scholarly journals Clinical Legal Education and Human Rights Values: A Universal Pro Forma for Law Clinics

2021 ◽  
pp. 232200582110510
Author(s):  
Omar Madhloom ◽  
Irene Antonopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Social Justice Education ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Starting Position ◽  
Global Law ◽  
Pro Forma ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

This article explores the theoretical foundations for a social justice–centric global law clinic movement. Our starting position is that law clinics, a type of clinical legal education (CLE), are in a unique position to engage in, and potentially promote, social justice issues outside their immediate communities and jurisdictions. To achieve this aim, it is necessary for law clinics to adopt a universal pro forma underpinned by the key concepts of CLE, namely social justice education and promoting access to justice through law reform. We argue that the main features of CLE are aligned with those of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on issues such as human dignity and social justice. Incorporating UDHR values into CLE serves three purposes. First, it acts as a universal pro forma, which facilitates communication between clinics across jurisdictions, irrespective of their cultural or legal background. Second, it allows clinics to identify sources of global injustices and to share resources and expertise to collectively address injustices. Third, the theoretical approach advocated in this article argues that clinics have a Kantian moral right to engage in transnational law reform.

scholarly journals BEING THE CHANGE: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM EVALUATION

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Katie Spillane
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Program Evaluation ◽  
Power Distribution ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Justice Sociale ◽  
The World ◽  
Blind Spots

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.

Access to Justice for Internally Displaced Persons: The Global Legal Order

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Ndimurwimo ◽  
Leonard Opara
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Internal Displacement ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Internally Displaced Persons ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Displaced Persons ◽  
Internally Displaced

Internally displaced persons are people who are uprooted from their social, economic, cultural and educational environment and made squatters or homeless within the jurisdiction of their own country. They consequently have no permanent place of abode. Internal displacement therefore becomes a situation that deprives individuals of access to justice and leads to violations of the human rights of categories of citizens. For example, women, children and the elderly are more vulnerable and lack social-economic assistance from their loved ones and family support because of their internal displacement. Their situation denies them access to justice from several perspectives, such as being in a state of despair, instability and uncertainty. This article examines the ways in which the domestication of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa of 2009 (the Kampala Convention) and clinical legal education can be used to promote access for internally displaced persons to justice and basic human rights. In this regard, the article further analyses access to justice for internally displaced persons through the teaching methodology of clinical legal education in African legal jurisprudence. Finally, the article recommends the involvement of legal clinicians and other practitioners as advocates of internally displaced persons’ access to justice, respect for human rights and the rule of law as a requirement for the domestication of the Kampala Convention by Member States in Africa.

scholarly journals Interface of Law and Medicine in Clinical Legal Education: Success story of the Women’s Law Clinic in improving the health of women and ensuring women’s access to Justice in Nigeria

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevwe Omoragbon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Success Story ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Social

<p>Specialist law clinics now operate both in the developed and developing world. The historical background of these specialist law clinics can be traced to the United States. They also abound in South Africa, Europe and are fast emerging in several African countries. It is however outside the scope of this paper to describe the wide variety of specialist law clinic models that exist in other countries.</p><p><br />At present in Nigeria, there are seven Nigerian Universities with law clinics. These law clinics in enhancing the social justice frontier have developed projects addressing specific problems; making them specialists in service delivery, but the Women’s Law Clinic, is the only gender specialist law clinic.</p>

scholarly journals Advancing legal education for all – the role of a journal

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Richard Grimes
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Social Justice Education ◽  
Law School ◽  
Education For All ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Legal Literacy

<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>

scholarly journals O direito de acesso à justiça efetiva e em tempo razoável e o pacto de San José da Costa Rica na proteção do direito à saúde

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
Juliane Caravieri Martins ◽  
◽  
Igor Vinícius de Lima Afonso ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
San Jose ◽  
International Treaty ◽  
The Right ◽  
Judicial Protection ◽  
Right Of Access

This research examines the right of access to justice – fair, effective and timely judicial protection – from the perspective of the American Convention on Human Rights, also known as the Pact of San José of Costa Rica, and Brazilian constitutional norms, verifying wether they protected the right to health in order to realize social justice. Furthermore, this study questiones whether this Pact contributed to the protection of the right to health for Brazilians. In other words, this paper investigates if this international treaty contributed to the promotion of the right to health in Brazil by allowing citizens, through the phenomenon of judicialization of public policies, access to fairer and more effective judicial protection.

scholarly journals Towards Designing a Validated Framework for Improved Clinical Legal Education: Empirical Research on Student and Alumni Feedback

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Stephan Van der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The Body ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Implementation Framework ◽  
The University

The pedagogical advantages of employing a Clinical Legal Education (“CLE”) teaching and learning strategy have been acclaimed in literature for almost a century and it continues to be ideally suited to cater to modern education expectations. As an agent for social change, CLE offers law students an effective gateway to participate in, and be influenced by, fundamental social justice problems while it also improves access to justice for the indigent. Though the clinical literature is replete on expected benefits for clinical law students, very little (if any) verifiable empirical research, independently sourced and evaluated, has been published to assess the veracity of these claims in support of CLE. After receiving a funding grant from the University of Stellenbosch Fund for Innovation and Research into Learning and Teaching, the University of Stellenbosch Law Clinic appointed an independent, external agency to conduct empirical research through an extensive measure and evaluation exercise. The aim of the project was to source, document and analyse robust empirical research data about the Faculty of Law’s CLE module, Practical Legal Training 471. The project involved the sourcing and collation of formal student evaluation feedback reports spanning a period of nine years. Additional alumni and current student data were gathered either by online questionnaire or by telephonic interview. The research was aimed at eliciting quantitative as well as qualitative responses. The purpose of this article is to describe the applicable methodology and aims of the research project, to unpack and discuss the resulting empirical data, and to draw certain conclusions based on the findings of this research about CLE’s impact on law students’ experience specifically relating to their practice-readiness and social justice sensitivities. It is suggested that this research will prove both interesting and useful to law teachers involved in relevant programmes at other higher education institutions. The data and evidence detailed herein will assist them to conduct their research and to make substantiated recommendations for the development of CLE programs on a broader national and international level. This research will also add to the body of knowledge on students and student learning and allow for recommendations regarding the creation of a broader implementation framework for improved CLE.

scholarly journals Reviving reasonableness: Expansive reason-giving and receiving for global social justice education

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Tannis
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Justice Education ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Reflective Approach ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

Reasonableness is a term that is used widely in relation to global social justice, yet its meaning differs depending on its theoretical foundations.  In this paper, I examine the breadth of these meanings, focusing on the pedagogical significance of reasonableness as something that is assessed, recognized and enacted.  I present a model of reasonableness that expands upon Erman’s (2007) concept of reason-giving and is founded upon the philosophy of inter-subjective recognition as described by Honneth (1996) and the idea of capabilities as theorized by Sen (2009) and Nussbaum (2005).  I develop a typology of reason-giving and reason-receiving, including arbitrary, emotive, authoritative, tentative and expansive analytical-relational modes.  I conclude that the assertion of another person’s reasonableness / unreasonableness may be viewed as an inter-subjective and intercultural lived relation.  Approximating the cosmopolitanism proposed by Nussbaum (2005) and Appiah (2006), I propose that we should aim to create learning approaches and environments that foster exploratory and compassionate reason-giving and receiving.  In an era of global social justice discourse and action, I argue that cultivating a reflective approach to reason-giving and receiving would develop in students an expansive conception of and capacity for reasonableness.

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