220545D_JCLE_July 2007 comp


Foreword
Report back from the July 2007 IJCLE conference in Johannesburg:
Report-backs from conferences can be exasperating to read. If  you were there, you can sometimes
wonder if  you were attending the same conference as the author – and if  you weren’t there, you
often regret the omission. Certainly the latter is likely to be true in this case, as there seemed to be
agreement among all the delegates that this summer’s IJCLE conference in South Africa was hugely
successful – and equally valuable.

It was a superbly organised conference – and I can say that because so much of  the credit for that
organisation lay with our partners in the South African clinical movement, and with the support
of  AULAI, in making all the conference arrangements in the splendid facilities at Witwatersrand.
Running a conference long-distance is always a daunting task – and the 2005 IJCLE conference at
Monash set very high standards; but the work put in by all the team in South Africa ensured that
the Johannesburg conference was a very special experience. I have to pass on my particular thanks
to Shaheeda Mahomed and Danny Wimpy Alex for their enormous hard work and support.

What was it – apart from the organisation – that made the conference so successful? First, it was a
conference where there was a good balance between representation of  the host country, and input
from a huge range of  clinical jurisdictions. We not only had a series of  papers that illustrated the
particular challenges and developments within the South African context – but also a considerable
variety of  papers from the United States, the UK, China, India, Australia, Uzbekistan and a host
of  other jurisdictions. There was a huge benefit in being able to move from narrowly focussed
papers about particular aspects of  clinical teaching, to more wide-ranging questions about shared
clinical values and approaches. As ever the conference was characterised by the enormous
generosity of  the delegates in sharing experiences and providing support for one another’s
programmes. 

I am not surprised at the enormously positive feedback I have received in the months following the
conference – and it sets a challengingly high standard for future conferences.

Speaking of  which …

The 2008 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education conference

This will take place on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th July 2008 in at University College, Cork in
the Republic of  Ireland.

Initial details are up on the Journal website – www.ijcle.com – and the conference organiser,
Maureen Cooke, can be contacted at: maureen.cooke@northumbria.ac.uk 

The theme of  the conference is “Lighting the Fire”, drawing on the quotation from W B Yeats that
“Education is not the filling of  a pail, but the lighting of  a fire.” Papers are welcome on all aspects of
clinical legal education – and a call for papers has gone out.

Foreword

5



In this edition

This edition of  the Journal brings together four articles, which address different aspects of  clinical
practice. 

In the first of  the articles, Kevin Kerrigan, a Reader at Northumbria University in the UK, and
founder of  the Criminal Appeal clinic within Northumbria’s Student Law Office programme,
looks at the issue of  the teaching of  ethics within clinical programmes. Anyone who follows
clinical scholarship will be aware of  the continuing focus on the role of  clinic in inculcating ethical
awareness and values in clinical students. Kerrigan’s article makes reference to much of  that
scholarship, but has at its heart a fascinating survey of  UK clinicians, asking them to comment on
different aspects of  the mode and the function of  ethical teaching in clinics. Kerrigan places this
within the context of  fast-changing structures for the vocational stage of  English legal education,
while identifying different typologies for ethics dialogues that may be being utilised by clinicians. 

Margaret Barry’s article looks at the way in which clinical practices are developing within the
Indian law schools. India represents such a distinctive legal jurisdiction that it is unsurprising that
clinical learning has developed in a similarly distinctive fashion. In her article, however, Barry
identifies the way in which, although clinic has had high level endorsements, and clearly has an
huge potential for helping to meet unmet needs for justice, there has been at best “modest”
progress. Valuably Barry draws on the recent assessments of  the need for educational reform
within the U.S. contained in both the Carnegie Foundation report and in the Best Practices project
published by CLEA, and edited by Roy Stuckey. The paper is thus able not only to assess the
Indian experience in its own terms, but to bring to bear a wider evaluation of  the current
achievements and the future challenges.

In a very different context, Anna Cody and Sue Green look at two different aspects of  clinical legal
education in relation to education for Indigenous students in Australia. Although the particular
context is clearly unique to Australia, readers will no doubt recognise many of  the issues that arose
for the authors. Students who found themselves initially isolated, disorientated, and in danger of
dropping out, who then find through clinical learning the really valuable education which they
were looking for. It is interesting to see clinic used as part of  a deliberate policy of  “enrichment”
of  the curriculum in even the earliest stages of  the courses, in order to help support student
learning by engaging students with the curriculum. The paper continues by looking at the way in
which non-Indigenous students in the later stages of  the curriculum can be given an understanding
of  the reality of  the Indigenous experience, and the implications for their own future work as
practitioners.

Finally, I am delighted to include in the Clinical Practice section an article from Ada Ordor which
looks at the whole experience of  the Nigerian law school, and the particular implications for the
development of  clinical programmes which fit with the needs of  the Nigerian teaching system. The
article outlines the range of  different teaching activities that are brought to bear within the Nigerian
law school, but also at the way in which clinical activities could be used to add greater value – and
the ways in which this can be achieved.

Philip Plowden
Editor

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Journal of Clinical Legal Education July 2007