Taking Clinical Legal Education from Classrooms to Streets: A Practical Perspective to Solving Social Problems

Civic Engagement

As an often perceived standard practice, academics within higher education environment play key important roles that straddle the society. They demonstrate these roles in the areas of research, publications and engagement with the community, ³³ which correspondingly constitute a salient part of university responsibilities in any society. For similar purpose, law students are however not immured particularly from engaging with the society. Regrettably, experience shows that academics and universities, including students alike rarely take proactive steps to involve with the outside community. In part, this nonchalant attitude of universities towards their seemingly responsibilities subtly raises a legitimate question of concern about the existence of law clinics without their own roles to social transformation of common people especially in emerging nations. ³⁴ Social transformation is indeed a widely professed process, fundamentally rooted in the understanding of social change. ³⁵ Therefore, there is a need to link social change with the sense of civic engagement for broader understanding. The central argument here is that civic engagement is a substratum for the augmentation of social transformation and social change in parallel, and this provides a framework with which university and law school student–clinicians can use to make differences in the lives of other people.

The need to engage law student–clinicians on social problems is borne, bearing in mind that various communities are characterized by unique surmountable life threatening challenges and needs that call for some sorts of noble services built on non-political process. Today, poverty, hidden hunger, inequality of access to opportunities, illiteracy, ill-health among others are some of the most frequently recorded common problems of our time, most of which have somewhat attracted considerable global attention for a forward-thinking pathway in attenuating them. ³⁶ In order to overcome these challenges, we must demonstrate different commitments promoting individual consciousness and capacity development at all levels. We must disengage our single-mindedness off the perception that it is only governments and non-governmental or CSOs that bear the responsibility of addressing our common problems. The role of law students from university and law school clinics can be immeasurable in proffering transparent objective solutions to civic problems since they are believed to be instrumental to helping indigent and uninformed citizens overcome certain challenges through engaging in community outreach activities, which at the same time help them gain and hone their legal experience and values. ³⁷ Law students as young people are receptive to change.

This means that if a CLE curriculum is carefully crafted to allow law student–clinicians to use pragmatic non-partisan approach in applying their classroom knowledge, skills and ethics of law to public problems, it could be employed as a useful instrument in resolving most social problems facing the society. As argued by Phillip Iya, CLE is a hostile instrument to tackle poverty and ignorance though he specifically relied on Africa’s context. ³⁸ His argument no doubt expanded the prominence and scope of CLE, thus epitomizing a clear way of fostering social justice achievable through civic engagement, which can nevertheless manifest in a wider societal context and is not separated from the notion of the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi who viewed education as the best and cost-effective approach to combat poverty. ³⁹ In the words of Nelson Mandela, ‘education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’. ⁴⁰ There is no doubt about the potency of any form of education to transforming the world in a way that reflects these arguments. Invariably, CLE being a unique programme of education is equally the most powerful tool to change the universe; an influential deterrent against social injustice and inequality that brings about a change in the world.

It has been noted that CLE is now attracting much greater attention directed to the overall societal problems rather than focusing on classroom knowledge. The impact of which has manifestly shown researchers passion navigating the wheel of CLE into various areas of research opportunities that clarify how we can use the learning to solve most of humanity’s challenges, with further reinforcement by emerging arguments supporting different models of CLE. For example, it has been argued that future advocates and lawyers in the course of justice could be equipped with e-democracy initiatives built upon a creative structure of law clinic externship for a deeper understanding of and collaboration with the dynamic relationships prevailing between theoretical familiarity and its real-world application to the legal and justice issues likely to arise in various communities they would work in future time. ⁴¹ This argument draws upon the need for the application of information communication technology (ICT) in the practice of CLE that extends from building local capacity to fostering inclusive public health, sexual rights of people and equity justice especially for stigmatized HIV victims. ⁴² This establishes an under standing that CLE offers an opportunity to use ICT in enhancing electronic governance (E-G). Universities and law schools, therefore, need to reconsider the broader roles of law clinics outside learning environment to what illustrates a paradigm shift approach that suits contemporary legal needs of the society. Only by this thinking that universities as social institutions play their roles not as a traditionally construed educators in the pursuit of only academic values geared towards producing qualified graduates, but as champions of social good central to the society, ⁴³ and which bears in the common perception, that universities as important establishments stimulate the course of social change and transformation. ⁴⁴

Human Rights and Humanitarian Practices

While the world continues to take its shape of ascension, and globalization trans-bounds, so does the pendulum of their consequences swing. Many parts of the continents have become more consistently horizontal to asymmetric scales of crisis and uncertainties. These unusual shocks impact negatively on human rights and humanitarian affairs and could fairly be attributed to the quest for economic and political supremacy and the insensitivity of insatiably unruly, and unscrupulous political elements and private economic swindlers of state wealth, especially within independent developing countries. In international politics, we can also see similar struggle by nation states. These anomalies portend high uncertainty that is likely to rise to an unexpected level of surprising ruin. Within the framework of this understanding is the need for forward-thinking efforts from all corners in safeguarding most frequently neglected concerns of mankind.

A wholesome start could bear in the call for human rights education (HRE) directed with similar goal of knowledge transfer, empowerment of people and attitudinal change. ⁴⁵ This need has been expressed in a good number of international instruments such as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR), ⁴⁶ UN Decade for Human Rights Education ⁴⁷ just to mention a few and has found its way to national laws primarily in the constitutions of many countries around the world. However, the fact is that national peculiarities and historical antecedents have offered a gap to neglect most of these rights. Hence, a demand arises to bridge this gap, which recognizes the potent tool of CLE and calls on universities and law school clinics to rise up. Firstly, one way of doing this could begin with a structural reconsideration in the design of CLE curriculum by incorporating those human rights and humanitarian issues that student–clinicians should immerse themselves as advocates of equal justice and social change. There is a superfluity of human rights questions for which law clinics can undertake in purely practical ways either by representing human rights-affected citizens in the court or by way of public enlightenment; educating people particularly the poorly illiterate citizens on their human rights, including insights on how they can overcome challenges affecting their rights as human beings. It has been argued that legal literacy is a component of CLE through which student–clinicians can spread knowledge by helping illiterate citizens become legally literate. ⁴⁸ The promotion of freedom of information (FOI) on various aspects of social issues is another way of applying legal literacy with the understanding that despite the provision of legal aid sometimes by governments, rural illiterates rarely avail themselves of such privilege because of knowledge gap. Indeed, experience informs a gap in the types of rights poor people have been supported under CLE. There is a relative impact of legal aid to that effect. Consequently, little have the impacts of CLE manifested on the poor. Even though they do have more support of legal aid in criminal matters, but the reality is that there are other pressing rights always left unenforced, ⁴⁹ as if it is unimportant or fall within the practice of CLE.

Apart from clinics-directed initiatives, law student–clinicians can continuously conjoin with other outside organizations whose initiatives or goals are akin to those they promote, but in such a way that the practice matches their ambitions and the sole objective of their clinics. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) provide a good opportunity for cooperation with outside organizations and the United Nations has continued to lead efforts that stimulate our consciousness of those goals especially in engaging and educating young people on the SDGs which somewhat have a human rights undertone. A perfect paradigm is the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network-Youth Initiative (SDSN Youth) that supports UNESCO’s Global Action Program on Education for Sustainable Development (GAP-ESD). ⁵⁰ There is no doubt as to whether HRE could be of significance to the practice of CLE in this perspective. Rhona and Bai stressing the importance of HRE argued for its application to all levels of learning (primary, secondary and higher education). ⁵¹ Their argument suggests parallel inclusiveness of human rights knowledge at the very beginning of learning processes. That is when a good strong knowledge of human rights will have been imbued in our generation.

Similarly, inter-state and intra-state crisis have bequeathed undesirable patent effects on many countries (those directly involved in the crises and countries not involved) from national insecurity to forced migration, including other social disorders. Citizens of many countries have faced uncalled displacement that demands special care and attention based on pro bono services. Nonetheless, non-affected countries have relatively become affected, for example, through accompanied consequences of the influx of refugees. Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) published by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) shows that ‘31,100,000 people were displaced in 2016 by various causes of disasters, violence and conflict’. ⁵² This is a humanitarian concern that brings a challenge to humanity.

Universities and law schools are not exempted from this concern, but are rather a part of it. As an integral agent of humanitarian law and legal aid, law clinics are therefore challenged to rise up to the needs of immigrant refugees. Student–clinicians can deliver legal aid or pro bono services in quite a good number of ways, ranging from providing legal advice to representation in courts while offering any other kind of free legal services to suit. Since the status of a refugee in most cases may be of an asylum seeking protection, law clinics could provide legal advice not only to illiterate asylums, but also to educated immigrant refugees who know little or nothing about some rights, benefits and obligations attached to their status. It is crucial that asylum seekers are able to access and receive any rights and benefits they are entitled to when seeking protection in the giving country, especially one whose citizens are accorded similar reciprocal rights and privileges by the receiving country. Providing an enabling environment and free legal services to needy asylum seekers from the lens of humanitarian practice is equally a way of fostering human rights law practice, so there is a connection between both. There is no doubt that the area of refugee practice is starkly lagged when it comes to engagement of law student–clinicians in the practice of CLE. While this reality subsists, there are a few law firms, universities and law schools that have constructively strived to meet the needs of refugees, some of which have incorporated or designated asylum and human rights clinics concurrently. ⁵³

Environmental Practice

Humankind from time immemorial has never been free from environmental plagues. Certainly, we face more of these challenging problems nowadays in a relatively worse manner as their accompanying brunt is inflicted on human livelihoods and they threaten the safe existence of the humankind. There are really various environmental concerns of different dimensions of which, the extractive industry remains a key economic, but a distasteful fountain of ecological anxieties. Reckless oil and gas exploration, mining and the risks of abandonment of dangerously etched equipment and installations used in their exploitation lie at the heart of these discursive issues. There is a proliferation of gas flaring in most resource-rich oil and gas producing countries around the world as well as different kinds of air, land and water pollutions. In fact, combined impacts from these variant environmental hazards give rise to the most notorious head of all environmental problems of our time: the climate change. The issue of climate change, a global environmental plague is such that finds no nation at the backdoor of its impacts.

The planet is imploding, and as such, calling for urgent unanimous initiatives to make it a surviving place for all beings now and in future mainly because a handful of these concerns are anthropogenic in nature. As a result, the significance of CLE practice intervention in the area of environment will never be endlessly overemphasized. Universities and law school clinics could be one of the most engaging and important contraptions to lead actions that would wage war against environmental perils in order to foster ecological justice and to equally connect human rights crusade to that effect. The foregoing multifarious problems call for greater attention and wider participation of university and law school student–clinicians. Clinical environmental practice (CEP), therefore, surfaces as a key focus for practise, which provides many good opportunities for the protection of environment against injudicious actions and inactions of man. This can take various ways such as engaging policymakers or regulators on dialogue, ⁵⁴ an approach that promotes inclusive participation of the local people. ⁵⁵ Inclusive participation of the local people in environmental policy is extremely important in averting any envisaged crisis. Jessica Ayers in her PhD research significantly supports this ideology having argued that global climate change adaptation policy is rather a paradox because of the lack of inclusiveness accompanied by deliberative participation of the locally affected people. ⁵⁶ Universities and law clinics can use advocacy to foster environmental justice by enlightening the public on the consequences of certain actions on the environment. They could negotiate with governments and other stakeholders on policymaking process that ensures proactive measures in protecting the environment. Litigation has been an effective tool to secure the safety of environment and human lives by environmental public interest lawyers. ⁵⁷ We have a quite myriad number of lawsuits around the world concerning numerous environmental issues, all of which have been instituted against governments, and/or their agencies, companies especially those in the extractive industry sectors.

Today, exploration and production of fossil fuels is gradually facing social unacceptability though not resulted to any detectable progress. There is a need to fortify efforts against this ungodly resource exploitation in order to sustain environmental justice. Although efforts need to be stepped up for environmental justice, it is important to note that there has been significantly established groundwork in the field of CEP. This can be seen across many universities in the world. That is to say, although environmental issues are gaining greater progressive momentum in recent times, they have hitherto been tabled not just as a national issue, but also as a global issue since about the twentieth century. ⁵⁸ To this effect, a response reflective of the roles of universities in part has given rise to a specialized model of legal clinic known as environmental law clinics (ELCs) for environmental protection in the United States around the 1970s. ⁵⁹ There are indeed many universities around the world that have demonstrably proved their work and influence in CEP. Some classical examples include Tulane Law School and Oregun University Law School ELC in the United States having really proved how litigation could be a powerful mechanism towards environmental justice. ⁶⁰

In Nigeria, Ebonyi State University (EBSU) Law Clinic ⁶¹ has also worked painstakingly in CEP. While the primary goal that inspired the establishment of the EBSU Law Clinic as a general interest law clinic was due to inert and depraved justice system, including the need to decongest prisons in Nigeria, the clinic has since its inception in 2005 conducted pro bono-based environmental activities and awareness that have shaped environmental justice and policy positively. One particular investigation carried out by the clinic on the health implications of quarry operations within the Abakaliki Capital of Ebonyi State revealed a shocking academic knowledge of health and ecological implications of quarry activities in the city. The result of the investigation prompted an immediate recommendation to Ebonyi state for the repositioning of the entire quarry and blasting operations within Abakaliki, which was given an immediate action. In India, Azim Premji University leaps into this area of CLE through its encompassing, ‘Crafting Justice: an exhibition on learning to do justice’, ⁶² an immersive-student-oriented programme that among other things focuses on environmental justice. Evidence informs of a greater use of CLE tool by universities to champion environmental justice and policy than as seen in other aspects of CLE practice, thus documenting a clearly relative progress of work achieved by these universities.

Media and Advocacy

In the era of unprecedented transformation and globalization, the world has become more connected. This phenomenal trend is certainly not without the resonation of the instrument of media. Accordingly, media is another great prospect, platform and conduit to foster the practice of CLE in propagating justice and social change beyond borders. As a medium for information transmission, it could be used to explore, enlighten and address a plethora of societal problems. This may focus on direct or media-related, economic and political injustices that affect indigent and vulnerable citizens, and the entire society. University and law school clinics can express dissent views devoid of bias and value judgement concerning ruthless and corrupt governments in a democratic setting using modern mass media routes that also includes any form of advocacy aimed at bringing a change in government bad policy, for example, a policy that is not gender sensitive or generally not inclusive, even by making governments deliver more responsibly accountable and transparent result-oriented governance.

The effect is that governments could be influenced to reconsider any envisaged impacts of particular social and economic policies on the citizens as well as to fulfil their primary obligations for the citizens instead of reneging on them. Mass media could also be used by university and law school clinics to promote FOI among illiterate and poor masses. Law professors, teachers, including student–clinicians alike are good engines to drive CLE from clinics or classrooms to streets; they can lead public advocacy, and/or promote a particular issue affecting the public either by publication or broadcasting. By doing this, they engender development in the society through the instrumentality of law.

Well-defined Objectives

Nowadays, the concept of ‘sustainability’ has risen as a household name for all spheres of life and sectors. While this concept based on the definition advanced by the Brundland Report ⁶³ may have initially been coined in relation to environmental and natural resources concerns, nevertheless, its nature of importance has become sacrosanct to every aspect of anthropogenic activities and livelihoods. In fact, varying explanations of the concept have surfaced, ⁶⁴ probably because of its encompassing relevance. This is why sustainability is being considered as an inevitable concept in relation to CLE practice.

On this note, the sustainability of law clinics and their activities demands that there should be clearly defined objectives measurable in impacts. The scope and clarity of the objectives is a matter of structural design and could entirely form part of a law faculty’s normal legal education curriculum or separately crafted, as a special curriculum that outlines the activities or programmes of the law clinic developed to have long-term effects. Either way, it is pertinent to draw a distinctive line between the academic and non-academic components of the curriculum in order to ensure certainty and coherence, especially where a clinic’s management is subject to frequent change.

Along this course is the need for iterative review process of the clinic’s activities as it provides prospects that bring into line the sustainability purpose. ⁶⁵ The review process also offers an opportunity to measure the progress of a clinic and to consider new developments and various model initiatives that can be linked into a broader integrated CLE programme, ⁶⁶ towards the fulfilment of its objectives. The precision of a clinic’s objectives indeed determines the achievement level of those objectives and also the effectiveness of experience. ⁶⁷ Well-defined objectives of a clinic are, therefore, the cornerstone to the success of CLE.

Funding

One of the greatest botches to effective functioning and inclusiveness of participation in CLE today, is lack of funds. Funding inarguably remains the most critical sustainable factor that lubricates the trundle and engine of law clinics. While there are so many sources of funding for law clinics mostly involving external donors with development or non-development partners, internal university support (statutory and/or non-statutory management approval), individual donors, government support, students clinic fees and personal contribution, it is however, not surprising to see that some universities and law schools promoting CLE and any other justice-related initiatives depend cripplingly on the strength of funding from external donors such as NGOs within national or international jurisdictions who usually offer partial or full need-based grants. In other words, there is usually no statutorily provided availability of funds that supports clinical activities and programmes of these universities and law schools either under the management level of a particular law faculty or of the central university management. As may be a rare occurrence, particular university law faculty clinics could apply to the central university management to request funding of their activities with detailed budget to justify their activities. A typical example is EBSU Law Clinic. The clinic though leverages on all other funding sources mentioned earlier, has no statutory source of funding. This casts a doubt on the effectiveness of its functionality, and which further portends a sustainability concern.

Insufficient funding could negatively impact the activities of law clinics by limiting the scope of activities of those clinics. There could also be infrequency of the activities pursued by the clinics; all of which will thus hamper the clinic’s objectives. To hire practicing lawyers and any other supporting staff means that a clinic has adequate funds to that effect. For student–clinicians, they could bear non-refundable out of pocket expenses while carrying out assigned responsibility thereby increasing financial burden on them.

In order to sustain clinical operations, it is therefore important for a law faculty thinking to run a law clinic to ensure that there is a statutory source of funds at the university’s principal management level and needs be recognized in the official law establishing the university. At a faculty level, there is also the need to establish a source of fund for clinical activities. Besides the funding sources highlighted, I propose crowdfunding ⁶⁸ as another innovative far-reaching approach that does not only help university and law clinics leverage on wider funding supports for their undertakings from as many people as possible within a global domain, but it also creates popularity for their work. This is where the use of ICT becomes crucially unavoidable and important in order to drive the process.

Networking and Collaboration

The popularity and influence of law clinics is something far beyond independent-oriented existence. There is a need for interdependency among universities and law school clinics within the band of networks of other law clinics both locally and internationally in order to generate greater inclusiveness of purpose and participation. This goal could be achieved in various ways not limited to research collaboration, conference, seminar, debate and writing competitions, including exchange programmes such as externship, all of which could enable student–clinicians to explore new clinical development philosophies in unfamiliar multicultural learning and practice environments, which will subsequently lead to exchange of good practice models of CLE among those university and law school clinics.

Networking and collaboration among university and law school clinics provide an opportunity to establish long-term arrangements that produce seasoned professionals in CLE. It also provides an opportunity to leverage on various initiatives in providing funds to support their activities. In fact, Giddings had implicitly pictured the necessity of networking and collaboration between law clinics when he arguably substantiated reasons ‘why no clinic is an island’ but his idea was squarely focused on integrating clinical practices and initiatives from experimental education across the law prospectus. ⁶⁹ Nevertheless, he pointed out that such practice fosters sustainability. ⁷⁰

Retainer of Practicing Lawyers

While it is true that student–clinicians have wide open doors to lead actions towards promoting CLE, there is always a limit to their involvement in legal issues given that they are unqualified practitioners. In some jurisdictions, a law student is not legally qualified to practice law or simply appear in courts to represent a client or prosecute a matter, save to the extent of appearing for personal defence against a lawsuit. For instance, in Nigeria, a law student can never practise law in any form except and until after a successful one-year compulsory professional legal training at the Nigerian Law School for call to the Nigerian Bar as solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN). ⁷¹ In other jurisdictions, quite some similarities may be obtainable. This informs how a law clinic could be limited from exercising certain CLE activities.

This requires that universities and law school clinics should hire external lawyers who have been duly qualified to practise law without any bar on his freedom of appearance in the court of law either on retainer or contract basis. It is a means to bridge the gap created by incapacity of law student–clinicians to practise law fully while promoting a wide range of social justice in the society.