This book describes the central concepts, goals, and methods of clinical legal education from a global perspective, with a particular emphasis on its social justice mission. Certain common features have contributed to clinical legal education's growing influence around the world, most notably its focus on lawyering skills and professional values. Even so, law school clinics vary considerably from country to country due to differences in legal systems and professional and academic cultures that have led to the development of a variety of distinctive national and regional approaches to clinical ... More

This book describes the central concepts, goals, and methods of clinical legal education from a global perspective, with a particular emphasis on its social justice mission. Certain common features have contributed to clinical legal education's growing influence around the world, most notably its focus on lawyering skills and professional values. Even so, law school clinics vary considerably from country to country due to differences in legal systems and professional and academic cultures that have led to the development of a variety of distinctive national and regional approaches to clinical education. The book also examines clinical legal education's commitment to reform the legal academy and the legal profession, and charts its future role in educating lawyers for social justice. It argues that an emerging global clinical movement is playing an increasingly important role in educating lawyers worldwide, and that it can advance social justice through legal education. The most common model is a law school-based legal aid clinic that offers law students the opportunity to gain “real world” practical experience by working with clinical faculty to address legal problems in the community. The book consists of three parts: Part 1 explores the global reach of clinical legal education, including descriptions of programs from every region of the world; Part 2 discusses the justice mission of global clinical education and the various ways that clinical programs advance the cause of social justice around the world; Part 3 looks at the global clinical movement, with analyses of its various dimensions and its capacity to advance social justice through socially relevant legal education.