Thinking About Clinical Legal Education

"“The past decade has seen a steady increase in the number of law schools in the UK offering a law clinic experience to their students. This book promises to make an important contribution to our understanding of the rich and varied experience that clinical legal education can bring to law schools. The global reach of the book and the application of pedagogical and legal theories to law clinic settings offers a rich and valuable resource that will be of interest, not only to the clinic legal community, but to all educators interested in transformative educational experiences grounded in social justice and community partnerships.”- Lucy Yeatman, Director Liverpool Law Clinic, Co-Chair Clinical Legal Education Organisation. “Thinking about Clinical Legal Education provides the perfect opportunity to pause, reflect and reconsider. These essays beautifully articulate the natural entwinement of bustling student law clinics, and a wide spectrum of philosophical theories. An inspiring and essential read which rightfully challenges the reader to keep ethics at the forefront of legal education.” - Frances Ridout, Director of the Legal Advice Centre (CLE) – Queen Mary University of London, Barrister and Senior Lecturer “This is an exciting and innovative collection of essays that collectively represent a timely contribution to Clinical Legal Education literature (CLE). The philosophical and epistemological insights articulated by the authors underscore the value of CLE, salute its history, and provide a fresh, twenty-first century perspective on experiential learning, professionalism, and the challenges of contemporary legal practice. It's a 'must read' for every law teacher's bookshelf.” - Rach Spencer, Assocate Professor Director, Monash Law Clinics - Clayton & Melbourne, Monash University ""The editors are to be congratulated on drawing together such a team of all the talents to contribute to this timely collection of essays with its diverse global perspectives into clinical legal education. The future of this exciting and flexible form of learning through experience is guaranteed, despite the challenges of lockdown, by the innovative approaches of contributors, their evident passion for justice, and their ability to balance theory and practice."" - Professor Simon Lee, Open University Law School This book is an important and timely publication for several reasons. First, it marks a significant departure from existing scholarship on experiential learning in law. It goes beyond the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of setting and running legal clinics – that much of the existing literature looks at, as valuable as this is – and focuses on broader and in-depth analyses of what such a form of education can involve. Secondly, the book marks what might be considered to be a coming of age for clinical legal education (CLE). Earlier work largely sought to justify the need for and worth of CLE. With CLE firmly established in many, possibly now most, jurisdictions on the global stage there is less need to concentrate on merit and justification and more of an opportunity to explore some of the fascinating and important dimensions of this approach the learning and teaching of law and the legal process. Hence we see chapters reflecting the philosophical, ethical and human rights considerations involved in planning, designing, running and evaluating CLE not to mention the political context in which this all takes place. In addition the book represents a departure from the mould of previous work in that it shows very clearly the need for theory in understanding and implementing CLE as well as showing the potential for further research and debate. CLE is now part of the curriculum across law schools in the civil, common, Shari’s and customary law worlds and without doubt is here to stay. This publication makes that very clear indeed and adds considerably to the body of knowledge on the subject. Richard Grimes, Visiting professor Edinburgh Law School and Charles University, Prague"