The Global Clinical Movement Educating Lawyers for Social Justice

Clinical legal education is playing an increasingly important role in educating lawyers worldwide. In The Global Clinical Movement: Educating Lawyers for Social Justice , editor Frank S. Bloch and contributors describe the central concepts, goals, and methods of clinical legal education from a global perspective, with a particular emphasis on its social justice mission. With chapters written by leading clinical legal educators from every region of the world, The Global Clinical Movement demonstrates how the emerging global clinical movement can advance social justice through legal education. Professor Bloch and the contributors also examine the influence of clinical legal education on the legal academy and the legal profession and chart the global clinical movement's future role in educating lawyers for social justice. The Global Clinical Movement consists of three parts. Part I describes clinical legal education programs from every region of the world and discusses those qualities that are unique to a particular country or region. Part II discusses the various ways that clinical programs and the clinical methodology advance the cause of social justice around the world. Part III analyzes the current state of the global clinical movement and sets out an agenda for the movement to advance social justice through socially relevant legal education.

Frank S. Bloch is Professor of Law and Director of the Social Justice Program at Vanderbilt University Law School. He holds a B.A. (1966) and a Ph.D. (Politics 1978) from Brandeis University and a J.D. (1969) from Columbia University Law School. He was a legal aid attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance and an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School's Mandel Legal Aid Clinic before joining the Vanderbilt Law School faculty as Director of Clinical Education. Professor Bloch is an internationally prominent expert in social security, disability, and other benefits programs, as well as legal aid and clinical legal education. He is the author or editor of six books and has published over 30 articles and book chapters. He is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and serves on the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for Justice Education. He has been a Fulbright Professor at Delhi University, a research fellow at the International Social Security Association, and a consultant for the Administrative Conference of the United States, the Social Security Advisory Board, and the US Agency for International Development.