Foreword
This is the third edition of the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education and once again
the journal has contributions from a wide geographic area. It is interesting and inspiring to hear of
recent developments but I am always intrigued by the different historical bases for the development
of clinical legal education across the world. In Croatia, Steven Austermiller’s clinical work has
emerged against a background of a struggling legal system with inexperienced personnel, whilst in
Australia Jeff Giddings’ article describes the development of clinical work as a provider of legal
services to the poor. Here in the UK the emphasis has been on the educational benefits the clinical
approach brings to legal education.

Despite these differences the problems, conflicts and questions arising from the day to day
maintenance of such programmes are surprisingly similar. Philip Iya’s article considers the
seemingly universal conflict between the profession and the academy and the restrictions it places
on legal education, whilst Susan Campbell, Alan Ray and Jeff Giddings touch on the problems of
staffing, funding and developing new programmes all of which sound very familiar to me.

This third edition is published shortly before our first International Conference on Clinical Legal
Education to be held in London. I look forward to meeting some of our contributors and others
interested in the field and hope that the conference can be established on a regular basis. Some of
the papers from the conference will be published in future editions of the journal. It seems to me
that ongoing international debate on clinical legal education has a lot to sustain it. It is precisely
the mixture of common ground and differences that make it so interesting and diverse.

Cath Sylvester

Editor

Foreword

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Journal of Clinical Legal Education June 2003