CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION
By:
NAFEER A. MALIK
Principal Quaid-e-Azam
Law College
Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan
(Chairman Legal Education Committee
High Court Bar Association 2011-12)
A INTRODUCTION
This paper intends to provide a general overview of Clinical Legal
Education as a concept of teaching and practicing law, it is also to introduce
different aspects of defining Clinical Legal Education as methodology for Legal
Education. It identifies major goals of Clinical Legal Education programs in
general and analyses rationale for establishing such programs. It also analyses
major needs and challenges of running Clinical Legal Education initiatives at
law colleges and the approaches and methodologies for establishing Clinical
Legal Education centres.
B WHAT IS CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION?
Clinical Legal Education is defined in many different ways throughout the
world, the term "Clinical Legal Education" is defined as an
educational program grounded in an interactive and reflective teaching
methodology with the main aim of providing law students with practical knowledge,
skills, and values for the delivery of legal services and social justice.[1]
C OBJECTIVES OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION
The objectives of Clinical Legal Education are multiple;
I. It aims at teaching
theories of law, practical advocacy skills and professional responsibility, as
well as introducing student to issues of social justice through their
experience of advocacy for the disadvantaged groups.
II. It lays a foundation for
law students to carry with them throughout their professional careers as advocates
a greater sense of professional commitment to the ethics and values. It
provides required legal services to the community outside of the law college in
an almost limitless array of doctrinal areas of the law.
III. It immerses the legal
academia - both students and teachers - in the world as performers, not merely
observers.
IV. it
seeks to provide a structured educational opportunity for students to observe or
experience actual or simulated client representation and to extract appropriate
knowledge, skill and values from that experience.
V. it aims to provide an
important supplement for the provision of needed legal aid and services to
persons who would otherwise not have access to these services.
VI. It tries to inculcate in
students a spirit of social justice and to build a base for the creation of a
responsible legal profession.
VII. the
use of interactive and reflective teaching methods animates students to perform
and engage with the law in ways that theoretical lectures or readings often
cannot. This reflective learning, moreover, has been shown to be one of the
most effective means of lasting adult learning.
VIII. It seeks to strengthen
civil society itself, through nurturing lawyers' professional responsibility
and through provision of much-needed legal services to build and protect
underserved and vulnerable population.
D. COMPONENTS OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION
Clinical legal education is a dynamic style of learning also described as
"experiential learning" or "learning by doing". Students in
clinical courses engage in actual advocacy experiences to understand first-hand
information. Typically clinical courses consist of three components
Planning / Proposition
it involves studying and learning theories of advocacy to understand what
kind of techniques are used in providing legal services and what kinds of
issues to consider when advocating. It involves developing written case or
project plans and simulating real life situations and proposition.
Experiential
Component
Students perform advocacy skills or other
practical activities in real circumstances under the guidance and supervision
of practicing lawyers and teachers.
Reflection
Component
Students reflect upon their experiences and
evaluate their performance. This process includes written reflection and
self-evaluation exercises, peer review & critique and evaluation by the
teachers.
E CLINICAL TEACHING METHODS
A number of interactive teaching strategies
can be used for implementation of Clinical Legal Education programmes.
Some are hereafter
Brainstorming
During brainstorming the instructor invites
students to think of as many different propositions and solutions as they can,
and records all even if some of them might appear to be wrong or inappropriate.
Case
Studies
During case studies instructor invites different participants to read the
facts, and then to recognise the problem or issue
involved. Participants are asked to prepare arguments for both sides concerning
the particular problem or issue and then to reach a decision or to make a
judgment on the merits of the arguments.
The
Use of Resource Persons
The use of resource persons provides a realistic and relevant experience
for participants. Instructors may identify people trained or expert in the
particular field under discussion (e.g. judges and practicing lawyers).
Mock
Trials
Mock trials are an experiential way of
learning, which enables participants to lose their fear of the Courts and
Judges. Participants can be taught how to to proceed
with case, how to lead evidence, how to cross-examine, and how to make
arguments. Participants can play the role of witnesses, Court officials and
lawyers. Mock trials provide an opportunity to expose participants to live
judges who can be involved as presiding officers.
Court
Visits
Courts' Visit is useful because instructors
can choose both interesting and relevant places for participants to visit (e.g.
higher Courts. Libraries and prisons).
Learning
by experience
Instead of learning by means of traditional
lectures, the students are much more pro-active participants in Clinical Legal
Education Programs - they are "learning by doing". Their initiative
determines the scope of the client's problem, they plan and work for its
solution. Such students are much more likely to learn if they recognise that their success is determined by their own
efforts rather than external factors (e.g. how good the lecturer is, or what
questions have previously been asked on the examination paper). Students, by
contrast, can examine the legal and social issues in some depth, and they can
form the basis for looking at the lawyer's role and at legal ethics within a
practical context. The result is that what is learned is far more likely to
remain with the student that the knowledge crammed for a written examination
paper.
Acquisition
of skills
Clinical education embraces a skills-based
approach. This means paying as much attention to the processes associated with
legal practice - e. g. making better copies , fact sheets - as to the legal
content of the rules forming the background to the work done. The skills
include
o Research
skill
o Communication
skills
o Drafting
o Framing
of issues
o Art
of cross examination
o Arguments
o Summarizing
the case
Student
motivation and development
Students who participate in clinical activity are enthusiastic about
their experience. They are self-motivated and often highly committed to the
work. They are more responsible for what they do and how they do it. In theory,
the teacher's role becomes more facilitative - helping students discover
solutions for themselves. To an extent involvement in clinical work can help
reduce such feelings, and can invigorate future study.
Professional
ethics and responsibility
The study of ethics and the professional responsibility and conduct of
lawyers has been markedly absent from law colleges in contrast to medical
colleges. However, there has been a growth of interest in this area in recent
years, and it is a subject that, arguably, is better dealt with in a clinical
context where the often abstract notions can be given a practical context, the
crucible of the clinic allows legal issues to be debated more openly than
within the confines of the traditional curriculum.
F CONTRIBUTION OF QUA1D-E-AZAM LAW
COLLEGE
At
• How
to apply knowledge and expertise gained in one legal context to another
• The
skills that is essential to be able to think like a lawyer
• Researching
and using legal materials, constructing and articulating legal arguments
• How
to use it productively in legal study and in practice
The Clinical Legal Study Program helps the
new entrants in the legal profession to know the practical aspect of the
profession of which Bar, Bench and Public at large would be the beneficiaries.
In this program clinical supervisors and
instructors teach students fundamental pre-trial and trial skills, which they
will practice in small group settings.
Centre
for Creative Problem Solving (CCPS)
G RECOMMENDATIONS
I. Law
Colleges should examine their teaching methods and the content of their
curriculum to ensure that their law graduates are capable of serving as
effective professionals.
II.
III. Law
Colleges, the Bar, and the Bench should develop and encourage transitional training
programs (Clinical Legal Education) to begin in law college .Approaches to implement
this recommendation might include Experiential learning opportunities in law
colleges curricula, for example: practical experiences, clinical experiences,
skills courses, internships, and mentorships.
IV. Bar
councils should consider reconstruction of bar examinations with an objective to
link it in attainment of legal practice skills.
V. Bar
Councils and law colleges should create communication frameworks for mandatory
conferences, meetings and interactive sessions to ensure understanding, reforms
required in legal education and addition of new subjects in LLB curriculum.
VI. Every
VII. During
LLB program, final year students may be recommended for two weeks internship
program at senior lawyers' chambers. So that student may observe the
preparation of documents and Court papers by the Advocates and the procedure
for the filing of the suit/petition.
VIII. Colleges
should design Clinical Legal Education to focus on building up the students'
skills of analysis, language, drafting and argument.
IX. In
current LLB University Examination a full paper of "Legal Drafting"
is taken, "Art of drafting in Criminal Law and opinion writing" may
also be introduced as a part of this paper i.e
drafting of complaints, bail petitions, memorandum of appeals etc. A large
number of students aspire to practice on criminal side. This inclusion will aid
them to accomplish their quest for learning.
X. Legal
forums and law colleges be encouraged to establish FREE LEGAL AID CELLS
XI. The
idea of recognition of legal rights for victims is a hope for those who suffer the
trauma of victimization. These cells shall have mission to promote rights and services
for victims of crime and crisis everywhere.