Social Justice: Making it come alive for future, ethical practitioners

Abstract

This article takes access to justice as a site of legal education within an overall umbrella of Clinical Legal Education that encompasses both live client work and simulated work in classrooms designed to prepare students in skills needed for practice. It argues that, by situating students in the access to justice realm in law school, they are better prepared for the uncertainties and realities of legal practice, even if that is not the field of practice in which they ultimately find themselves. Such an approach also exposes students to their duties as lawyers and officers of the court to uphold the rule of law, and to ensure both confidence in, and integrity of, the legal system. A by-product is that students develop a sense of professionalism and become better lawyers who are more likely to keep their integrity intact. By deploying both reflection–in-action and reflection-on-action in real-world activity or strongly authentic simulation, students are engaged and enabled to bring to their study a critical approach to analysing notions of law and justice that goes beyond the level of pure doctrinal learning to a deeper understanding of the way that the law affects people and plays out in society. This article draws heavily on my experience as a clinical legal educator with direct involvement in curriculum design, teaching and programme evaluation over the past two decades. Following some clarification of concepts and terminology, a brief overview of my teaching philosophy and reflective practice journey provides a preface to the discussion. This discussion shows, by reference to a series of examples, how classes with an access to justice focus can address the limitations of traditional legal learning – that is, learning by case law through examination of court decisions and legal problems in legal subjects (such as torts or contract) as individual silos  which can be an impediment to students thinking broadly. These practical examples of teaching approaches, tools and strategies that I have used serve to stimulate student awareness, broaden students’ skills in identifying and develop a problem-solving approach to law, by engaging them in access to justice.