Foreword
Welcome to the Summer edition of the Journal for 2005.

This edition of the Journal:

This edition of the Journal continues to illustrate our commitment to coverage of clinical learning
at its broadest. I am delighted with the sheer range of material that continues to be submitted, and
which we are able to draw upon. I’m also particularly pleased to accept two very interesting student
contributions to this edition of the Journal. The clinical movement has always found strength in
the high levels of support given to it by students, and it is right that in our reflection on our work
we should be listening to the voices of those who learn in our clinics. 

In the first of the two student pieces, Martin Wilson reflects on his experiences as the beneficiary
of the first Irwin Mitchell International Clinical Scholarship, which took him from Northumbria
University in the United Kingdom, to work for a month at the Springvale clinical programme run
by Monash University in Melbourne. In the accompanying piece, Adam Wilson reflects on his
experience in helping to organise the first of hopefully many national student conferences on clinic
and pro bono in England and Wales – and on the shared experiences of the student delegates. 
I would encourage readers to encourage their students to submit similar pieces for future editions
of the Journal, so that we can continue to learn from those we teach.

Elsewhere in this edition we have articles by Nigel Duncan, looking in particular at the issue of
clinics and the learning of ethical practice; by Phillip Iya, examining the potential of clinics for
enhancing the teaching of human rights in African law schools; and by James Marson and his co-
authors, taking a look at the particular issues arising in the long-running clinical programme at
Sheffield Hallam University, alongside the potential for clinical teaching to impact on the on-going
review of the funding of Law teaching in English universities.

In the clinical practice section of the journal, there is what I hope will be the first of a number of
joint articles from Lance Robson and his collaborators on the different forms of clinical education
in the Scandinavian countries, along with articles by Carol Boothby on the specific aspects of
running clinical work in the context of a housing repossession court, and from Romulus Gidro
and Veronica Rebreanu on the clinical context in Romania.

Continuing change:

Those involved with international legal education will be aware of the long-running review of legal
education in England and Wales by the Law Society. This wide-ranging review proposes a
replacement of the current very tightly prescribed structures for legal training with a far more
flexible outcomes-based approach. It has to be said that it is an approach that has largely been
viewed with dismay by both the legal profession, who are concerned about quality suffering, and
by the providers of legal training at the vocational stage, who see significant threats to the courses
that they provide.

Within this debate, however, it is interesting that the high degree of support given by the Review

Foreword

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to the use of clinical education has been broadly uncontentious. For clinicians therefore, the
Review potentially represents an important stage in the move from a minority provision in English
law schools, to a more significant aspect of the mainstream. The Review falls short of the ABA
requirement for exposure of all students to live client work, but if the Review does come to
fruition – and that is a big If – it will potentially serve as a driver for the development of an English
clinical movement which encompasses many more law schools in the jurisdiction.

The 2005 IJCLE conference – Melbourne, 13–15th July 2005

This Journal goes to press before the Monash conference begins – but it is clear already from the
number of people who are attending, and from the sheer range of different papers, that it promises
to be a hugely informative and enjoyable event. I hope to have the opportunity to publish many of
the papers from the conference in the next two editions of the Journal – so if you weren’t able to
attend, you will have the opportunity to read the papers. 

And for those of you who haven’t been able to come to Melbourne this year, I hope to see you at
the 2006 conference. Any suggestions for a venue?

Philip Plowden

Editor

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Journal of Clinical Legal Education August 2005