The Freedom Law Clinic (FLC) is a not-for-profit company providing pro bono research and advice on appeals for people who have been convicted of very serious criminal offences but who are maintaining their innocence. Law students from eight UK law schools collaborate using the online platform Slack, to research grounds for criminal appeals. OU students have been appointed as case workers to mentor new students from other higher education institutions. Our students have valued the rare opportunity to engage in pro bono criminal work.

More information on the FLC is available here: http://freedomlawclinic.org/

During the Summer of 2020, twenty Open University law students took part in two extra-curricular FLC projects with seven other universities.

In the first project, ten students considered the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on civil liberties.

The students attended online seminars with leading speakers, to support them in creating a research paper looking in detail at the emergency legislation.

The research paper is expected to be published later in 2020 and will include examples of where the emergency legislation has been used, as well as testimonies from those affected by the law. It will be used to develop ways to help people who need support and to offer pro-bono legal advice to those who have been negatively impacted. Post-lockdown, the research will be used to lobby for changes to the law.

In the second project, 10 of our law students explored race and policing in the UK and USA. The project was launched following recent events in the USA, namely the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and subsequent response. The OU students compared the legal framework in the UK and USA and considered the historical parallels and important differences between the legal developments in both countries.

As part of the Open University's celebration of Black History month two academics, Francine Ryan from the Open Justice Centre and Liliana Belkin from the Centre of Policing Research and Learning gave a presentation along with two of the students involved. You can see this webinar on our YouTube channel:

After reading challenging materials and literature they were invited to form their own views on the issues and submit an essay. The student behind the best essay will be awarded with a £500 prize fund when the project concludes in September 2020. The reading list the students were given is listed below for anyone that wants to explore further:

• Ida B Wells – Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases 
• James Baldwin - The Fire Next Time
• Michelle Alexander- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
• Alex S. Vitale - The End of Policing
• Stuart Hall - Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order
• The Lammy Review 2017 – An Independent Inquiry into the treatment of and outcomes for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Individuals in the Criminal Justice System

Student Lisa Gamble (pictured left) said: “It was my first experience volunteering for a law clinic. I didn’t know what to expect so everything was a new experience. It opened a door for me into civil liberties, something I am now passionate about. I learned to work as part of a wider clinic team in allocating and delivering tasks that included reading and interpreting statute, writing a daily development diary (for 100 days), listening and contributing to debates and expert seminars, speaking to a protestor and making attendance notes on several occasions. I also attended a lot of webinars from Chambers. It has refreshed my interest and reminded me why I wanted to study law.”

Lisa has since completed a second research programme with the FLC on Race and Policing and was invited to work with the clinic on a more permanent basis. Lisa is now a caseworker at the clinic and working on an international civil liberties research project.