50 Years of Clinical Legal Education: Looking Back to the Future

Liz Hardie, Teaching Director at the Open University Law School writes about anniversaries and the Open Justice team chapter that was published last week in ‘Law in Motion: 50 Years of Legal Change’

At the start of this advent blog, here is a quick quiz to find out how much you know about Christmas.

What dates did these events happen on? England adopted the Julian calendar; Emperor Hirohito became the 124th Emperor of Japan; William the Conqueror was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey; and scientists lost contact with the British-built Mars probe Beagle 2.

The answer to all of these is …….. 25 December (in 597, 1926, 1066 and 2003 respectively).

We have a fascination with significant dates and anniversaries and, having been asked to write a couple of quizzes on ‘Christmas history’ recently, I have been mulling over why this might be. A cynical view is that it offers the opportunity to commercialise nostalgia and make money in a quick and easy way. Realists may suggest that anniversaries offer an opportunity to think about our past - Dan Snow, historian and author of ‘On This Day in History’, suggests that ‘events of that distant day in the past have more immediacy, more clarity on the anniversary’ (https://www.historyhit.com/importance-of-historical-anniversaries/). Optimists would consider that anniversaries offer the opportunity to reflect on what has happened with a view to considering how we might think or act differently going forward, having ‘learnt the lessons from the past’. Which group do you fall in – cynic, realist or optimist?

At the OU Law School we have celebrated a number of significant anniversaries in the last two years. In 2019 we marked both the fiftieth year of the Open University (which was established by Royal Charter on 23 April 1969), and the 21^st year since the launch of the OU‘s LLB law degree.

To mark this occasion we published last week a book celebrating 50 years of the OU called ‘Law in Motion: 50 Years of Legal Change’. A number of legal academics from the Law School reflected on how different legal issues have developed and changed over the last 50 years. Essays include musings on the UK’s constitution arrangements with the devolved nations, our relationship with the EU, ownership, criminal responsibility, mediation, international law, gender identity and jurisprudence amongst others. You can find the eBook here: http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/50YearsOfLaw/?p=210

gif showing book cover The Open Justice Centre contributed a chapter on clinical legal education called ’50 Years of Clinical Legal Education: Looking Back to the Future’. We reflect on the history of clinical legal education in the UK, which started 50 years ago when the University of Kent introduced the first law clinic in 1973. We explore the tension facing clinical education programmes over the last 50 years between designing programmes that offer social justice and those that are focused on the students’ educational benefit.

We then consider the emerging trends in clinical legal education in 2020. For those interested in the current position, LawWorks published last week their annual Law School Pro Bono and Clinics Report 2020 which identifies Law Schools active in clinical legal education and the issues they are currently facing. The report can be found here https://www.lawworks.org.uk/solicitors-and-volunteers/resources/lawworks-law-school-pro-bono-and-clinics-report-2020.

Our chapter then concludes by looking forward to consider what the future might hold for clinical legal education in the next 50 years. Drawing upon the history of the last 50 years, we suggest Law Schools should explore new ways to deliver clinical education programmes.

Looking again at our chapter last week, I think the Open Justice Centre are optimists in thinking about how the history of clinical legal education over the last 50 years might influence its future delivery in the next 50 years. We hope you enjoy reading our chapter which can be found here: http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/50YearsOfLaw/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hardie-McFaul-and-Ryan-50-Years-of-CLE.pdf Merry Christmas and happy reading!