423423 Foreword Welcome to Issue 20 of the journal – such a large issue that it is in two volumes� In Volume I are the refereed articles and in Volume II can be found the Clinical Practice papers� This is the final paper edition of the journal and my final edition as editor� After this edition, we are taking the journal online, freely accessible to all� I conclude this foreword with further information about the new online journal� Eleventh International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Conference and Twelfth Australian Clinical Legal Education Conference: Common Ground sharing across models of experiential legal education Brisbane, Australia Tuesday 16 to Thursday 18 July 2013 Our eleventh conference was very kindly hosted by Griffith University� My particular thanks to Professor Jeff Giddings and his colleague Zoe Rathus for organising such a vibrant, well organised and fun conference� A significant number of papers focused on pedagogy but there were also many papers presented on themes of social justice and streetlaw� Further details of the proceedings can be found at http:// commongroundconference�info/ Twelfth International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Conference, in association with the European Network for Clinical Legal Education (ENCLE), Palacky University, Olomouc, 15-17th July 2014 We are hosting this conference jointly with ENCLE for their second conference� The theme of the conference is Clinic Without Borders� As the clinical legal education movement continues to push pedagogical, geographical, jurisdictional and discipline boundaries this conference will provide an opportunity for us to explore these new frontiers� For those interested in attending the conference, details can be found here: www�ijcle�com In This Issue One of the factors leading me to this year’s conference theme was the thread running through the vast majority of papers in this edition as clinical legal education continues to push boundaries in many and diverse ways� This edition contains several interesting papers on the birth and growth of clinic in new jurisdictions� In “An Examination of the Challenges, Successes and Setbacks for Clinical Legal Education in Eastern Europe,” Professors Askamovic and Genty consider the history of Clinical Legal Education in Eastern Europe and ask searching questions about why it has flourished in some countries and not others� In Volume II, a series of articles by Nigerian academics consider the achievements, challenges and growth of clinic in that country� Two articles (“The Relationship Between Social Justice and Clinical Legal Education: A Case Study of the Women’s Law Clinic, Faculty of Law, Univeresity of Ibadan, Nigeria” and “Clinical Legal Education and Cultural Relativism – The Realities in the 21st Century”) consider the work of the Women’s Law Clinic at the University of Ibadan� Both contain interesting insights into the work of the clinic and the 424 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Issue 20 culture of the local community when undertaking outreach work� Further articles from Nigeria consider the prison system there: “Decongesting Prisons in Nigeria: the EBSU Law Clinic model,” and an overview of developments in Nigeria more generally: “Meeting the Required Reforms in Legal Education in Nigeria: Clinical Legal Education – Ten Years After�” Volume I of this edition also sees expansion of clinics in another direction: multidisciplinary clinics� In “The Value of Incidental Learning in a Multidisciplinary Setting,” Ross Hyams and Denise Sadique investigate multidisciplinary work between social work, law and business students and the informal learning opportunities arising in that environment� There are clearly wonderful opportunities for both students and their supervisors to learn from other disciplines and approaches� One of the key insights is the influence that this exposure can have on law students’ developing sense of professional identity as lawyers� It seems to me that multidisciplinary clinics represent a further maturing of clinical legal education as we explore the opportunities that this offers to truly understand for ourselves and our students the role of the lawyer in society� Also in Volume I, “Clinical Collaborations: Going Global to Advance Social Entrepreneurship,” Deborah Burand et al discuss a partnership which pushes yet more boundaries� The paper explores their cross-university collaboration with Ashoka (a global non profit organisation) to deliver transactional clinical legal services globally to advance social entrepreneurship� Again it is clear that this is a further sophistication of clinical work; building on existing international transactional work to partner with other universities and a global non profit partner to better serve client needs, learn from each other and inspire students and academics to study and contribute to social entrepreneurship� I hope I have convinced the reader that many of the papers in this edition are a part of this broader theme of crossing borders� I will not attempt to stretch this for the remaining papers in this edition, which provide different insights� In Volume II, “Assessing Law clinic – the use of digital patch text assessment as an alternative to traditional portfolios,” evaluates the use of digital media in the use of Patch Text Assessment and its application within a law clinic module� Patch Text Assessment appears to offer several key advantages over traditional portfolio assessment� Michael Appleby and Judy Bourke present important work regarding the well being of future lawyers� In Volume I of this edition they look at: “Promoting Law Student Mental Health Literacy and Wellbeing: A Case Study from The College of Law, Australia�” This study gives a valuable insight into work at the College to address important concerns about the mental wellbeing and mental health literacy of law students and, therefore also subsequently, lawyers� Of all their recommendations, it seems to me that as legal educators we should take most seriously the call to consider making mental health literacy training and wellbeing training part of the core curriculum� In a not wholly unrelated article, in Volume II, the authors consider: “A Client-Focused Practice: Developing and Testing Emotional Competency in Clinical Legal Interviews�” The authors describe initial research into training in emotional competencies for client interviews and whether or not students who have undertaken that training perform better in the initial legal interviewing process� This paper provides an interesting prelude to the publication of fuller results from the research� Finally, in Volume I, my colleague here at Northumbria, Elaine Campbell, considers: “Regulating clinic: Do UK Clinics Need to Become Alternative Business Structures Under the Legal Services 424 425 Act 2007?” This provides an important commentary for UK (particularly in England and Wales) clinicians, and policy makers, on the potential unintended consequences of the significant changes to the structure of law businesses� Elaine considers developments towards Alternative Business Structures in Australia and the new legislation in England and Wales� The potential outcome of the new regulatory regime could be that the ability of law clinics to offer a full legal service to clients could be severely curtailed� Clearly this is of importance to those of us in this country� I think the article is important for our international colleagues because it is an indication of possible future direction in other jurisdictions as the boundaries between law firms and other businesses continue to blur in an increasingly competitive, global and multidisciplinary environment� The future of this journal As indicated in the opening paragraphs, we are taking the journal online and Dr Elaine Hall becomes the managing editor� Moving the journal online will lead to an increased profile and readership for the journal, lending more impact both for individual papers and for the CLE work more broadly� It will also allow us to have a more streamlined and transparent review process and easy access to our archive� Finally the move online gives us the opportunity to change the format of the journal, certainly by using multi-media content and to move to publishing more frequently with themed issues� In the new format, each volume will consist of three issues, delineated by strand� • Clinic, the University and Society: this strand addresses the role of clinic as an instrument for civic engagement, access to justice and societal change� Reviewed Articles in this strand will engage with the theory of clinic, relating to purpose, ideals and conceptualising the value that clinic offers to students, staff, the institution and wider society� These papers will explore the complex relationships between clinical education and social justice agendas, between university vision statements, student expectations and the demands of the legal profession� Practice reports in this strand will deal with procedures and governance for clinic development, partnership working within universities and beyond, including statutory and voluntary sectors and practical aspects of managing clinical work including attendant issues such as data management� Papers co-authored with partners and stakeholders are particularly welcomed� • Teaching and Learning in Clinic: this strand investigates the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment used to prepare students for and support students during their clinical experience� Reviewed Articles in this strand will contribute to the wider pedagogic literature, contextualising on-going debates in education within the particular disciplinary and local contexts� They may contain detailed empirical explorations of the impact of particular learning environments, opportunities or processes� From a policy perspective, some papers may explore the tensions between legal education and preparation for practice as a lawyer� Practice reports in this strand will report innovative work, giving clear guidance for other practitioners who may wish to replicate their approach� Reports in this strand will typically include learner perspectives and we encourage co-authored papers with students� 426 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Issue 20 • Research and Impact: this strand will focus on the evidence base for clinical education and will explore the weight of evidence and the knowledge claims� The issues will develop our sense of how secure our conception of the impact of clinic is by giving the rigorous presentation of a range of empirical data a strong critical and epistemological frame� Papers in this strand may therefore have a topic focus from another strand but the balance of the paper will be weighted towards an exploration of the research methods used (in a report of a particular empirical study) or of the balance of approaches to research in CLE (in a review of existing studies)� Reviewed Articles in this strand will engage critically with the tools and methodologies used to investigate clinic and provide evidence about the unique opportunities and limitations afforded by these choices of research design� Practice reports in this strand will focus on single methods within on-going investigations of CLE, for example a review of the validity of a questionnaire used to tap into student experiences Each issue of the journal will contain • An editorial by the Strand or Managing Editor • Three or four Reviewed Articles of up to 8,000 words each� These articles will be blind peer- reviewed by an Editorial Board Member and an external reviewer� Feedback from these reviews will be given to the author by the strand editor� Authors wishing to submit papers as Reviewed Articles will need to remove all identifying details from the paper before submission� • Two or three Practice Reports of up to 6,000 words each� These reports will be internally reviewed by the Editorial Board� Authors submitting papers as Practice Reports do not have to anonymise their work, though they can do so� • A ‘From the Field’ report of 2,000 words giving news of practice and innovation from a particular geographical or jurisdictional context� • Reviews of book, articles, events and multimedia resources of between 200-800 words� Authors preparing papers for the journal during the transition period are invited to contact Elaine Hall (elaine�hall@northumbria�ac�uk) if they would like to discuss where to place their contribution� Although I am no longer editor of the journal I will continue to contribute to it and to the organisation of our annual conference, as well as continuing to work in Northumbria’s Student Law Office� I look forward to continuing to meet with all of our colleagues and share experience and best practice as clinical legal education continues to grow across the globe� Jonny Hall Editor