeships. The article argues that the NU Solicitor Apprenticeship presents a unique opportunity to innovate clinical legal education by integrating work-based learning with established clinical methodologies. It demonstrates how the apprenticeship model can deliver the same pedagogical benefits as traditional clinics, such as ethical awareness, research, teamwork and independent learning, while also deepening engagement with the legal profession. This integration has the potential to enrich both clinical programmes and professional relationships, positioning legal clinicians to lead in shaping the future of legal education.
The paper aims to bridge a gap in the Australian law curriculum by presenting an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach designed to improve students’ transition to post-university life. Implemented within a university pro-bono health-justice legal clinic affiliated with the University of Canberra Medical and Counselling Centre, this experiential design has a dual purpose. It not only brings together lawyers, health professionals, and students to achieve optimal outcomes for patients and clients, but also focuses on enhancing students' competencies, confidence, and interprofessional collaborative skills through three key initiatives: a. client interviews – engaging students in client-interview role-plays and actual client interviews to concentrate on developing essential lawyering skills; b. a well-being program – under the guidance of an in-house psychologist using a coaching and performance psychology framework to foster students' confidence and resilience by providing crucial support for their transition from academic to professional environments; and c. interprofessional teamwork immersion – providing opportunities for students to observe, reflect, and actively assist lawyers and health professionals in a real-world team environment. This paper discusses the teaching methods used in an interdisciplinary law clinic to help students improve their competencies, confidence, and interprofessional collaborative skills. It also demonstrates that such an approach better equips students for professional environments, enhances their social justice awareness, and improves their capacity to deal with complex and wicked problems. This innovative methodology offers both professional and personal development opportunities which other law schools seeking to improve educational outcomes could easily replicate.
Access to legal services and pro bono community outreach projects have become embedded in the languages of policymaking and academia over the last few years, and community-based law clinics are beneficial in terms of ensuring ease of access to legal advice and consequent expansion of the number of clients served. The advantage of community justice initiatives is well established in literature and research suggests that they should be participatory, allowing people experiencing problems to play an active role in constructing the solutions. This makes it more likely that individuals will obtain the help they need for the problems they are experiencing, it increases empowerment and encourages them to take preventative action and seek help from competent sources. In February 2024, a team of students and solicitors from Lancaster University’s Law Clinic ran an outreach clinic in Blackpool, which is one of the most deprived areas in the UK. The outreach clinic aimed to reach those most marginalised and disconnected from legal advice and assistance while seeking to understand and identify approaches to bridging the access to justice gap. This paper explores the results of this project, the opportunities, challenges experienced and how they may be overcome in future projects.
In the practice of law, appraisals are recognised as an important part of the performance management process. In this practice report, we discuss the introduction of a ‘two-way’ appraisal process in our clinical legal education (“CLE”) modules. This paper argues that an appraisal process can provide a valuable opportunity for tutors to offer students formative feedback, whilst also acting as a forum for tutors to receive invaluable feedback from students about their experience of working in a University Law Clinic. We argue that in addition to being a rich source of feedback for both students and supervisors, ‘two-way’ appraisals increase the authenticity of the student learning experience and can develop student employability. Drawing on the authors’ experience of introducing an appraisal process in Lancaster University’s Law Clinic, this practice report provides practical tips to introduce an appraisal process in CLE modules and a discussion of both the benefits and the limitations. The authors also reflect on the student view of participating in an appraisal by considering the results of a small-scale ethically approved survey with third year and postgraduate Law Clinic students.
In the United Kingdom, policy clinics are generally established as an extension of a university law clinic. Policy clinics give students the opportunity to undertake empirical research, often for the first time in their legal studies, to further investigate societal issues which impact diverse communities. The University of Exeter’s Policy Clinic is no exception. As a new component of the University of Exeter’s Community Law Clinic, the Policy Clinic aims to influence public policies that are relevant to the legal issues that Community Law Clinic clients collectively face. This practice report will explore the author’s first-hand experiences of working in the Community Law Clinic as a student legal advisor within the ‘Access to Justice Clinic’ undergraduate module at the University of Exeter, as a research intern collaborating with the Policy Clinic on a scoping project in its nascent year and, finally, as a support officer in a developing Policy Clinic. In the context of these three roles, this report will discuss the differences between research practices, the extent of academic and professional involvement, client interactions, and relationships in both clinics. Despite these differences, this report concludes that working at both clinics allows for developing skills in various contexts, which leads to the constant redefinition of integral values such as collaboration, trust, and respect. Ultimately, working at both law clinics and policy clinics are complementary, seeing that the fascinating interplay between casework and policy work reiterates the distinction between legal theory and “real world law”—providing invaluable insight and experience to law students regardless of jurisdiction.
clinics enable law students to engage in a different type of clinical legal education where, instead of providing legal advice to clients, they carry out research that aims to influence policy and/or law reform.Policy work allows students to develop a range of academic and professional skills through conducting desk-based and empirical research for their clients who may be charities, non-governmental organisations or academics.This type
As more students carry out policy work as part of their law degrees, the different skills needed for policy work have become clearer. Policy work differs from traditional legal studies in a number of key ways, and so requires different, or more developed, skills to effectively participate and engage in projects. This article reviews the literature on the skills required for policy work. It summarises the evaluation of the online training provided to Open University policy clinic students in 2022-23, analysing the attendance and engagement data and the findings of a student survey to draw conclusions about the value and effectiveness of the training. In order for law students to carry out policy work, there is a need for training in policy research and analysis skills and the research suggested students found this of value. Whilst the literature suggested the need for further communication skills training, it was not possible to reach an evidenced conclusion about this from the research. Students expressed a strong preference for online synchronous training sessions provided at the start of a project. The recording of those sessions allowed students to re-visit the training throughout the project as and when needed, which was of value to them.
In the United Kingdom, policy clinics are generally established as an extension of a university law clinic. Policy clinics give students the opportunity to undertake empirical research, often for the first time in their legal studies, to further investigate societal issues which impact diverse communities. The University of Exeter’s Policy Clinic is no exception. As a new component of the University of Exeter’s Community Law Clinic, the Policy Clinic aims to influence public policies that are relevant to the legal issues that Community Law Clinic clients collectively face. This practice report will explore the author’s first-hand experiences of working in the Community Law Clinic as a student legal advisor within the ‘Access to Justice Clinic’ undergraduate module at the University of Exeter, as a research intern collaborating with the Policy Clinic on a scoping project in its nascent year and, finally, as a support officer in a developing Policy Clinic. In the context of these three roles, this report will discuss the differences between research practices, the extent of academic and professional involvement, client interactions, and relationships in both clinics. Despite these differences, this report concludes that working at both clinics allows for developing skills in various contexts, which leads to the constant redefinition of integral values such as collaboration, trust, and respect. Ultimately, working at both law clinics and policy clinics are complementary, seeing that the fascinating interplay between casework and policy work reiterates the distinction between legal theory and “real world law”—providing invaluable insight and experience to law students regardless of jurisdiction.
This article addresses the evolution of environmental clinical legal education at the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University, with particular reference to the shift in its clinical focus from ‘law’ to ‘policy’. Law and policy are of course deeply intertwined, and the shift under consideration is to be understood neither as abrupt nor comprehensive. It is one of emphasis, which in turn is a reflection of the richness and complexity of the discipline of law within which clinical legal education, like all legal education, operates. The article examines the nature of, and factors shaping, the shift in Clinic emphasis towards law and policy. It addresses some of the practical implications of this for a host of clinical considerations (including resourcing, training and expertise, relationships with clients and management of outputs and impacts in the real world). It is hoped that this case study will feed into a wider literature around environmental clinical legal education, and the policy dimension in particular. The Cardiff Clinic is housed in a multi-disciplinary School of Law and Politics, which contains a wider clinical provision beyond the ‘Environment’, including a world-leading Innocence Project. This is the broader institutional context within which the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic is situated, and it is with this that our analysis begins in Section 1. We highlight what we call the ‘strategic accident’ and ‘accidental design’ underpinning the School’s clinical provision, as a core dynamic which is carried through in the analysis of the environment-focused Clinic. Section 2 elaborates on the substantive environmental law and policy context within Wales and the UK as a whole, and how this has shaped the increasingly policy-oriented nature of work of the Clinic. Section 3 critically reflects on the Cardiff experience, drawing in part on feedback the authors have obtained from student participants, as well as the authors’ own perspectives, to evaluate the developments under scrutiny.
The consolidation of social media as a medium of information and social mobilisation reinforces the importance of using this resource to base advocacy strategies undertaken by legal clinics, especially those regarding human rights education aimed at elucidating concrete issues that are dear to democracy. This research intends to identify, describe, and discuss the main challenges related to communication on human rights by legal clinics, based on the experience developed at the Paraná’s Federal University Human Rights Clinic (CDH/UFPR). If, in theory, Instagram had proved to be the most pertinent tool for disseminating research — even considering the digital exclusion of a significant quantity of Brazilians — the experience revealed the first major challenge to be the incongruity between the parameters governing the algorithmics functioning in the app and the academic and scientific nature of the clinic’s content. By subverting and re-signifying a space governed by market interests — that impose themselves every day as a communication hub — we sought to promote the dissemination of evidence-based scientific knowledge to our channel's community of followers. In which we paid special attention to the adaptation of legal and technical language to a more accessible approach while still preserving the quality of the information being disseminated; the efforts to ensure knowledge transit and theoretical alignment in a team made up of researchers from different areas; the need to involve third parties in collaborating on the joint production of publications; and, finally, obstacles related to the scarcity of financial resources and project management. Keywords: digital advocacy; legal clinics; human rights; social media.
