Legal Education Reform and Civic Education Programs
Background
Young Egyptian lawyers and recent law graduates attend a continuing legal education training program on legal research and problem solving, memo writing, contract drafting, oral advocacy and negotiation.
Through our Legal Education Reform and Civic Education programs, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) works to improve both legal education within formal university settings and to broaden the public’s understanding of the law’s role in the lives of individual citizens. The program’s primary objective is to improve the quality of legal and judicial education for students, professors and practitioners alike.
Currently, ABA ROLI concentrates its legal education reform efforts in the following areas:
Practice-based teaching methodologies
Over the last two decades, ABA ROLI has been among the world’s leading promoters of practice-based legal education and has experienced considerable success in this endeavor. ABA ROLI supports clinical legal education by establishing legal clinics within higher education institutions around the globe. We also encourage the adoption of other practice-based teaching methodologies, including mock trials, client counseling competitions and other skill-building activities.
Public education
ABA ROLI seeks to create a more robust rule of law culture by educating citizens about their rights under domestic and international laws. Our public education program is premised on the notion that, to avail themselves of legal services, citizens must know their rights and how to enforce them. Through our public outreach campaigns, we seek to increase citizen awareness on a variety of legal issues. Primarily, we focus our efforts on sponsoring civic education programs, developing public service announcements and distributing know-your-right brochures to the general public.
Law school curriculum reform
In many parts of the world, the next generation of judges, prosecutors and lawyers are being shaped by a legal education system that is in dire need of reform. ABA ROLI subscribes to the belief that changing the mindset of future legal professionals is one of the surest ways to usher in legal reforms. Our work with universities includes recommending curriculum improvements, developing courses and assisting with the integration of practical skills training into legal education.
Institutional support for legal education bodies
ABA ROLI is committed to providing institutional capacity-building assistance to promote long-term stability. Our efforts to improve the quality of legal education and to engage law students and professors include developing teaching materials, introducing interactive teaching methodologies and devising accreditation standards for higher education institutions. In addition to partnering with universities, ABA ROLI publishes and releases in-depth educational assessments, which employ rigorous analysis to comprehensively evaluate legal education in a given country.
Program Highlights
Practice-based teaching methods
Ukraine
ABA ROLI supports internships for law students in Ukraine. Students selected to complete the innovative program receive hands-on experience in first instance and appellate court proceedings, human rights work and advocacy projects.
Cambodia
As part of our partnership with local law faculties, ABA ROLI helped organize Cambodia’s first-ever mock trial competition. Since then, ABA ROLI has sponsored several other mock trial tournaments and client counseling competitions at Cambodian universities. The competitions provide students with opportunities to practice important advocacy skills, such as logic, persuasion, interrogation and public speaking in a simulated court environment.
Armenia
In 2007, ABA ROLI organized and hosted a study tour for Yerevan State University (YSU), the leading public law school in Armenia. During the study tour, the law school dean and deputy dean visited law schools in New York City and Washington, D.C. In 2008, as a result of this project, YSU established a career center, created a student handbook and developed preliminary plans to establish a centralized registrar’s office.
Civic education
Azerbaijan
Over the past four years, ABA ROLI has developed a street-law type program in Azerbaijan that has enabled more than 200 law students from eight universities to teach more than 2,400 school children in six cities. Using games, group activities, role playing and other interactive methods, the law students help 8–15-year-olds understand their basic legal rights and offer ways to confront corruption. Based largely on its success, the program has now expanded to include an online program for rural children.
Armenia
In Armenia, ABA ROLI developed four “Alphabet of Law” public service announcements (PSAs), which present basic elections and election law concepts to children via television cartoons. The PSAs were widely shown on television stations throughout Armenia and were used by ABA ROLI’s civic partners in their lessons. ABA ROLI also distributed an updated activity manual for teachers and trainers.
Moldova
ABA ROLI has successfully developed and published several know-your rights brochures in Moldova. The brochures are designed to inform citizens about their legal rights and about the laws’ effect on their lives. The publications have proved a great resource on topics such as rights of detained persons, domestic violence and child protection.
Law school curriculum reform
Qatar
ABA ROLI conducted a comprehensive assessment of Qatar University College of Law’s LL.B. program. The assessment team examined the university facilities, evaluated library resources and attended classes in Arabic and English. Then, the team prepared a report and offered concrete recommendations for improving the school’s curriculum. Following the assessment, ABA ROLI continued to advise the College of Law on implementation of the recommendations.
Kosovo
In partnership with the faculty at Kosovo’s University of Pristina Law School, ABA ROLI worked to develop and introduce three courses on legal methodology, legal ethics and professional responsibility, and legal research and writing. The courses are designed to provide students with foundational legal skills, such as critical thinking, legal analysis, practical representation and advocacy.
Oman
In Muscat, Oman, ABA ROLI provided technical assistance to the Sultan Qaboos University College of Law with the integration of practical skills training into the curriculum. ABA ROLI also conducted a series of roundtable discussions and skills-building seminars with the College of Law.
Institutional support
Mexico
In response to the proliferation of private law schools, ABA ROLI has stepped up its efforts to assist governments and bar officials in establishing accreditation standards for law programs. In Mexico, ABA ROLI conducted a two-year program that focused on accreditation of law schools in the states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon, as well as the Federal District.
Turkmenistan
In addition to collaborating with legal institutions, ABA ROLI works to identify and develop partnerships with national professional student organizations. Despite the severe restrictions of ABA ROLI’s activities in Turkmenistan, ABA ROLI staff has helped create a law student association at Turkmen State University. The law student association has organized debates and roundtables on a variety of legal issues.
Liberia
In Liberia, ABA ROLI has helped rebuild the nation’s only law school and, among other things, sponsors a scholarship program that provides students with intensive practical skills training and allows them to engage in public interest law work with local partners or in ABA ROLI’s legal aid clinic.
Assessment Tools
The Legal Education Reform Index (LERI) is an ABA ROLI-developed tool for examining a nation’s legal education system and monitoring progress towards establishing a legal education system that meets international standards. LERI employs a rigorous analysis of all relevant laws that regulate higher education institutions and legal education programs in a country (de jure analysis). It is also an effective tool in galvanizing partner support and in determining program prioritization and design for all donor organizations working in legal education reform. ABA ROLI conducted its first LERI assessment in Armenia in 2007. The assessment has since been implemented in Kosovo and Ethiopia.
Contact Information
- Michael Maya
Coordinator
- Andrew McPherson
Deputy Coordinator
Publications
Research Tools and Publications
ABA ROLI’s Research and Assessments Office conducts in-depth assessments of draft legislation at the request of host countries. It conducts legal research, produces resource guides on rule of law issues, and develops and implements a range of acclaimed assessment tools on the status of rule of law issues in our host countries. Our Legal Education Reform and Civic Education publications and assessments include:
