Repositioning legal education for national development (4)

Clinical legal education

UNLIKE other professions such as Medicine, it is not mandatory that law students participate in clinical education in Nigeria. I may simply define clinical legal education as the exposure of undergraduates to the application of theoretical knowledge of law to practical situations. This can be achieved for instance by allowing students advice clients on legal issues and other critical activities to engage the students such as pro bono work and externships.

Clinical legal education is essential in preparing law students to practice law effectively. It involves teaching students to be lawyers by learning through experience or “learning by doing.” Clinical legal education is in the midst of an exciting period of growth and development. Clinics are important because they prepare students to practice law by teaching them valuable skills such as fact-finding, investigation, interviewing, and legal research and writing.  Presently, there are about 17 law clinics in Nigeria established mainly through the efforts of Network of University Legal Aid Institutions (NULAI). The first Nigerian Client Interviewing and Counselling Skills Competition, was held at Maiduguri in Borno State of Nigeria, on the 17th-18th February 2006.

The summary of the report of the Council of Legal Education Committee on the Review of Legal Education in Nigeria submitted on 29th July 2004 was to the effect that law faculties and the Nigerian Law School should “as a matter of urgency” introduce clinical legal education and that “the faculties are required to provide appropriate facilities, such as clinical consultation rooms” and that “for purposes of achieving interactive teaching, proper training will have to be given to lecturers at the various law faculties and the Nigerian Law School….”  NULAI also participated in the stakeholders meeting on the Nigerian draft Legal Aid Bill to fine-tune the draft bill which has provisions for supporting legal clinics in the universities. Consequently, in 2011, the Legal Aid Act by its Section 17 recognized law clinics as legal aid providers.

The Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

To serve the needs of the 21st Century society, the justice system must be digital by default and design. Information technology is increasingly a key component of our lives. The number of Smart phone users in the UK by the end of 2017 was up to 44.9 million. In Nigeria as at April 2019, the number of smart phone users has been put at between 25 and 40 million. While the mobile report by jumia.com.ng put it at over 36 million users. Google and other search engines are regularly used to find information and locate services. In 2018 the internet was used by 92.3 million people in Nigeria, while Nigeria ranked 2nd in 2018 E-commerce trade in Africa according to the UNCTAD report.

The use of information technology has also become an increasingly significant factor in the delivery of legal education, legal services and in the adjudication of civil disputes. All over the world, Technology is starting to drive the administration of justice with virtual courts and online dispute resolution (ODR) providing alternative methods of resolving legal issues. ODR is a process where legal disputes are resolved via web based systems and there are a number of different versions of this. For example, in The Netherlands, the Dutch government pioneered the use of ODR with the Rechtwiger.nl project (translated as ‘signpost to justice’, ‘roadmap to justice’ or ‘conflict resolution guide’). This was launched in 2014, helping people with divorce related issues and was extended in 2015 to include landlord- tenant, consumer conflicts and employment issues.

In Nigeria online legal resources are ubiquitous consisting mainly of law reports and essays on various topics. Recently, I found that there is now an online research assistant utilizing artificial intelligence or AI for short, which could give me instant cases and materials relevant to my search terms in the law of evidence. All these and more demonstrate the importance of ICT in legal education in Nigeria. Technology has made significant changes to legal education and practice in various jurisdictions. While its impact in Nigeria may not be as deep as other jurisdictions, the fact is that the legal profession in the country has been impacted by technology and this must continue. Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CAI) was developed in the 1960s by various professors notable among which is Professor Charles D. Kelso of the Indiana School of Law.  It covered various legal topics and enabled the students answer one question before proceeding to the next. It was designed to be an individual tutorial to ensure active learning and encourage adequate understanding of the topic by the user. This workbook system of legal education has since been developed. Things took a more formal shape when the University of Minnesota Law School and Harvard Law School established the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CCALI) now known as CALI.  The organisation now consists of most US law schools. CALI now provides different types of exercises such as memory drills, tutorials, simulations which try to recreate real life scenarios and games. All of these are used to facilitate better understanding by students and supplement the class materials and discussions.

• Test our Students ―NOUN tells Law School

CAI is not limited to the United States as other developed countries have also employed it in their legal education. For instance, British and Irish Law schools established the British and Irish Legal Educational Technology Association (BILETA). CAI is found in other jurisdictions like Canada and Australia. CAI has advantages in that it makes learning more interesting and enjoyable for the students. It individualizes training hence enabling students learn at their own pace with self confidence in the fact that the answers are private and they are free from classroom pressures. The success of CAI has been attributed to the active learning process requiring students to enter responses and engage in a Socratic dialogue with the computer. Students can also repeat exercises to get a mastery of it before proceeding to the next level.

Electronic casebooks have also improved legal practice and education. They contain the contents of a hard copy casebook on a CD-ROM or with a code that enables the user to access the material on the internet. The recognition that ICT has come to stay became apparent when the Nigerian Law School introduced the E-handbook. The E- handbook consists of brief summaries on each course to be taken by students, statutes and case law encrypted on a CD-ROM. With this, students can have access to the entire course content for the duration of the program with easy reference to other relevant materials through the hyperlink features ICT compliance faces a myriad of challenges in Nigeria including but not limited to: a.       lack of internet or technology culture among law teachers and their students b. non-availability of fast high speed internet c. inadequate power supply without which most of the devices cannot work effectively d. access to ICT encourages plagiarism

To be continued

AARE AFE BABALOLA SAN, CON