Law Reform Clinical Programmes Should Be Promoted in Law Schools: An Explanation

Date
2024-06-05
Authors
Gledhill, Kris
Palmer, Robin
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Northumbria University Library
Abstract

This paper suggests that experiential education involving law reform is particularly suited to the academic stage of legal training. We review the current extent of clinics engaged in law reform, provide examples from our own practice, and then explain why law reform clinics are particularly beneficial. This is for several reasons. These include (i) the range of desirable graduate attributes and skills developed through involvement in law reform; (ii) the understanding that law reform is a career option; and (iii) the benefits to law schools and society generally from better laws, from legal academics using their skills to push for law reform, and from students being introduced to the civic obligation of the legal profession to be involved in seeking to improve the law. We also provide guidance from our own experience as to what can be done to establish a law reform clinic, whether as a dedicated course or as a way of running an existing course, and set out the steps that should produce good suggestions for reform.

Description
Keywords
4801 Commercial Law , 4804 Law In Context , 48 Law and Legal Studies , 4807 Public Law , 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy , 1801 Law , 4804 Law in context
Source
International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, ISSN: 1467-1069 (Print); 2056-3930 (Online), Northumbria University Library, (Special Edition - Policy Clinics Across the Globe: Development, Impact and Collaboration), 6-33. doi: 10.19164/ijcle.2024.1392
Rights statement
Copyright (c) 2024 Kris Gledhill, Robin Palmer. Creative Commons License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.