India’s Law School Legal Aid Clinics: The Gaps Between Aspiration and Practice

The law schools legal aid activities conducted through its clinics has come a long way in India especially since its inception in the early 1970’s. Its evolution has been gradual, intermittent and varied. Although The Bar Council of India (BCI) has mandated, establishing legal aid clinics as a pre-requisite for granting the necessary permissions before law schools start functioning, there are limited ideas of its purpose and objectives. An inherent lack of understanding its importance in terms of teaching, learning and research, the legal aid practices are largely left to the discretion of the individual law schools and interpretations of the individual faculty members. Combined with ideas heavily borrowed from the law schools in the US and individual experiences of the faculty members, legal aid practices in India are diversified. In the backdrop of this, the author intends to explore and map the aspiration of legal aid through an analysis of the key policy documents of legal education since India’s independence through an ontological framework. The ontology maps the aspirations of the legal aid clinics that was intended through these documents. Additionally, a case study of two important institutions have been taken as the case in point in order to verify whether the practices match such aspirations. Thereby, putting forth arguments that are critical for understanding the gaps between the aspiration and the state of reality. Key words: Legal aid Clinics, Law schools, Clinical, Legal education, Social justice

Clinical Legal Education as an Effective Tool for Improving the Accessibility of Protective Injunctions for Victims of Domestic Abuse: A Case Study Example of the Models of Support Available at Northumbria University

Protective injunctions are at the forefront of the family justice system’s response to protecting victims of domestic abuse. The accessibility of orders, however, has been compromised by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 which has reduced the availability of public funding for victims of domestic abuse and led to an increase in victims representing themselves in such proceedings. Research indicates that without legal support, a victim’s prospects of securing protection can be adversely affected, demonstrating a need for pro bono assistance for those who cannot afford to pay privately for legal services. Whilst the provision of pro bono support in areas of unmet need is a principal aim of clinical legal education, research shows that few clinical programs in England and Wales offer specialist services for victims of domestic abuse. This paper therefore considers the role that clinical legal education can play in improving the accessibility of protective injunctions. Part one sets out a review of recent reforms within the family justice system and analyses how they have created an increased demand for pro bono legal support for victims of domestic abuse. Part two examines the clinical landscape and the potential benefits to students of providing support to victims. By drawing on the case study of the Student Law Office at Northumbria University, part three sets out the various models of clinical legal education that may be utilised to support victims of domestic abuse. The benefits and limitations of each option for students and victims will also be considered. The paper is a helpful point of reference for clinicians and family law practitioners working in partnership with law school clinics who are considering offering support in this area.

The Law In The Community Module At Northumbria University- Working In Partnership With Citizens Advice As An Effective Teaching Tool

This article discusses the Law in the Community module, which has recently been introduced into the curriculum at Northumbria University. In this module, the students attend fortnightly workshops with their university tutor and volunteer each week at their local Citizens Advice. The aims of the module are to develop the students’ knowledge and professional skills and appreciation of access to justice challenges, whilst simultaneously advising members of the community through their volunteer work at the Citizens Advice. The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, to present and discuss data from a semi-structured interview with the academic responsible for the design and delivery of the module during the first year of its inception. Secondly, to evaluate the pedagogical benefits and the benefits to the wider community.

Trauma-Informed Lawyering In The Student Legal Clinic Setting: Increasing Competence In Trauma Informed Practice

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Building a Policy Clinic Network - CLEO Workshop 13th May 2021

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Preparing Students For 21st Century Practice: Enhancing Social Justice Teaching In Clinical Legal Education

Social justice has always played an important role in clinical legal education (CLE). Clinicians are aware that students need to acquire the necessary legal skills and strategies related to client-centred lawyering, process choice and procedural justice. This paper shows that increasingly, despite clinicians’ recognition of the value of teaching social justice in CLE, those who promote it face various challenges in instilling in students the notion that social justice is important. This paper discusses some of these challenges, including, that as experiential education expands, students are being offered clinical placements in the private sector where clients do not face the barriers in accessing justice similar to those in community settings. It therefore becomes imperative to encourage students to retain the notion that social justice is an important value. This paper makes suggestions for how these challenges can be overcome to enhance students’ awareness of the importance of social justice and ensure that it remains a value they retain as 21st century practitioners.

Unregulated Immigration Law Clinics and Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right: Challenging The Political Status Quo

Unregulated law clinics in England and Wales are prohibited from directly offering immigration advice and assistance. This article argues that this restriction should not be a barrier to teaching immigration law. Kant’s duty-based ethics and his cosmopolitan right can provide a useful normative framework for challenging the political status quo in relation to the regulation of law clinics and policies affecting migrants. It is argued that introducing normative values into Clinical Legal Education can address the limitations of the conventional ‘hired-gun’ model and engender students to a more holistic approach to lawyering. In other words, a model which promotes the causes of third parties.

Improving Access To Justice Through Legal Aid: Exploring The Possibilities Of ‘Exceptional Case Funding’ Clinics In University Law Schools

This article focuses on the role of universities in establishing law clinics to assist individuals to make Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) applications. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) removed many categories of civil matters from the scope of legal aid, reducing the number of people entitled to state-funded legal advice and assistance. To replace provision for the categories removed from scope, LASPO introduced ECF to provide a ‘safety net’ for cases where human rights would be breached if legal assistance was not available. To obtain legal aid through the ECF scheme, legal aid providers or individuals must apply to the Legal Aid Agency, the department of government within the Ministry of Justice that deals with the administration of legal aid. The article considers how analysis of ECF clinics can contribute to knowledge about the work of universities in facilitating access to justice through clinical legal education, particularly in the context of cuts to legal aid expenditure. It argues that ECF clinics present an opportunity to involve students while engaging — rather than replacing — the responsibility of the British state to provide legal aid.

Promoting Positive Mental Health in International Postgraduate Law Students at a Time of Global Uncertainty: A Case Study from qLegal at Queen Mary, University of London

Law student mental health and wellbeing was already a growing concern in the UK prior to COVID-19, but when the pandemic occurred, widespread uncertainty placed an unprecedented level of mental health burden on students. Law students were faced with dashed hopes, uncertain futures and the fear of negative academic consequences. This burden was exacerbated in respect of postgraduate international students in London, who were often also forced to decide whether to return home to their families, or to continue their studies abroad, albeit online.This paper uses a case study approach to discuss how one provider of postgraduate clinical legal education (CLE), approached the promotion of positive student mental health both before, and in response to, the pandemic. qLegal at Queen Mary, University of London provides CLE to postgraduates studying for a one year law masters, and in 2019-2020, qLegal delivered CLE to 134 students from 27 countries. The impact that the pandemic had on the mental health of international postgraduate law students was therefore witnessed first-hand.This paper discusses the challenges faced, and concerns raised by international postgraduate law students at qLegal as a result of the pandemic. It examines the steps taken by qLegal to maximise student engagement and promote positive student mental health when rapidly switching to a model of online delivery. The paper concludes by outlining the steps qLegal will take to monitor and address the impact that online delivery in this period of global uncertainty has on the mental health of the next cohort of postgraduate CLE students.