IUCN

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University Based Law Clinics as A Collaborative
Environmental Governance Tool for Radical Break
From Tradition

• Chidinma Therese Odaghara PhD
• Faculty of Law, Cavendish University Uganda

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The session aims toDraw attention to
University based law clinics as potential
collaborative environmental governance tools to
enhance public education on environmental law
Suggest that University based law clinics can
be transformative agents and catalysts for better
communication of environmental law to the public
through clinical activities such as facilitating
community engagements, providing counselling,
conducting advocacy and street law
campaignsIdentify challenges in the use of
University based Law clinics to enhance public
education on environmental law
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FocusUniversity Based Law clinics are
innovative educational tools and catalysts for a
radical break in traditional environmental
governance.
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BACKGROUND OF UNIVERSITY- BASED LAW CLINIC
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SCOPE

• Model servicing Live Clinic Legal Counselling
• Legal Aid / delivery of pro bono community
  service Translation, Legal Drafting
• Transactional work in community development
• Public Legal Education (PLE) for variety of
  audience children, high school students, mass
  education
• Innovators of job and wealth creation
  (transactional work in community development)

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SCOPE

• Community Engagement and Empowerment Effective
  community development involves engaging and
  empowering community members throughout the
  process. This includes involving them in
  decision-making, soliciting their input, and
  ensuring their active participation in project
  activities.
• Transactional work in community development are
  essential for long-term sustainability and
  positive advancement of environmental governance.
• Innovators of job and wealth creation ( offshoots
  of transactional work in community development)

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COMMUNICATION
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Characteristics

• It is within the law school curriculum and is
  offered for credit
• Students under supervision offer legal services to
   individual or institutional clients with real leg
  al problems, and in court, to the extent that
  local practice rules permit
• Clients served by the program are indigent or
  otherwise unable to gain access to justice due to
  poverty, lack of knowledge or other marginal
  status
• Students are closely supervised, and evaluated
  by  experienced lawyer in the field of interest.
• Clinical activities are accompanied by
  a classroom component that focuses on acquisition
  of requisite knowledge and key professional
  skills

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Prospects

• Partnerships Law Clinics and local communities /
  NGOs/SMEs
• Possibility of fashioning innovative and better
  ways to promote public education on environmental
  matters
• Foster transdisciplinary collaboration
• Platform for Environmental Activism and Business
  Creation

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Prospects

• Pedagogical activities of University based law
  clinics are intervention platforms for local
  communities. Through interactions with these
  communities, sensitive issues such as
  environmental racism, discrimination, restorative
  justice and compensation can be better understood
  for the purposes of enhancing PLE.

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Prospects

• Flexibility
• NGOs in the environmental law sphere could add
  capacity by taking over supervision and training
  costs (where they have an interest in so doing),
• Partnership could open up clinical projects to
  additional funding streams.
• Increased Public participation

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Challenges

• CLE pedagogical process how to ensure that
  students have the appropriate environmental
  management and environmental law literacy.
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Regulatory issues

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Challenges

• the clinic focus is more likely to be aligned to
  Law School expertise than demonstrable legal
  need,
• Uncertainty in the university sector
• Issues around capacity to conduct casework
• Limited reach of available services
• The availability of particular expertise
• Changing the attitudes of students to venture
  outside the law scape

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Key take-aways

• Collaboration and network building
• Forging interdisciplinary university teams beyond
  traditional disciplines, such as with natural
  science students,
• Conscious efforts toward cross border cooperation
  
• Informed advocacy

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The end