WHAT IS CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION?
Clinical legal education refers to teaching that involves the handling of live legal files. It provides law students with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the substantive area of law related to the matter they are handling, refine their legal drafting and research skills, and develop professional skills while working with real clients. Developed as an extension to the NUS Legal Skills Programme, the Law Clinics have a strong pro bono emphasis. In this way, students in the Law Clinics get to engage in service-learning where the objective is not only to learn but to do so while also benefitting the community.
SERVICE-LEARNING AND LAW CLINICS @ NUS LAW
NUS Law’s foray into service-learning had its beginnings back in 2003, when it offered a course which entailed students producing a 6-part radio programme and accompanying research papers delving into what the law is and where the law should be where individual rights and social interests collide. Experimentation in this sphere on a more ad-hoc basis continued. In 2004, peer mediation was offered as a course where the students involved would learn how to mediate and then teach mediation to secondary school students. In 2005, this delved into the realm of corporate law where a course was offered that involved working on corporate issues with a non-profit theatre company, The Necessary Stage. The feedback from these courses encouraged NUS Law to explore offering courses on a more regular and permanent basis where students would be able to work on “live” cases.
In 2009, NUS entered into a partnership programme with the Legal Aid Bureau ("LAB"). This collaboration involved gazetting an NUS Law faculty member as an Assistant Director of LAB where the faculty member would take on live cases and handle them with the assistance of students. Through this programme, the NUS staff and students began to provide legal aid, advice, and assistance to Singaporeans and Permanent Residents who met the strict means and merit test requirements of the LAB. With the signing of an MOU between NUS and LAB in 2010, the course was launched as "The Law Clinic" in AY 2010-2011.
The Centre continuously enhances its clinical legal education programme and has since developed clinical programmes in conjunction with the State Courts of Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum, National Gallery and Singapore Tyler Print Institute, among others.
We offer a range of litigation based and corporate-advisory based clinics and, in time, hope to expand this range even further.
CLINICS
The Centre collaborates with a number of external agencies and practising lawyers to offer a variety of litigation specific law clinics to students in the form of elective courses.
Some of our past and present opportunities include The NUS-State Courts Judicial Clerkship, Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS) Clinic, Legal Aid Scheme for Capital Offences (LASCO) Clinic, Legal Aid Bureau (LAB) Clinic and Access to Justice Low Bono Clinic.
The Centre also collaborates with a number of charities, non-profit organisations, social enterprises and lawyers to offer a variety of corporate-advisory based clinics.
In April 2019, the Centre launched Arts in Clinical Legal Education (ARTICLE), a five-year partnership with the Singapore Art Museum, the National Gallery and the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, to provide opportunities for students to engage in corporate clinical legal education in the visual arts sector.