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Editorial  
 
Dr Lyndsey Bengtsson 

Lyndsey2.bengtsson@northumbria.ac.uk 

Our recent, and fantastically successful, conference at Stellenbosch University (thank 

you to our GAJE and SAULCA partners and to all participants!) focused on justice 

education, building resilience and strong connections. It is fitting that this first edition 

of 2023 has three articles which focus on Africa and continues our conference theme. 

Authors share innovative approaches and research on educational methods which 

promote social justice and show the value of strong connections.  

We begin with Omoyemen Lucia Odigie-Emmanuel and Shiksha Dahiya’s article on 

‘The role of legal clinics in promoting Human Rights.’ The authors provide insightful 

reflections using case studies from the Nigeria Law School Yenagoa Law Clinic, the 

Legal Support and Care Centre at GD Goenka University School of Law Gurgaon, 

India and Legal Aid Society at The Northcap University, Gurugram Haryana, India. 

The article explores how each clinic promotes human rights through their work in 

schools, prisons and communities.  

Also using Nigeria as a case study, Emeke Chegwe’s article ‘Evaluating the role of a non-

doctrinal legal research method on legal education and practice in common law Africa’ 

presents the results of a study which examines the link between non-doctrinal legal 

research method and the quality of legal education. The article explores this 

mailto:Lyndsey2.bengtsson@northumbria.ac.uk


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relationship, concluding that there is a positive relationship the two and offers 

recommendations as a way of encouraging this type of research in Nigeria.  

In Ngozi Maduafor’s Practice Report ‘Peace and conflict transformation through the 

Clinical Legal Education programme’, the author provides an interesting summary of the 

history of Clinical Legal Education in South Africa, Nigeria and Uganda.  She then 

goes onto explore ways in which clinical legal education is helping to curtail 

communal violence.  

In our From the Field section Anahita Surya and Nupur’s paper ‘Harnessing- NGO 

internships for student learning: project report submission to the GAJE symposium 2021’ 

explores the experiences of the Centre for Social Justice in India, an internship 

program. The authors provide us with a really helpful overview of the programme 

and insights into how to strengthen this model of clinical legal education.  

Finally, we have Zara Saeidzadeh, Bojana Cuckovic and Dragica Vujadinovic’s paper 

‘Clinical legal education for gender justice in Europe’ which explores the challenges faced 

by Sweden and Serbia in achieving gender justice. The paper introduces us to the 

authors’ research project LAWGEM (which is New Quality in Education for Gender 

Equality – Strategic Partnership for the development of Master’s Study Program on 

Law and Gender) and explains the development of a Gender Equality Legal Clinic.  

Finally, I’m delighted to say that this July (20th-21st) we will be doing something 

different in place of our traditional conference format. Our IJCLE event this year will 



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be focused on research in progress, hosted in the Law Society of Ireland’s 

headquarters at Blackhall Place, Dublin. Over two days you will be invited to share 

their research, their methods and approach to analysis. The workshop will provide a 

forum for all participants to give and receive supportive feedback. Places on this 

workshop are limited with successful applicants receiving confirmation before the 

deadline of 31st March 2023. For full details please see:  

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/events/2023/07/ijcle-dublin-

2023  

 

 

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/events/2023/07/ijcle-dublin-2023
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/events/2023/07/ijcle-dublin-2023