Hukuk Öğretiminde Yeni Yaklaşımlar: Hukuk Klinikleri

MAKALELER

(İngilizce)

Street Law a Proven Program for Law Schools and Law Students ³⁵

Prof.Ed O’Brien³⁶

In 1968 I was a law student at Georgetown Law School in Washington D.C. The Vietnam war was raging and my government wanted to draft me and send me to Vietnam. I opposed the war and figured out a way to avoid it by going into high school teaching. This was very fortunate as I became an educator and I have been one ever since.

I returned to law school in 1971 and was in a class where a professor said “Does anyone one want to work with a community organization on a program where students law teach law in high schools.” I raised my hand and it has been up from that moment on. Four law students went out in pairs that year into inner city schools where most all the students were black. The students loved learning what the law was when one was stopped by the police, what to do if a TV salesman sold you a defective TV or what to do in the winter, when the landlord failed to provide you with heat.

In 1985 I went to South Africa at the invitation of Prof David McQueen-Mason who risked being arrested by starting a Street Law program there. Later Street Law spread to other countries around the world where we found committed law professors like Professor Richard Grimes who has been instrumental in starting Street Law at over 40 law schools in the U.K. There are now over 70law schools in the U.S. and approximately another 100 doing Street Law around the world. Over the years we expanded the teaching of law to teach the essential topics of human rights and democracy.

Part of the essence of Street Law is the use of interactive methods where the law professor and the law students don’t just lecture but engage students with methods such as questions and answers, role-plays, mock trials, discussions in small groups and simplified case studies. To illustrate this, I will now do an interactive Street Law method with you. This is called the pencil game.

Everyone should stand up in rows with the first person in each row holding a pencil. The leader should then ask students to “play the game”. They will not know what to do and will look frustrated and confused. The leader then says, “What’s Wrong.’ Students will then say “we don’t know how to play, we need rules.”The leader will then say,”Ok, Pass the pencil to the back of the line and then back to the front."The first one which completes the task wins.” The leader will then interrupt the game when they are halfway down the line with the pencil. He or she says” NO, NO, you must pass it over your right shoulder. Start over.”The students will start over trying to pass the pencil over their right shoulder. The leader will again interrupt saying “NO.no, you must pass it over your left shoulder. Start over.” The students will try to do this but again, the leader will interrupt this time saying “This row wins because you have the most women in your row.” Starting again, the leader will again interrupt pointing to the row with the students who are wearing the most glasses who will be declared the winner. The leader then asks the students “who will trust me with one dollar? “ A student will give a dollar and the leader will proclaim that student’s row the permanent winner.

The leader will then debrief the game asking the students “what did you learn from this game?” Answers will vary but probably include “games need rules” “games need fair rules” “rules should not be changed in the middle of the game”. “Discrimination because of sex or wearing glasses should be illegal.” Leaders should not be influenced by money-this is corruption.” Law students often use this game at the beginning of their classes to illustrate these legal concepts and engage students in a fun activity that will signal to them that this class is going to be interesting and fun. That it is going to be different than other classes.

My time is almost up but I want to encourage all of you to initiate a Street Law course where law students go out and teach. Most who do this say it was the best part of their law school education. Besides myself at this conference you have great resources in Professor Richard Grimes and Professor Rebecca Marshall from the UK and Professor David McQueen-Mason. Please don’t hesitate to ask any of us questions about starting a Street Law program. Thank you.

The Polish Legal Clinics Program and the role of the Polish Legal Clinics Foundation – lessons that can be learned from.

Filip Czernicki, President of the Polish Legal Clinics Foundation

President of the Global Alliance for Justice Education

Abstract

The legal clinics program, which was growing fast in Poland, has reached a phase in which forward thinking and consolidation of objectives became of great importance. For this very reason, at the turn of the year 2001 and 2002 the legal clinics and the people involved in the clinical movement decided to call into being the Polish Legal Clinics Foundation, which would take on the duty of strengthening the structure, and constructing a platform for cooperating and shaping the future of the clinical movement. The objectives assumed provide not only for ensuring financial stability of the clinical movement, but also to constitute a forum that would bring together the efforts to enhance the clinics' position in the academic and legal community, and would search for a formula to inscribe legal clinics into the Polish legal system.

At present there are 25 legal clinics established at every law school, approximately thirteen thousand people a year obtain legal assistance as a result of the work of legal clinics in Poland. Nearly 1,800 students and over 220 faculty members participate in the program every year, a majority of whom are also practicing lawyers. The recipients of these services are representatives of the weakest social groups, such as the unemployed, the homeless, pensioners, disabled people, crime victims, women in crisis, foreigners and refugees.