Belarusian law students discuss practical approaches to giving legal advice at their local legal clinic.
Belarus’ vulnerable populations, such as impoverished families and prisoners, often find it difficult to afford legal assistance. The New Eurasia Establishment’s (NEE) Legal Clinics Support Program in Belarus has increased access to free legal assistance for these groups by training law students and teachers to develop student legal clinics around the country. By teaming with the Center for Legal Clinical Education at the Belarus State University (BSU) and other university legal clinics in Belarus, NEE used its expertise to provide methodological and institutional support in the form of consultations for 11 legal clinics. NEE and BSU have also held four workshops on legal clinic education and provided direct financial assistance to some of the most promising clinics.
In order to explore other legal clinic models, representatives from six Belarusian legal clinics traveled to the Center for Legal Clinical Education at the St. Petersburg Law Institute in 2006 to complete a one-week training program. To encourage growth and improvement of the clinics, legal clinic staff developed a textbook on legal clinic education for use in the Belarusian law curriculum, which is expected to be published in fall 2007 and adopted by the Ministry of Education. Once the text is widely available, not only will it improve the quality of Belarusian legal education and training, but it will also further develop the services provided by legal clinics.
