A Concise Comparison of Legal Clinics in Malta, Scotland, and Wales

Over the last one hundred years, law schools have evolved curricula that have produced graduates ready to practice law and, thus, affected how the law has been practiced. Many different teaching methods have been incorporated into the curricula of law schools during this period. Some methods have been less popular with teachers and students, for example, the case method introduced by Christopher Columbus Langdell at Harvard Law School in 1870 ¹Jennison, Beverly P. (2013). “Beyond Langdell: Innovation in Legal Education.” Catholic University Law Review 62.3: 643–674, while others have proven effective and gained popularity among law professors, including simulations, externships, and clinics. Each of these experiential methods provides “a learning experience in which a student is ‘in role’ as a lawyer, making professional judgments in an environment designed to maximize learning.” ²Tokarz K., Sedillo Lopez A., Maisel P., & Seibel R. F. (2014). Legal Education at a Crossroads: Innovation, Integration, and Pluralism Required! Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, 43

In 1893, the University of Pennsylvania was the first to acknowledge the clinical method formally ³Bartoli, C. (2016). Legal clinics in Europe: for a commitment of higher education in social justice. Dititto & questioni pubbliche, Special issue. Although its popularity abated somewhat in the first half of the twentieth century, the clinical method saw a rise in popularity during the 1960s due to an increased focus on social justice. Thanks to financial support from the Ford Foundation, the first organizations promoting clinical legal education in the United States were established ⁴Bartoli, C. (2016). Legal clinics in Europe: for a commitment of higher education in social justice. Dititto & questioni pubbliche, Special issue.

In Europe, innovations in traditional law schools can be dated to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1996, Palacký University Olomouc, in the Czech Republic, was one of the first in Europe to establish a legal clinic ⁵Bartoli, C. (2016). Legal clinics in Europe: for a commitment of higher education in social justice. Dititto & questioni pubbliche, Special issue. In 1999, the newly adopted Bologna Process began to play «an important role in creating space for innovations such as legal clinics» ⁶Wilson, R. J. (2018), Legal Aid and Clinical Legal Education in Europe and the USA: Are They Compatible? In O. H. Rønning, O. Hammerslev (Eds.) Outsourcing Legal Aid in the Nordic Welfare States, Palgrave Macmillan.

Acknowledging the global trend and the increasing number of legal clinics across Europe, the legal clinic practitioners established the European Network for Clinical Legal Education (ENCLE) in October 2013. Its main aim is to «promote and develop clinical legal education (CLE) in Europe through facilitation of international cooperation» (ENCLE 2013). Currently, ENCLE has more than 150 members in over 30 countries. Three years ago, Ulrich Stege, the network’s executive secretary, said it had over 130 members ⁷Bartoli, C. (2016). Legal clinics in Europe: for a commitment of higher education in social justice. Dititto & questioni pubbliche, Special issue. These numbers bear witness to the speed with which the network has grown and, thus, to the spread of clinical legal education in Europe.

A study by Clelia Bartoli ⁸Bartoli, C. (2016). Legal clinics in Europe: for a commitment of higher education in social justice. Dititto & questioni pubbliche, Special issue showed that most European legal clinics while training young lawyers via the method of learning by doing, were also strong advocates for social justice. The clinics she surveyed did work in human rights, immigration and asylum law, labor law, anti-discrimination law, consumer protection, civil law, family law, and even environmental protection.

Her study showed that, while they were quite different in other ways, the European legal clinics she examined made positive contributions to society by providing legal assistance to people who would not have had access to it otherwise. Roughly similar conclusions about the three university legal clinics, which are concisely analyzed below, were reached by the author of this article upon the completion of her study visits.

The University of Strathclyde Mediation Clinic, the Law Clinic at the University of Malta, and the Cardiff Law School Pro Bono Scheme operate as parts of the law schools at their respective universities. The Malta Law Clinic ⁹Zammit, D. E., Kislova, A. (2019). Clinical Legal Education in Malta: Learning from experience and identifying the challenges. International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, Vol. 26, No. 3 and the Cardiff Law School Pro Bono Scheme ¹⁰Tucker, J. (2018). Third-Sector-Funded Clinical Legal Education in the United Kingdom: A Reflection and Proposal for Future Partnership. In L. Thomas, S. Vaughan, T. Lynch, B. Malkani (Eds.) Reimagining Clinical Legal Education, Hart Publishing, UK, however, have official external partners who are empowered to refer clients to the clinics but also oversee the legal services they provide. In contrast, the University of Strathclyde Mediation Clinic has no formal external partners; therefore, no external organizations oversee the legal services it provides. This lack of formal external affiliations does not prevent the clinic from cooperating with a broad range of organizations and institutions, including the Glasgow, Paisley and Falkirk Sheriff Courts, the Scottish Mediation, and Edinburgh Sheriff Court Mediation Service ¹¹University of Strathclyde Mediation Clinic (2018). Mediation Clinic Annual Report 2018.

All three clinics were founded in the present century. Although it started operating in 2011, the University of Strathclyde Mediation Clinic was formally launched in 2014 ¹²University of Strathclyde Mediation Clinic (2018). Mediation Clinic Annual Report 2018. Similarly, the Law Clinic at the University of Malta was officially opened in 2017, although it had been in operation since 2007 ¹³Zammit, D. E., Kislova, A. (2019). Clinical Legal Education in Malta: Learning from experience and identifying the challenges. International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, Vol. 26, No. 3. The Cardiff Law School Pro Bono Scheme was opened in 2006, according to Cardiff University’s website. The fact that the clinics were launched within the same decade might be explained by the adoption of the Bologna Declaration in 1999, thanks to which, as Bartoli says, «clinical legal education began to take hold in Western Europe» ¹⁴Bartoli, C. (2016). Legal clinics in Europe: for a commitment of higher education in social justice. Dititto & questioni pubbliche, Special issue.

The number of students involved in the clinics’ activities varies considerably. Since the University of Strathclyde Mediation Clinic takes students solely from the university’s LLM/MSc in Mediation and Conflict Resolution programme, only twenty-two students participated in its work during the 2018 academic year ¹⁵Kislova, A. (2018). Transformative and experiential learning in legal education. Master thesis, University of Glasgow. Many more students were involved in the clinical work at the other two clinics. According to Tucker, around 180 students participate in the clinical activities in Cardiff annually ¹⁶Tucker, J. (2018). Third-Sector-Funded Clinical Legal Education in the United Kingdom: A Reflection and Proposal for Future Partnership. In L. Thomas, S. Vaughan, T. Lynch, B. Malkani (Eds.) Reimagining Clinical Legal Education, Hart Publishing, UK, while around 100 students are engaging currently in the activities of the Law Clinic at the University of Malta according to its director, David Zammit (2019).

The number of students involved in clinical work reflects the range of unique opportunities created for the students and with their active participation, since the aim of the clinics is to provide hands-on legal experience, encouraging students to learn by doing.

In view of this, it might be worth considering an issue that has been debated by law professors: the awarding of academic credit for work in legal clinics. Of the three studied clinics, only the Law Clinic at the University of Malta offers clinical work as a mandatory academic course validated through academic credits given to students for their clinical engagement ¹⁷Zammit, D. E., Kislova, A. (2019). Clinical Legal Education in Malta: Learning from experience and identifying the challenges. International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, Vol. 26, No. 3. At Cardiff ¹⁸Tucker, J. (2018). Third-Sector-Funded Clinical Legal Education in the United Kingdom: A Reflection and Proposal for Future Partnership. In L. Thomas, S. Vaughan, T. Lynch, B. Malkani (Eds.) Reimagining Clinical Legal Education, Hart Publishing, UK and Strathclyde, students’ participation in the clinical work is a voluntary extracurricular activity and it is not credit-bearing. When we consider the benefits that accrue from incorporating clinical work into the formal curriculum, we should heed the argument made by Bartoli ¹⁹Bartoli, C. (2016). Legal clinics in Europe: for a commitment of higher education in social justice. Dititto & questioni pubbliche, Special issue. She claims that students need to be highly motivated to work in legal clinics. Credits have little impact on this commitment because clinical work usually takes more time than is formally allocated.

The types of cases students handle are determined by a range of factors, including geography, local social and economic issues, national legal systems, the legal status of the clinics themselves, and their affiliations with other institutions and organizations.

In 2018, most of the cases taken up by the University of Strathclyde Mediation Clinic had to do with disputes over goods and services, construction work, and unpaid bills ²⁰University of Strathclyde Mediation Clinic (2018). Mediation Clinic Annual Report 2018. During the same academic year, at least forty percent of the cases handled by the Law Clinic at the University of Malta, according to its director, had to do with immigration and asylum. As of this writing, there was no exact information about what cases the Pro Bono legal service at Cardiff University handled in 2018. However, since the Cardiff Law School Innocence Project was considered the largest of its eleven pro bono projects ²¹Tucker, J. (2018). Third-Sector-Funded Clinical Legal Education in the United Kingdom: A Reflection and Proposal for Future Partnership. In L. Thomas, S. Vaughan, T. Lynch, B. Malkani (Eds.) Reimagining Clinical Legal Education, Hart Publishing, UK, we can assume the Pro Bono legal service at Cardiff University dealt with a large number of criminal cases.

Finally, the law schools that run these three legal clinics also provide their students with in-class experiential learning. Although the ways they provide this learning are different, the empirical data shows that all types of applied in-class experiential learning are effective, as they enable students to move slowly from «spectator to participant in legal education.» ²²Turner, J., Bone, A., & Ashton, J. (2018). Reasons why law students should have access to learning law through a skills-based approach. The Law Teacher, 52(1) doi: 10.1080/03069400.2016.1201739

This concise comparative analysis has not touched on everything that could be taken into account when describing the clinics, including the impact they have on students. This will be a matter for future articles on the subject.

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