IJPLE 3 (1) 2019
Editorial
Spring has sprung- PLE is blooming!
Sarah Morse
Northumbria University, UK
sarah.morse@northumbria.ac.uk 

This Spring issue of the journal, is first and foremost a celebration of innovative and diverse programmes designed to extend the reach of public legal education (PLE) and via different means.  We begin with a paper by Dr Freda Grealy, Steve Collender, John Lunney and Rory O’Boyle who examine how Massive Open Online Courses can be designed to align with PLE objectives and increase access to legal education to a wider audience.  In their paper, Briony Johnston and Shaun McCarthy, also examine the potential value of online resources with reference to their own project, ‘Know the Law’, which provides international students with online access to legal information.

Expanding the reach of our work is also a key message in the paper by Sarah Saunders who illustrates how Street Law projects can be successfully extended into different arenas- in this case in the Employment Tribunal- with the support of, and in collaboration with, the judiciary.  Collaboration is also at the heart of Rachael Kirkup’s paper as she explores the benefits and challenges of partnering with others to deliver PLE projects.
The benefits and challenges of PLE in other jurisdictions also feature in our final two papers with Kyoko Isoyama exploring the current position and challenges of Law Related Education in Japan and Hana Draslarova contributing important evidence of the benefit to students on a Street Law programme in Prague.   

For PLE to continue to bloom and thrive, it is important that we continue to share our experiences, ideas and best practice. With that in mind, the annual UK and Ireland Street Law Best Practice Conference will take place at Queen Mary University of London on 9th and 10th September 2019.  Please let us know of any other upcoming events in the field of PLE.   
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