N. R. Madhava Menon: A Global Justice Educator’s Approach to Training Clinical Law Teachers

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Frank S. Bloch

This article describes one aspect of Dr N. R. Madhava Menon’s lifelong commitment to bringing ‘socially relevant legal education’ to India and around the world, whereby lawyers would be trained not just in the rules of law but also in the social and ethical responsibilities of lawyers to the society at large. Over the course of more than 25 years, the author collaborated with Dr Menon in training of law teachers in clinical methods and, in particular, in the incorporation of social justice into law school clinical and legal aid programs. A key element of their collaboration was the development of the concept of a clinical method for training clinical law teachers that could be used in training-of-trainers (TOT) workshops throughout the world, including those run by national, regional, and international clinical organizations. The result was a model for the training of clinical law teachers based on what the author and Dr Menon described elsewhere as three defining qualities of the global clinical movement: Its professional educational mission, its methodology, and its commitment to reforming legal education by reorienting it toward educating lawyers for social justice. The article concludes with a description of their model that emphasizes the setting for the training, preparing the trainee teachers for the training, the use of training by doing, and the importance of reflection and critique in the successful generalization of students’ clinical learning.

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Katie Spillane

Around the globe, clinical legal education [CLE] narratives resonate with a desire to promote social justice and the vindication of human rights. Yet scholarship exploring CLE’s accomplishment of these aims is scant and generally focuses only on student outcomes. This literature appears to be based not on theory and results, but hope: the hope that changed students will change the world. To invest on hope alone is unwise, particularly when all stakeholders face financially precarious times. In this context, this article argues that the existing focus on student outcomes is disproportionate and unhelpful. The existing narrow focus on student outcomes marginalizes other stakeholders and creates significant blind spots in program evaluation. This article proposes a broader analysis that would ask what value systems and power distribution CLE programs themselves create or reinforce, focusing on both the immediate impact of CLE programming and reinforcing the values human rights education seeks to inculcate by incorporating these into the structure of CLE programs themselves. Aux quatre coins du monde, le discours sur l’enseignement juridique clinique est empreint d’une soif de promouvoir la justice sociale et de défendre les droits de la personne. Pourtant, les travaux des universitaires portant sur l’atteinte de ces objectifs sont rares et se concentrent généralement sur les résultats touchant les étudiants. Ces écrits semblent fondés non pas sur des théories et des résultats mais sur l’espoir : l’espoir que des étudiants transformés transformeront le monde. Miser sur l’espoir seul est une erreur, surtout quand tous les intervenants sont aux prises avec la précarité financière. Dans ce contexte, l’auteure de cet article soutient que les efforts actuels ciblés sur les résultats touchant les étudiants sont disproportionnés et inutiles. Ce ciblage étroit marginalise les autres intervenants et crée de gros angles morts dans l’évaluation des programmes. Dans son article, l’auteure propose une analyse élargie qui pose la question de savoir quels systèmes de valeurs et quelle répartition des pouvoirs les programmes d’enseignement juridique clinique créent ou renforcent, l’accent étant mis sur les répercussions immédiates de ces programmes et sur le renforcement des valeurs que l’éducation aux droits de la personne humaine semble inculquer par l’intégration de ces valeurs dans la structure même des programmes en question.


2019 ◽  
pp. 16-29
Author(s):  
Tim Hayward

Recent debates about global justice have featured various proposals to make the world more just by means of transferring money. Their assumption is that just purposes may be achieved by applying, in a global context, the kind of redistributive fiscal policy that has proven capable of supporting social justice within the context of a welfare state. In global or international contexts, however, that assumption may not be warranted. In the absence of global political institutions and a single global currency, it would be premature to make policy commendations whose effectiveness would presuppose their existence. Additionally, there is a problem that the value of taxes, even if successfully raised and transmitted, can be subject to volatilities in financial markets. Attention should be directed to the institutional conditions required for global taxation as well as for the governance of global finance more generally to ensure it is in the public interest.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Richard Grimes

<p>Promoting legal literacy is nothing new. There have been many initiatives, stretching back to the mid 1970s at least, to improve the public’s understanding of their rights (and responsibilities).<a title="" href="file:///X:/Academic%20Library%20Services/Research%20Support%20Team/Scholarly%20Publications/OJS/International%20Journal%20of%20Public%20Legal%20Education/04%20Richard%20Grimes.docx#_ftn1">[1]</a></p><div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div><p><a title="" href="file:///X:/Academic%20Library%20Services/Research%20Support%20Team/Scholarly%20Publications/OJS/International%20Journal%20of%20Public%20Legal%20Education/04%20Richard%20Grimes.docx#_ftnref1">[1]</a> For example the (then) pioneering and (still) highly influential work of the Georgetown Law School, Washington DC, Street Law team under the direction of Richard Roe and of Street Law Inc, which evolved from this earlier initiative. For an account of this and other street Law programmes see: R. Grimes, E. O’Brien, D. McQuoid-Mason and J. Zimmer<em> Street Law and Social Justice Education</em>, in <em>The Global Clinical Movement: Educating Lawyers for Social Justice</em>, F. Bloch (ed.), OUP, 2010.</p></div></div>


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Barry

<p>Calls for reform of legal education in India have focused on preparation and relevance. The route to achieving both has consistently been linked to clinical legal education. In 1999, I heard one of the leaders of legal education in India, Dr. Madhava Menon, discuss his goals for clinical legal education in at the first Global Alliance for Justice Education Conference in Trivandrum. I learned at the time that he had been invited to lead a new law school in the country, and he made it clear that clinical legal education would be central to the new law school model that he intended to pursue, a model based on recommendations that grew out of prior assessments of legal education in India. Under this model, law students would be trained to be productive members of a community of lawyers that had refined the skills needed to develop and implement creative  strategies for addressing the pressing demand for social justice in the country. The approach reflected a connection between responsibility for the underserved and goals for clinical legal education in India that dates back to collaboration with academics from the United States in the late 1960’s.</p>


Author(s):  
Volodymyr Kakhnych

In the article the formation of legal education at the University of Melbourne, its short and successful path to worldwide recognitionis examined. The importance of researching such a successful example for national legal education is shown. Important researchby well-known professors who have worked at the University of Lviv and the University of Melbourne is depicted, and their contributionto the study of legal education in Melbourne is revealed.The author of the article shows that the experience of legal education in one of the oldest law schools in Australia – the Universityof Melbourne, which is now one of the world’s leading universities, as well as 50 best educational institutions in the world, is importantas an example of legal education for Ukrainian universities, in particular Lviv University. Legal education at Lviv University occupiesa significant place in the education of young professionals for crucial government positions.Founded in 1853, the University of Melbourne is the second oldest university in Australia. This is a state research university. Itconsists of 10 colleges located on the main campus and in the surrounding suburbs, which offer academic, cultural and sports programs.The University of Melbourne often ranks first among Australian universities in the world rankings. More than 46 % of his students areforeigners. This school is officially accredited by the Australian Department of Education and Training.The teaching of law, until 1873 at the University of Melbourne, was governed directly by the board and faculty; there was nocouncil or committee in charge of the faculty, and no head or administrator to lead the law course other than faculty and university officials.It was the council that decided on the details of the curriculum and considered students’ complaints about things like absenteeismand lecture venues. Other disciplines were in the same position. Not only in the field of law, but in general, the university did not havefaculties that would be responsible for certain areas of study.The university was so small that in 1872 it had only 134 students, 53 of whom studied law. In the early 1870s, the situation wasfavorable for change. The council committee explored the possibility of expanding the teaching of law by creating more subjects andlecture courses, and at the same time, by creating a new body, a faculty to oversee them.The council committee called this change the creation of a law school, and since then the terms “law school” (“law schools”) and“law faculty” have sometimes been interchangeable. Law classes were called a “school of law” for several months after their foundingin 1872. This term was sometimes used in another sense (as a discipline with honors). Despite the ambiguous terminology, the councilmeant the creation of the faculty and the accompanying reorganization of teaching in 1872–1873.The author of the article argues that building a legal education in Ukraine is impossible without a proper study of the experience,knowledge and practical skills that existed at the University of Melbourne. The opinion is based on the fact that the organization ofwork, cooperation with students and involvement of a large number of foreigners remains a model to follow. This approach to coope -ration and establishing contacts with their structure has made them famous and universally recognized worldwide. We can see thisbecause the University of Melbourne is now one of the world’s leading universities, as well as one of 50 best educational institutionsin the world.


Author(s):  
Tiffany Atkins

Generation Z, with a birth year between 1995 and 2010, is the most diverse generational cohort in U.S. history and is the largest segment of our population. Gen Zers hold progressive views on social issues and expect diversity and minority representation where they live, work, and learn. American law schools, however, are not known for their diversity, or for being inclusive environments representative of the world around us. This culture of exclusion has led to an unequal legal profession and academy, where less than 10 percent of the population is non-white. As Gen Zers bring their demands for inclusion, and for a legal education that will prepare them to tackle social justice issues head on, they will encounter an entirely different culture—one that is completely at odds with their expectations. This paper adds depth and perspective to the existing literature on Generation Z in legal education by focusing on their social needs and expectations, recognizing them as critical drivers of legal education and reform. To provide Gen Z students with a legal education that will enable them to make a difference for others—a need deeply connected to their motivators and beliefs—law school culture must shift. Reimagining, reconstituting, and reconfiguring legal education to create a culture of inclusion and activism will be essential and necessary. Engaging in this work “for the culture” means getting serious about diversifying our profession by abandoning exclusionary hiring metrics, embedding social justice throughout the law school curriculum, and adopting institutional accountability measures to ensure that these goals are met. Gen Zers are accustomed to opposing institutions that are rooted in inequality; law schools can neither afford, nor ignore the opposition any longer. We must begin reimagining legal education now—and do it, for the culture.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Lisa Bliss ◽  
Sylvia Caley ◽  
Leslie Wolf

<p>Research and the production of scholarship is a fundamental part of being a legal academic. Such endeavors identify issues and answer questions that further understanding of the law, the profession, and the justice system itself. Research and scholarship in the legal academy traditionally meant the study of law and legal theory. A growing body of legal academics are focusing research and scholarship on legal education itself, as well as research that measures the impact of legal education on the development of students’ practical and professional skills.  The impact of clinical legal education is an important aspect of this scholarship.<a title="" href="file:///H:/HeLP%20Clinic/Scholarship/x__Measuring%20the%20Impact%20of%20Social%20Justice%20Teaching%20for%20submission%20091316.docx#_ftn1">[1]</a> This article explores how thoughtfully designed research projects can measure the impact of social justice teaching, using examples and experience gleaned from the evaluation and research component of a medical legal partnership<a title="" href="file:///H:/HeLP%20Clinic/Scholarship/x__Measuring%20the%20Impact%20of%20Social%20Justice%20Teaching%20for%20submission%20091316.docx#_ftn2">[2]</a> and its affiliated law school clinic. The article examines principles of good research design, the art of formulating research questions, and the potential uses for resulting data. It also identifies critical steps and issues to consider when developing a research project.</p><div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div><p>        </p></div></div>


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-667
Author(s):  
O. V. Malyukova

The paper deals with the problem of interrelation between two research programs — logic and jurisprudence — from antiquity to the present. Traditional logic has created and developed the Great Triad “Concept — Judgment — Inference” that has become an educational and methodological canon of humanitarian knowledge and education in general and legal knowledge and legal education in particular. The doctrine of the concept, the doctrine of judgment, the doctrine of inference (more precisely, the doctrine of proof) are essentially used in legal proceedings, law-making, and law enforcement. The author resorts to modern achievements of the theory and technology of scientific knowledge as a research methodology. Logical knowledge itself appears in the form of methodology. Under this approach, any science, both natural and humanitarian, necessarily defines its conceptual corpus. Any science, creating its own description of the subject area, uses theoretical provisions in the form of a set of theses and arguments expressed by judgments. Any science substantiates its vision of the world using a system of evidence. All these properties are subject to and correspond to the subject of logics taught in every law school in the context of legal logics or logics for lawyers. The place of logic in the framework of legal education is considered as a hierarchy of problems of the relation between the phenomena of “the logical” and “the legal” within the framework of the world-historical process, the relation between the phenomena of “the logical” and “the legal” within the framework of domestic history and domestic education system before 1917, i.e., before the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Soviet power, the relation between the phenomena of “the legal” and “the logical” in Soviet and post-Soviet history, creation of an education system, including legal education, in our country and the development of the logical science and logical education at Kutafin Moscow State Law University. The uniqueness of the study is associated with the use of the Transcript of the All-Soviet Meeting of Logic Teachers of Higher Educational Institutions held on June 21–26, 1948 in Moscow discovered and introduced into scientific circulation by the author of the paper. The result of the study proves the special importance of logic for lawyers as a reliable tool in situations of lawmaking, law enforcement and interpretation of legal norms.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 603
Author(s):  
Charles Olufemi Adekoya

<p>In many parts of the world, including Nigeria, legal education systems have been severely criticized both by stakeholders and consumers for being deficient in many respects in preparing “future lawyers, with many failing to provide the core competence necessary to practice law after a university education.” A global review has indicated that legal education systems are generally inadequate and needs to be improved upon. Also, a series of discussions at both international and regional levels have emphasized the need for transition in legal training in order to enhance its effectiveness. Legal education systems around the world have been under surveillance for failing to produce students who possess problem solving abilities, and the skills and values required<br />for the profession. In Nigeria, as it is in other jurisdictions, criticisms against legal education by stakeholders and consumers are severe, focusing on the quality of training, which is regarded as inadequate.</p><p>For these and other reasons, critics have called for reforms in legal education in Nigeria.</p><p>Based on the above, this paper attempts to examine the legal education deficits in Nigeria requiring reforms, and how clinical legal education (hereinafter called “CLE”) introduced in Nigeria in 2003, ten years ago, best meets the required reforms, the challenges confronting the practice and institutionalization of clinical education, towards the objective of having a legal education which inculcates knowledge, skills and values, and is more practice oriented. This paper is divided into  five parts, Part II examines the introduction in Nigeria; Part III discusses the capability of CLE to meet the required reforms in legal education in Nigeria; Part IV examines the achievements, and challenges confronting the practice, mainstreaming and institutionalization of CLE in law faculties and the law school, and an evaluation of CLE; while Part V captures the conclusion and recommendations.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Warren

Through narratives and critical interrogations of classroom interactions, I sketch an argument for a co-constitutive relationship between qualitative research and pedagogy that imagines a more reflexive and socially just world. Through story, one comes to see an interplay between one's own experiences, one's own desires and one's community — I seek to focus that potential into an embodied pedagogy that highlights power and, as a result, holds all of us accountable for our own situated-ness in systems of power in ways that grant us potential places from which to enact change. Key in this discussion is a careful analytical point of view for seeing the world and a set of practices that work to imagine new ways of talking back.


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