Learning From the Unique and Common Challenges: Clinical Legal Education in Jordan

Legal education worldwide is undergoing scrutiny for its failure to graduate students who have the problem-solving abilities, skills, and professional values necessary for the legal profession.1 Additionally, law schools at universities in the Middle East have found themselves in an unsettled environment, where greater demands for practical education are exacerbated by several factors such as high levels of youth unemployment. More specifically, in Jordan there is a pressing need for universities to respond to this criticism and to accommodate new or different methods of legal education. Clinical legal education is one such method.3 We use the term clinical legal education broadly to include law school programs that teach professional skills and values through experiential learning.2 Clinical legal education not only refers to live-client clinics, but also to other types of experiential legal education that shares these common features.3 As calls for clinical legal education in Jordan rise, legal academics and lawyers have begun to debate whether it is feasible. In this article, we analyze and assess the challenges facing the implementation of clinical legal education in Jordan. While some contend that clinics are impossible, we offer suggestions and solutions to address their challenges and, perhaps, pave the way for a meaningful experiential education course that enhances the skills and capacities of students, works within the current legal and educational framework, and serves the needs of the community.