The first teaching session as part of the School of Law’s pilot Street Law Project took place on Wednesday 21 February 2018. Street Law is an innovative approach to legal education where law students teach law at grassroots level. It was first established in Georgetown University as a way to allow law students to apply their legal knowledge for the benefit of the local community. Street Law provides a unique opportunity for law students to advance their legal knowledge and to develop their clinical legal skills while at the same time providing a valuable service to the outside community.

As part of the UL project, four final year law students (Emmet Collopy, Clodagh Dunne, Nicole Cumiskey and Niamh Kennedy) will teach law at a local secondary school, CBS Sexton Street, over the next six weeks. The law students are participating in the Street Law project as part of a final year UL Engage Practicum. Before commencing their teaching, the law students were provided with training in the learner-centred, non-directional teaching methods used in Street Law. The training was provided by Dr Lydia Bracken, School of Law, who is supervising the Project.

Over the course of the Street Law Project, the secondary school students will learn about topics relating to the powers of an Garda Síochána, the right to privacy, sport and the law, and juvenile justice. They will also learn about the elements of a trial and will undertake a mock trial in UL’s purpose-built moot court room in the final week of the project. In this way, the secondary school students will be able to apply the skills they have learned over the course of the Project in a practical and realistic manner. 

The UL Street Law Project is organised and supervised by Dr Lydia Bracken, School of Law, in collaboration with the UL Access Office. The project is funded by the AHSS Faculty Teaching Board Fund.