GAJE News

The 7th Worldwide GAJE Conference was held in two parts at the Jindal Global Law School and the National Law University – Delhi. This was GAJE’s second worldwide conference in India after the inaugural conference held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, in 1999.

The first part of the conference (December 10-14), which took place at Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat, Haryana just outside of Delhi, consisted of presentations at plenary and concurrent sessions. Included in the first part of the conference were field trips to rural villages where the Jindal clinical program works with local villagers on rural development and good governance. The second part (December 16-18), which took place at NLU—Delhi in the New Delhi district of Dwarka, was a Training-of-Trainers workshop.

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GAJE was a cooperating partner with The Protection Project at The Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (Washington, DC) in organizing the “Middle East Regional Colloquium on Clinical Legal Education: Developing Clinical Programs and Expanding Access to Justice,” which took place outside Amman, Jordan, on 27-28 May 2012.  The colloquium was the first forum of its kind in the Middle East, and was aimed at generating interest in clinical legal education in the region and building the capacity of faculties of law in the region to establish and develop new, or expand and enhance existing, clinical programs.

Invitees included law teachers from established clinics throughout the Middle East, as well as from universities in the region that do not yet have clinical programs but have an expressed interest in clinical legal education.  The colloquium covered six main topics, “Clinical Legal Education: Philosophy, Foundations, and Aims,” “The Global Clinical Movement: National, Regional and International Cooperation and Exchange,” “Clinical Legal Education in Civil Law Jurisdictions,” “Clinical Legal Education and Transitions to Democracy,” “Beyond Client Representation: The Advocacy Role of Legal Clinics,” “Ethics and Professional Responsibility,” “Clinical Methodologies: Theory and Interactive Exercises,” and “Clinical Legal Education in the Middle East: Past, Present and Future – An Open Discussion.”

The conference was chaired by Mohamed Mattar, Executive Director of The Protection Project.  Among the featured speakers were GAJE members Diego Blázquez-Martín, Frank Bloch, Filip Czernicki, José García Añón, Catherine Klein, Bruce Lasky, Mohammad Mahdi Meghdadi, David McQuoid-Mason, Mizanur Rahman, Lina Shabeeb, Seehaam Samaai, Rick Wilson, and Leah Wortham.

GAJE held its first Central and Eastern European regional conference in Szczecin and Świnoujście, Poland, on September 13-16.  The conference, which was  organized by the Association of Social and Legal Education (Ius et Ratio), was held together with the Annual Meeting of the Polish Legal Clinics Foundation and in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Deans of Law Schools in Poland.

The conference theme was “Development and new trends in Legal Education” and included a celebration of the 10^th anniversary of the Polish Legal Clinics Foundation.  GAJE President Filip Czernicki, who is also President of the Polish Legal Clinics Foundation, chaired the conference.  Other GAJE members who spoke at the conference included:  Marguerite Angelari, Frank Bloch, José García Añón, Arkady Gutnikov, Jonny Hall, Lusine Hovhannisian, Catherine Klein, Liubou Krasnitskaya, Bruce Lasky, Wendy Morrish, David McQuoid-Mason, Atanas Politov, Edwin Rekosh, Maxim Tomoszek, and Leah Wortham.

GAJE is now non-profit corporation (Global Alliance for Justice Education, Inc.) registered in the US with tax-free status granted by the Internal Revenue Service. As a result, contributions to GAJE can be claimed as a deduction on federal income tax returns for any US taxpayer, corporation, or foundation.

The corporate legal work was provided pro bono by the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, under the leadership of firm Associate Joseph E. White. Others at the firm working on GAJE’s incorporation were Associate Kathleen DeMamiel and Special Counsel Nelle Jennings. GAJE members working with the law firm included Barbara Schatz, Clinical Professor at Columbia University Law School, and Bruce Lasky, Co-Director of Bridges Across Borders-Southeast Asia (BABSEA).

The Board of Directors of Global Alliance for Justice Education, Inc. is the membership of GAJE’s Steering Committee. The Bylaws of the new corporation track the relevant provisions of the GAJE constitution and various administrative policies and procedures adopted by the Steering Committee. The President is the current Convenor of the Steering Committee, Filip Czernicki (Poland); the Secretary is Steering Committee member Celeste Romero (Argentina); the Treasurer is Steering Committee member Frank Bloch (United States).