Taking Clinical Legal Education from Classrooms to Streets: A Practical Perspective to Solving Social Problems

Whenever the discourse of clinical legal education (CLE) ascends, the likely injudicious assumption that may come to one’s mind, especially of a layman is that, it concerns only classroom or clinically confined pedagogy marked by simulations; in-house law student learning activities that end up with their regular experiences of the learning processes. However, CLE in reality, beyond parochial thinking is a socio-legal justice tool for addressing motley challenges of humanity particularly those that confront poverty-stricken and vulnerable citizens who are always undid from equal opportunities and access to the court system. Thus, this article argues that CLE transcends what goes on in typical classrooms or law clinics. The article explores different realistic clinical legal education justice initiatives (CLEJIs) that university and law school students can work with in fostering social justice in a wider societal context. To achieve this purpose, the article considers a rethink of the concept of CLE to capture its historical rationales against definitional setback offered by some authors. It further highlights some critical issues indispensable for the sustainability of CLE initiatives around the world. While the argument of this study draws upon existing findings, it presents new ideas achieved through synthesis of thinking in a qualitatively analytical perspective