INTRODUCTION ABOUT
FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY’S CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION
1. About us
Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia (BABSEA) is a non-governmental organization founded in the United States that works with established goals, supporting community access to justice, overcome vulnerability and injustice in society. BABSEA is cooperating with many universities, law students and organizations in 11 countries around the world to develop programs “Clinical Legal Education”, including the United States, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore, China, India and Australia.
The program “Clinical Legal Education (CLE)” is a program using interactive and vivid teaching methods to provide law students with the practical knowledge, skills and values towards the provision of legal services and social justice. CLE is developing very fast and becomes legal phenomenon globally. Over the past 30 years, many universities and non-profit organizations have joined CLE programs implemented worldwide.
$ 2. Goals
$ · Providing educational opportunities for students to observe or experience with real-life situations or assumptions, supplying knowledge, skills and values.
· Providing essential legal regulations for people who do not have access to legal services.
· Inculcating the spirit of public service and social justice for law students, building the foundation for professional liability later.
· Creating a strong bond among the legal institutions through experts’ important role in contribution to the development of skills and theories of applying laws.
· Helping students stick with laws and express them by the interactive and vivid teaching methods in a way that reading theoretically cannot do.
· Supporting the community to solve their issues by professional lawyers and providing legal services to vulnerable people.
CLE program can be carried out by a variety of methods and forms, including but not limited to:
· In-house services for vulnerable people
· Community education clinics
· Simulations of hypothetical situation
· Externships
$ · Delivering Clinics non–traditional services
In Vietnam, BABSEA has already supported and collaborated with CLE model for replication to 9 universities across the country, including: Vietnam Trade Union University, National Economics University, Vietnam National University, Vinh University, Hue University, Ho Chi Minh City University Of Law, Can Tho University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Law, and Foreign Trade University.
3. Value
FTU CLE operates under the auspices of the Faculty of Law, Foreign Trade University, BABSEA organization and donation of UNDP.
4. Vision
FTU CLE was officially established in January, 2013. In spite of only working for a short time, the office has become an attractive address of numerous students and lecturers both inside and outside FTU. All members of FTU CLE team will unite and attempt to develop FTU CLE in order to become a strong and important link of BABSEA CLE network.
5. Mission
For students:
· Enhance knowledge of the legal issues and apply them into reality
· Train professional practice skills, solve real situations with real clients
· Train ethics, improving accountability to the community, vulnerable people in society, actively protect human rights, civil rights and justice
For lecturers:
· Enhance practical knowledge of the legal issues, enriching lectures
· Access, learning and applying various interesting and positive methods of teaching, improving the quality of teaching
· Enhance professional liability
· Support and implementing to the thematic researches, forming close links between the law schools and the legal experts
For community:
· Provide and improve their legal knowledge, helping them be more proactive in protecting their legitimate rights and benefits
· Answer questions regarding specific legal issues that troubling community
· Help vulnerable people have the opportunity to access to justice
