Europe

Overview
The LACEC Europe sub-program is a continuation from Justice Initiative’s predecessor’s involvement in Central and Eastern Europe since 1997. Starting 2002, the Justice Initiative oriented its efforts on promoting sustainability and institutionalization of legal clinics in the region and also on opening opportunities for existing clinics to specialize in various emerging social justice and public interest matters. Starting 2006, the program also worked in promoting legal clinics at Western European universities, including assisting the University Carlos III in Madrid (Spain) to create the first interactive course for graduate law students to promote legal literacy/education among immigrant communities in Getafe area. Last but not least, the program undertakes efforts to support and develop network organizations of legal clinics, which take the lead in promoting and supporting individual clinical programs in a given country. Such organizations were supported in Poland and Ukraine.

Objectives
A. to support the creation of specialized university legal clinics focused on emerging Justice Initiative issues or other social justice or public interest matters;
B. to promote the accreditation of developed specialized courses and programs within host universities;
C. to provide capacity building and training support for involved university faculty within the thematic focus chosen;
D. to support organization of national networks of legal clinics;
E. to provide the opportunity for existing clinical programs to undertake work in promoting pro bono culture among current and future legal professionals.

Projects and Activities
1. Promoting Children and Juvenile Rights in Poland and Romania
In 2004, Justice Initiative, in cooperation with Public Interest Law Institute-Budapest launched two pilot projects – in Poland and Romania – on children/juvenile rights. Both pilots focused on establishing a section in each clinic serving children and juveniles as well as developing teaching and legal service materials for students and lawyers willing to specialize in this field. In the 2-year pilot stage of the project both clinical programs worked on developing case studies for curriculum on children/juvenile rights and also the teaching materials for the course. A resource document was developed by the Justice Initiative as a result of the projects and will be posted on the web site by the end of 2007.

2. Promoting Legal Awareness, Refugees Rights, and Pro Bono Culture in Turkey
In 2003, as a result of discussions with a private university – Istanbul Bilgi University – the first legal clinic in Turkey started its operation by enrolling 20 senior law students to teach about law and human rights to high school pupils from a poor neighborhood of Istanbul. It was the first of its kind program in the country that introduced the concept of Street Law to Turkish legal education system.

From 2004, the clinic initiated a new section that involved law students providing free of charge legal counseling and representation to applicants for refugee/asylum status in Istanbul, with partial support from the UNHCR office in Turkey.

In 2006, the Justice Initiative joined the efforts undertaken by the Legal Clinic to launch a pro bono initiative – the first one of a kind in the country. A former clinical student approached the administration with a proposal to involve the law firm where he was employed to initiate pro bono practices with a clearing house function attributed to the clinic. In December 2006, the staff from the clinic has visited Buenos Aires law firms and clearing houses involved in pro bono work in Argentina during a study trip. In March 2007, the first pro bono initiative coordinated by legal clinic was launched at Bilgi with cooperation from 2 law firms in Istanbul. The Justice Initiative has provided support for covering the coordination costs and also technical and research support on pro bono schemes and structures worldwide. A resource guide on pro bono will be posted on the Justice Initiative clinical resource page by the end of 2007.

3. Strengthening Networking and Clinical Association in Ukraine
This project was initiated in early 2004 at the proposal of the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) – Kiev, the national foundation of the Open Society Institute. The project aims at promoting institutionalization and standardization of the 35 university legal clinics in Ukraine to date. Project activities comprise the support for creation of the Ukrainian Legal Clinics Association and Foundation at initial stage and subsequent promotion and advocacy for ministerial approval of minimum standards for legal clinics operation in the country. The standards were approved through a ministerial order of the Ministry of Education in September 2006. One important contributor and partner on this project is the Polish Legal Clinics Foundation, which was also supported by the Justice Initiative at its inception. The Polish Foundation provides technical advice and networking opportunities for the Ukrainian counterpart regarding the operation and strategy of fundraising for legal clinics programs.