03/01/2019

The CHE Has Approved a Balancing Plan for Law Clinics

 

  • Students will not be forced to participate in clinics that run counter to their personal views
  • The criteria for determining the schools’ fields of activity will be their pedagogical value, and clinics will deal with legal subjects in a broad sense
  • Fields of activities are varied such that students from all across the spectrum of opinions will be able to take part in them

 

Deputy-Chair of the CHE, Prof. Ido Perlman: “The law clinics are practical training and allow students exposure to a broad variety of topics of social and public importance and which are of great importance in training attorneys in Israel. This new outline regulates the work of these clinics for the first time and ensures that students will be able to choose which clinics to volunteer for, without this running afoul of their world view.”

 

The CHE has approved the new outline for operating law clinics in the framework of LL.B. programs. According to the CHE’s decision, students will be entitled to choose the clinic in which they receive practical training.

Determination of the clinics’ fields of activities and content will be made by the school’s education committee with the approval of the dean, in order to prevent situations in which associations with political ties influence the content and character of these activities. In any event, academic training will only take place at the institution.

The new outline also addresses the staff member from the school who will head the clinics and who will provide the dean with detailed reports on the clinics’ activities. The academic clinic supervisors will be responsible for academic and clinical studies in the clinics. The criteria for determining the schools’ fields of activity will be their pedagogical value, and an effort will be made to vary the selection of fields of activity such that students from all over the ideological spectrum will be able to participate. Clinical activities will be limited to legal matters in the broad sense.

It is emphasized that law clinics are practical training for law students that entitle them to academic credit hours. They afford students an opportunity to gain experience during their course of their studies, in various aspects of providing counsel and representation in different cases (not including court representation). Additionally, during the course of these clinics, students are exposed to important public-social topics. There are 13 institutions of higher education in Israeli that operate law clinics as part of their LL.B. programs.

 

The Outline for Operation of the Law Clinics:

  1. The clinical program will be headed by a core staff member from an ordinary academic track who is a full-time employee of the institution. The head of the clinical program will report on the clinics’ activities to the dean and to the school’s education committee.
  2. Academic responsibility for each clinic will be given to the academic institution through the “academic supervisor” who is a core staff member or outside instruction who will be appointed by the entity who appoints outside instructors (education committee, appointment committee, etc.). In exceptional cases, the clinical chair may serve as the academic supervisor for a clinic. Responsibility for everything that occurs at a clinic shall be given to the academic supervisor (academic supervisor or clinical chair), who will report annually to the clinical chair on the activities of the clinic for which he is responsible. Each student’s grade shall be awarded by the academic supervisor, who will report to the clinical chair.
  3. Academic training through the clinics will take place, as a rule, at the institution.
  4. Clinical activities will be limited to activities relating to legal matters in the broad sense.
  5. Because of the academic training, to the extent it is provided in the clinic, academic credit hours will be awarded for each semester class hour. Additional academic credit hours will be awarded for at least 3 hours of clinical work (field work, practical training) inside and outside the institution. The clinic may be semester based or annual. The option of awarding academic credit hours for clinics only applies to graduate degrees.
  6. Students shall have free choice in choosing a clinic. Acceptance to a clinic shall be the responsibility of the clinic’s academic supervisor. Students will not be forced to participate in clinics that run counter to their personal ideology.
  7. Up to 25 students will participate in each clinic.
  8. The clinics’ fields of activities and content will be determined annually by the school’s education committee in coordination with the clinical chair and the approval of the dean.
  9. The criteria for determining the schools’ fields of activity will be their pedagogical value. Determination of all fields of activities and content in clinics will be done in a manner that does not discriminate against students for any reason whatsoever, in accordance with the academic institutions bylaws. The institution will permit any student to participate in them while preserving freedom of opinion and expression and subject to academic freedom.
  10. The institution of higher education will ensure that to the extent any entity outside the institution donates money in connection with the clinics, such entity will not have any involvement either before or after establishment of the clinic in determining the clinic’s content and conduct, the choice of academic supervisor, or the granting of any benefit whatsoever to students, etc.[2] Every activity and publication will ensure that the clinic’s conduct is affiliated with and identified with the institution.
  11.  Appeal of a decision not to approve a clinic at the request of the proposing entity will be given to the dean for handling and a decision by the institution’s entity which is empowered to approve courses and education programs.
  12. The head of the institution will receive and coordinate the annual reports on clinics taking place at the institution, including reports about entities that proposed establishment of new clinics that were approved or rejected during the course of the year and the grounds for approval or rejection, and will provide a copy of the report to the CHE.