Title: PPT
1University Based Law Clinics as A Collaborative
Environmental Governance Tool for Radical Break
From Tradition
- Chidinma Therese Odaghara PhD
- Faculty of Law, Cavendish University Uganda
2The 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
3FocusUniversity Based Law clinics are
innovative educational tools and catalysts for a
radical break in traditional environmental
governance.
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5BACKGROUND OF UNIVERSITY- BASED LAW CLINIC
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9SCOPE
- 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)
10SCOPE
- 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)
11COMMUNICATION
12Characteristics
- 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
13Prospects
- 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
14Prospects
- 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.
15Prospects
- 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
16Challenges
- CLE pedagogical process how to ensure that
students have the appropriate environmental
management and environmental law literacy. - Monitoring and Evaluation
- Regulatory issues
17Challenges
- 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
18Key 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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20The end