Details
- Documents the rise of experientially based (clinical) programs at law schools around the world
- Argues that traditional classroom-based instruction, which removes the study of law from the world in which lawyers practice, has failed to meet the needs of modern society
- Makes the case for a global movement to provide a more "socially relevant" form of legal education
Clinical legal education is playing an increasingly important role in educating lawyers worldwide. InThe Global Clinical Movement: Educating Lawyers for Social Justice, editor Frank S. Bloch and contributors describe the central concepts, goals, and methods of clinical legal education from a global perspective, with a particular emphasis on its social justice mission.
With chapters written by leading clinical legal educators from every region of the world, The Global Clinical Movement demonstrates how the emerging global clinical movement can advance social justice through legal education. Professor Bloch and the contributors also examine the influence of clinical legal education on the legal academy and the legal profession and chart the global clinical movement's future role in educating lawyers for social justice.
The Global Clinical Movement consists of three parts. Part I describes clinical legal education programs from every region of the world and discusses those qualities that are unique to a particular country or region. Part II discusses the various ways that clinical programs and the clinical methodology advance the cause of social justice around the world. Part III analyzes the current state of the global clinical movement and sets out an agenda for the movement to advance social justice through socially relevant legal education.
Readership: Lawyers, law students, legal educators, and those in the social justice community
Frank S. Bloch is Professor of Law and Director of the Social Justice Program at Vanderbilt University Law School. He holds a B.A. (1966) and a Ph.D. (Politics 1978) from Brandeis University and a J.D. (1969) from Columbia University Law School. He was a legal aid attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance and an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School's Mandel Legal Aid Clinic before joining the Vanderbilt Law School faculty as Director of Clinical Education. Professor Bloch is an internationally prominent expert in social security, disability, and other benefits programs, as well as legal aid and clinical legal education. He is the author or editor of six books and has published over 30 articles and book chapters. He is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and serves on the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for Justice Education. He has been a Fulbright Professor at Delhi University, a research fellow at the International Social Security<
Association, and a consultant for the Administrative Conference of the United States, the Social Security Advisory Board, and the US Agency for International Development.
"A major focus of clinical legal education is teaching appropriate professional values to entry-level lawyers. The project of figuring out how to do that is occurring in most of the legal education systems around the world. This book is important reading for anyone who aspires to be part of the international effort to train and enlist lawyers in the cause of justice."
-- Elliott S. Milstein
Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
"This unique book has truly global reach. It offers not only jurisdictional analysis and comparison but also a thematic account of the phenomenal rise of justice education throughout higher education, including its relationships with social justice, public legal education, professional ethics, and legal scholarship. The authors are to be applauded for this book, for which academics, lawyers, and students will be grateful."
-- Kevin Kerrigan
Associate Dean, School of Law, Northumbria University
Editor, International Journal of Clinical Legal Education
"This collection promotes the reorientation of legal education toward educating lawyers for social justice. It describes the current state of justice education in various countries, and explains the special roles that clinical legal education can play in teaching students about social justice inequities and the responsibility of lawyers to address them. Every law teacher should read this book, especially those who care about social justice and want their students to care as well."
-- Roy Stuckey
Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Webster Professor of Clinical Legal Education Emeritus, University of South Carolina School of Law
"In this work Frank Bloch together with fifty others draws out the lofty ideal of the lawyer's pursuit of social justice and presents a global movement of individuals and institutions--all focused on ensuring that young activist lawyers who enter law school are given the mentorship, guidance and tools with which to pursue their dream. This is a collection that will at once talk to the activist lawyer from anywhere in the world and say-- you are not alone; while at the same time it will point to the brave journey that lies ahead for the global collective."
-- Asha Ramgobin
Executive Director, Human Rights Development Initiative
