“Legal education in Europe faces many difficult challenges, including making the law school curriculum more practical, with an emphasis on skills, values and social justice. Clinical legal education is a perfect way to answer many of these challenges and it is remarkable to see the positive contributions of legal clinics in many European countries. I am convinced that a European Network for Clinical Legal Education will increase awareness about the added value of clinical legal education and will help to create a real clinical movement in Europe,” says Filip Czernicki, the president of Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) and of the Polish Legal Clinics Foundation (FUPP), and founding member of the European Network for Clinical Legal Education (ENCLE).
Why do we need a European Network for CLE?
CLE is a rapidly growing form of legal education across much of Europe. It is widely accepted as a powerful pedagogical model, which engages students and universities in the life of the community. Leading clinicians from several European countries have formed the network in order to support the growth and quality of CLE programmes in Europe through facilitating transnational information sharing, fostering CLE scholarship and research, convening conferences, workshops and training sessions, establishing a website as an open resource for information sharing and promoting collaboration between CLE programmes and legal professionals.
After a first meeting in June 2012 in Turin, organised by the International University College of Turin, plans for establishing a European clinical education group were finalised during a conference organised by the Foundation of Polish Legal Clinics in Szczecin and Świnoujście, Poland, in September 2012. At this meeting the mission statement and statute for the European Network for Clinical Legal Education (ENCLE) were finalised and a board was assembled (including Filip Czernicki - Poland, Jonny Hall – United Kingdom, Liubou Krasnitskaya - Belarus, Atanas Politov - Hungary, Ulrich Stege - Italy and Maxim Tomoszek – Czech Republic), which has the mandate to register ENCLE as a legal entity.
According to its mission statement, the goals of ENCLE are to promote, support and facilitate the creation of CLE programmes across Europe.
Invitation to those practising CLE in Europe to join ENCLE!
The board invites everyone involved with CLE in Europe to join ENCLE. More information, including the mission statement and the statute of ENCLE will be soon circulated through the ENCLE website.
Please feel free to contact ENCLE through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.