PANNASASTRA UNIVERSITY OF CAMBODIA
and
CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION PROGRAM
 

Beginning October, 2003 Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC), in a collaborative effort with the Open Society Justice Initiative (Justice Initiative), began implementing a Clinic Legal Education Program at the PUC Faculty of Law and Public Affairs. The program was placed under the direction of Professor Bruce A. Lasky, a Justice Initiative consultant and legal fellow.

Pannasastra University is an English based undergraduate and graduate accredited academic institution that models itself a progressive North American style of Education. It requires student to both identify their major areas of studies while further requiring them to enroll in and complete an extensive general studies academic program. The teaching of critical thinking and analysis is an integral part of the scholastic agenda. For many of these reasons, the justices Initiative identified and close PUC as a model institution to begin a clinical legal education program.

This program effort has followed a long line of similar Justice Initiative operational plans. Since: 1998 the Justice Initiative has led the process of establishing and supporting operations of numerous clinical legal education programs, first in countries or Eastern Europe and the Soviet  Union and since 200 I, worldwide.

Clinical legal education is inherently a cross-cutting theme. If carried out with pedagogical integrity, it lays a foundation for law students to carry with them, throughout their professional careers as attorneys, a greater sense of professional commitment to the ethics and values of public service. It provides needed legal services to the community outside of the law school in an almost limitless array of doctrinal areas of the law. It immerses the legal academy -both students and teachers -in the world as actors, not merely observers. Clinical legal education is one of the most successful innovations in legal education in the last thirty years.

Structure should Method of the PUC Clinical Legal Education Program:

The Pannasastra University Clinical Legal Education Program is a two-section program. It is divided into a Criminal Law Section and a Street Law (community based legal teaching) Section. Both Sections began in late January 2004. The Criminal Law Section, which is a year-long program, is being conducted in conjunction with the Cambodian Defenders Project, a Cambodian NGO. The program currently has seven law students, both undergraduate and graduate. Students in this section receive a half year in-class intel1sive academic and practical legal education al1d training, includil1g such areas as investigations, interviews, witness examination techniques, evidence, etc. The students will then spend the second half of the year working at the Cambodian Defenders Project where they will engage in assisting in live client representation activities, under both the supervision of individual liccl1sed Cambodia lawyers al1d Professor Bruce A. Lasky.

The Street Law Section, which consists of six students, both law and non- law, is a six month program. This program, with the mentoring help of the Community Legal, a Cambodian NGO, teaches students law and human rights; how to teach these subjects through progressive training techniques; and then requires these students to apply and pass on these newly acquired skills and knowledge to persons in various Cambodian community settings in both Phnom Penh and the rural communities. One significant and hopeful eventual focus of the Street Law Program is to integrate this program it into the Cambodian public school system.

Both Clinic sections have been made an elective part of the PUC Legal Studies Curriculum and students enrolled in either section receive academic credits which apply toward their graduation requirements.

Financial and Technical Program Support:

In the launching and maintenance of this progressive educational project, PUC has committed to provide the necessary working environment (office, meetings with professors and students, etc.) and to provide appropriate space for the Clinical center, basic facilities for the Clinical center and student accessibility. The Justice initiative has committed to undertake costs for launching the Clinic and its administration (equipment of the Clinical center, Clinical library, operational costs related to provision of legal aid and public outreach) and to provide additional investments for training of local staff in clinical legal education and management matters through local seminars and other mediums.

Additional Resources and Benefits Provided by the Clinical Program:

In addition to the overall practical and academic legal training provided through both Clinic sections, the program provides a number of additional resources to the students selected to pal1icipate.

Some of these resources and benefits, which are being or will be provided, include:

• Computer and Internet Access (for research purposes)*
• Computer training, including such things as Word and Power Point presentation instruction.
• On-line academic research training, including access to California State University at Fullerton's complete electronic database library. The Fullerton electronic library provides students access to the Nexis /Lexis legal database, which is one of the internationally premiere legal information databases.
• Seminars, workshops and trainings on legal issues and legal skills as well as practical office oriented skills, procedures and methods.
• Increased exposure and connections to internships and conferences, both domestically and internationally.
• Increased exposure to members of the Cambodian and International lega1 community including judges, prosecutors, attorneys, governmental officials and leading members of Cambodian and international civil society engaged in legal practice, legal analysis and actions striving for judicial and legal reform in Cambodia and throughout the world.
• Interactive learning and participation with selected international master level legal students enrolled in the PUC International Legal Studies Summer Internship Program.
• Semi-monthly weekend field trips to the Cambodian provinces to engage in Street Law trainings with rural communities.
• Participation in the upcoming quarterly PUC Legal Clinic newsletter, The newsletter will focus on Clinic activities as well as other noteworthy and contemporary societal legal issues.

Current Clinic Status:

While both sections of the Clinic are in their primary stages, the program has gotten off to a strong start. The students are engaged in .learning and are eager. They have recently completed term one of both sections and have done well. .Such signs point to a continuous and successful program.