Main Page - Legal Clinics

Legal clinics are a teaching and learning method inspired by medical education. One of the two main aims of legal clinics is to address the shortcomings of dogmatic legal education; the other is to facilitate access to legal knowledge for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups who, for various reasons, are unable to access justice mechanisms. In legal clinic courses, where ‘Experiential Learning’ methods are employed, students are encouraged to reflect on what they have learned. Legal clinic programs provide law students—who will frequently deal with people’s problems in their professional lives—with the opportunity to engage with real-life issues while still students, under the supervision and support of a faculty member. This enables them to gain experience in areas such as crisis management, communication skills, and more.

Although the concept of legal clinics has a long history, it cannot yet be considered widespread. Among the few law schools in Turkey that have implemented legal clinic courses, the Faculty of Law at İzmir University of Economics (IUE) has played a pioneering role. Thanks to the efforts and support of Prof. Dr. Sevilay Uzunallı of the IUE Faculty of Law and the support of IUE Rector Prof. Dr. Yusuf Hakan Abacıoğlu, numerous legal clinic courses have been incorporated into our curriculum. The great interest and enthusiasm shown by our students toward clinic courses excites and motivates us, as faculty members of IUE Faculty of Law, to include even more diverse legal clinic courses in our curriculum in the near future.

Dr. Ezgi ARSLAN

Legal Clinics Coordinator