Legal Clinic

The legal clinic and its volunteers being students of the Faculty of Law at the Arab American University provide citizens with free legal consultations reviewed and finalized by the legal clinic. This constitutes a social contribution by providing free legal assistance in coordination with the Palestinian Bar Association and various human rights institutions such as the International Legal Foundation (ILF), the Independent Commission for Human Rights, Musawah, Aman, the Center for Human Rights Defenders, Save the Children, and various women's organizations.

This is done through conducting scientific research and academic studies in the field of legal sciences, and the involvement of students of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies in various legal programs and students of the Faculty of Law (Bachelor’s Degree) in writing articles and legal research as well as publishing them in proposed journals or in various reputable legal journals.

 

Networking with similar institutions and centers, governmental institutions, civil society institutions and international institutions related to the scientific field that the center aims to develop within a scientific framework, with the aim of achieving scientific and academic cooperation. This cooperation is also characterized by the form of communication with influencing parties such as the Fatwa and Legislation Office and the legislative committees in the legislative authority to work on proposing laws and harmonizing them in accordance with international accords, and in a way that guarantees the protection of human rights and groups that are entitled to special protection.

 

Training bachelor’s students at the Faculty of Law at the Arab American University within a course entitled “The Legal Clinic” that enables students to mix between theoretical academic study and practical legal reality by training them to provide various free legal services and consultations provided to citizens as a basis for the idea of the legal clinic, promoting the idea of work with a team spirit, the ability to prepare legal reports and communicate with governmental institutions and various civil society institutions, participation in organizing conferences on issues that affect them as active members of Palestinian society, creating qualified legal personalities to join the various legal institutions in Palestine such as: Human Rights Defenders Center Various women's organizations defending women's rights and empowering them in society, and various child protection institutions and learning the fundamentals of legal research, which leads to productions such as (publishing a scientific paper, participating in scientific research), and thus creating a seed for building a researcher generation. One of the advantages of the proposed legal clinic course is that it works to host members of active institutions to highlight the ideas of strengthening the prevalence of law and justice, promoting civil participation and all the goals and aspirations that the clinic aspires to consolidate in a way that serves the Palestinian society.
 

This is done through a proposal to the Faculty of Law to direct all students of the faculty towards practicing 100 community service hours, which is considered a compulsory university requirement for obtaining a bachelor's degree, as an alternative of limiting community service to traditional services that are confined to the purely service side; It will become available for students to practice modern and realistic forms of community service with a legal and practical nature that will benefit them in the professional and academic future after graduation.
 

Organizing scientific conferences specialized in various legal fields, and encouraging specialized local and international researchers to participate, through which a journal is published containing the refereed research participating in the scientific conference, which leads to building bridges of communication with scientific and intellectual proficiencies and preparing workshops on various legal fields, specifically public opinion topics and sensitive topics that have an impact on society, whether inside or outside the borders of the university, in order to raise awareness and consolidate the legal culture and be a pressure in order to activate the prevalence of law.

 

The Legal Clinic shall create Coordination with the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Faculty of Law and other legal faculties in Palestinian universities, through publishing the research of students of law faculties that they prepare during their studies for courses in various fields, whether at the bachelor’s or master’s level, in addition to the possibility of faculty members contributing to legal research or articles published in a legal journal proposed in the Faculty or in various academic journals, as well as all forms of academic cooperation, exchange of experiences and others.

 

Coordination is made with various graduate programs such as (Master of Commercial Law, Master of Criminal Law, Master of Civil Law, Master of Constitutional Law, Master of International Law, and Master of Conflict Resolution and Development), and with the Faculty of Law, by recruiting specialists, whether academics or professionals with experience in the topics of the courses and the subjects that are taught, in order to give lectures in coordination with the lecturers of these courses, to give a practical nature to the theoretical information provided, and to coordinate with the various practical courses, such as the moot court course and the exchange of legal knowledge.