Teaching from and to the Heart in Clinical Legal Education

Presenter

Erin Buckley, The University of Melbourne, presenting in person

Session Description

Students who enroll in clinical legal education programs generally do so because they have a high level of interest in practicing law, and a strong drive to contribute to social justice. However, as articulated by Professor Eddie Cubillo in his evidence to the Yoorrok Justice commission, the reality is that “in universities we teach the law, but we don’t teach the reality of the law.”[1]  Professor Cubillo was referencing particularly Australian settler-colonial law’s shameful criminalisation of First Nations people, but the reflection is generally applicable to students’ general lack of knowledge regarding systemic oppression in relation to the law. In clinical legal education programs, poverty, oppression, and discrimination will affect many of the marginalised individuals and communities with whom students are likely to engage. Teaching students the reality of the violence of the law, while also sharing skills to maintain their own wellbeing while witnessing the trauma of marginalised communities, and holding that trauma in their advocacy for, and amplification of the voices of oppressed individuals and communities, is essential for both effective advocacy, and empowered and healthy student practitioners.

This interactive workshop will provide educators with interdisciplinary tools to:

• Communicate issues of acute injustice and systemic oppression to students;
• Utilise nontraditional and multi-sensorial resources to communicate issues of, and responses to injustice;
• Educate students on the risks of burn out and secondary trauma, and tools to care for themselves and each other; and
• Model empathy, openness and vulnerability in legal practice and education.

[1] Eddie Cubillo, ‘Outline of Evidence of Dr Eddie Cubillo (University of Melbourne)’ VI, 31.

Download the Session Materials