Clinical Education in China: The Next StepsBrian K. Landsberg

1July 2011

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140

1999 2000 2006 2011

Number of Law Schools with Clinics [Based on membership in CCCLE]

Growth of Clinical Education in China

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Nature of Clinical Education in China: Phase One, the first decade

• Wide range of programs– Live client clinics– Student legal aid programs– Mock trial programs– Simulation courses

• Often low status• Wide range of faculty competence and

availability• Some similarity with U.S. clinics forty years ago

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Issues in Phase Two, The Second Decade of Chinese Legal Clinics

• Objectives of clinical legal education– Serve legal needs of the disadvantaged?– Improve students’ understanding of doctrine?– Mold students’ professional skills and values?– Help students get jobs?– A combination of the above objectives?

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Issues in Phase Two

• China’s evolving definition of “clinical legal education”– Professor-led clinics– Hybrid clinics?– Lawyer-led clinics [such as Legal Aid]?– Externships?– Simulation courses?

• Place in the curriculum– Units– Undergraduate, graduate, or both

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Issues in Phase Two• Faculty– Status?– Teaching load?– Competence?– Scholarship?

• Teaching methods– Import from common law countries?– Home grown?– A mixture?

• Assessment methods?

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Issues in Phase Two

• Resources for further development– Committee of Chinese Clinical Legal Educators

[CCCLE]– Chinese government– Regional conferences• E.g., Zhejiang Province law school conference

– Ford Foundation– Pacific McGeorge project– Yale China program

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Materials

• CCCLE web site [in Chinese]• Pacific McGeorge web site– http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Experiential_Education_in

_China.htm • Lists articles and books about clinical legal education in

China• Contains training materials from our train the trainers

program• Will soon link to a Sakai site of curricular materials

• How develop more of the materials clinicians need?

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Today’s Program

• The speakers and commentators have all been participants in the Pacific McGeorge educate the educators program.

• They will address at least some of the questions I listed above and will tell us how their law schools are responding to the questions.

• We encourage interchanges of ideas. How have law schools in other countries approached these issues?

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