Concept of the Law Clinic Transformation Law

Teaching format and forum for transdisciplinary research

The Law Clinic Transformation Law is both a teaching format and a forum for transdisciplinary research. It is integrated into the WueLAB of the JMU as a transformation experiment. A description of the concept and objectives of the Law Clinic Transformation Law can be found in this Essay by Prof. Dr. Isabel Feichtner.

Law clinics as a teaching format originated in North America. They have also been established in Germany in recent years. The Law Clinic Transformation Law differs from other law clinics in that its primary goal is not to offer individual legal advice. Rather, it creates a space to explore the transformative potential of law in a transdisciplinary way.

The focus of legal education is currently on the application and enforcement of law. Processes of law-making are hardly ever addressed: In many cases, law graduates only realise in law firms and ministries that working with law has more to offer. Lawyering can also be a creative activity, for example in drafting contracts or negotiating international legal instruments. The Law Clinic Transformation Law is designed to enable students to engage with legal design and develop legal imagination with a view to the necessary socio-ecological transformation.

"Transformation" refers to two things: first, the transformation that law and jurisprudence must undergo in order to stop entrenching a political economy that perpetuates colonial continuities, destroys livelihoods and reinforces inequality. Secondly, the term "transformational law" alludes to a law and jurisprudence that transforms social institutions and relations, democratises them and seeks to reconcile prosperity, freedom and sustainability.