Law clinics and their role in improving the Croatian system of legal education

Predmet ovog diplomskog rada su pravne klinike i njihova uloga u unaprjeđenju hrvatskog sustava pravnog obrazovanja. Cilj rada je detaljno ukazati na brojne prednosti pravnokliničke metode poučavanja prava. Dihotomija teoretskog i praktičnog dijela nastavnog procesa nepotrebno fragmentira pravnu realnost, a upravo pravne klinike predstavljaju dokazano učinkovit način kontekstualizacije prava u realnom kontekstu, sve kako bi studenti stekli konkretne pravne vještine koje će im omogućiti bolje snalaženje tijekom obavljanja različitih poslova nakon stjecanja diplome. Iskustveno učenje kao metoda učenja u klinici donosi brojne edukacijske vrijednosti za studente, a njihova dvodimenzionalna priroda čini ju i snažnim instrumentom socijalne pravde te se time i fakulteti otvaraju zajednici koja osigurava sredstva za njihovo djelovanje.The topic of this diploma thesis relates to law clinics and their role in improving the Croatian system of legal education. The purpose of this paper is to give a detailed explanation of the numerous advantages that originate in clinical method of teaching law. The dichotomy of the theoretical and practical teaching process negatively affects the proper understanding of legal reality and it is well proved that law clinics have tremendous capacity of putting law into a real life context that conseuently enables students to acquire skills that will help them to acquire some practical legal skills and simply understand law better. Experiential learning within law clinics provides students with numerous educational values, and its two-dimensional nature makes possible for law clinics to become an instrument of social justice, thus opening law schools to the community which secures funding for their operation