OVERVIEW OF STREET LAW PROGRAMS

"What do you mean it's a crime to buy a bicycle from someone if that person has stolen it?"

"Well, it's not a crime on your part unless you knew or should have known it was stolen."

"What do you mean 'should have known it was stolen'? If some guy comes up to me on the street and offers me a good deal on a bike, you think I'm going to ask him where he got it? . . . "

This excerpt from a student-teacher classroom dialogue is typical of discussions which transpire in Street Law classes in high schools, community settings, and correctional institutions throughout the United States and in over 25 countries. In Street Law credit-bearing models, law students teach non-lawyers, receive academic credit, and attend a seminar taught by a law professor. Law students learn about a variety of innovative teaching strategies specifically geared to teaching law to laypersons.

Law student teachers benefit from this unique clinical experience because they receive in-depth training in the substantive law of a particular jurisdiction, develop oral advocacy and communication skills, and improve legal writing and research by preparing legal memoranda on some aspects of the curriculum and researching answers to questions which arise in the classes they teach. From the perspective of a legal education, a basic premise of the course is that one of the best ways to learn law is to teach it. Furthermore, law students leave Street Law with a greater understanding of and sensitivity toward the legal problems of urban residents, people of color, gays, lesbians, bi-sexual, and transgender persons, young people, and schools.

The primary emphasis of Street Law is on teaching practical law as it affects lay persons in their daily lives. Other goals of the course include development of a positive attitude on the part of students toward law and the legal system, improvement in critical thinking and problem solving skills, examination of moral and ethical values, and exposure to vocational opportunities within the legal system.

Background
Since the Georgetown University Law Center Street Law Program began in 1972, more than 60 other law schools across the United States and throughout the world have joined forces to teach Street Law to the community at large. Currently, hundreds of law students throughout the United States and in over 25 countries participate in law-related education (LRE). Some participate for academic credit; some participate as part of a pro bono or public service requirement; some are paid; and some volunteer.

Law-related education programs enable law students to teach law courses in local schools, prisons, juvenile justice facilities and community settings. LRE programs challenge law students to develop legal knowledge and lawyering skills as they instruct non-lawyers about how laws affect our daily lives, the meaning of the Constitution, dispute resolution, mock trials, and the policies and values underlying our legal system.

Learning More
To learn more about the basics of Street Law programs in law school settings, check out:

• A Guide to Implementing Street Law Programs in Law Schools outlines the essential characteristics of law school programs, the rationale for creating such a program, and implementation strategies.
  
  
• What Is Law-Related Education? overviews how teaching young people about the law links to positive youth development.
  
  
• "Street Law: Putting Your Legal Education to Work" reflects the benefits for law students in participating in a Street Law program.
  
  
• The National Black Law Students Association contains information on Street Law - One of NBLSA's mandated national community service programs.
  
  
• The Manual on Street Law-Type Teaching Clinics at Law Faculties was developed for the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute (COLPI) by Human Rights Education Associates and Street Law, Inc. The manual, created through support from the Soros Foundation, draws heavily on the two organizations' experiences in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and provides practical suggestions for setting up clinical law school programs. It is available, in English and Russian, at
  http://www.osi.hu/colpi/research/RDpaperse.htm.
  
  
• Sample articles on law school programs highlight the value of Street Law to the law school community and the community at large. Click on the following articles:

  • Katz, Barry E. Practical Law 101, ABA Student Lawyer, at 24 (Oct. 2001, vol. 30, no. 2).
  
  
  
  • Teicher, Stacey, Legal eagles take wing in high-school law classes, Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 5, 2000 at 17 .
    
    
  • Campbell, Patrick, Street Law, The Washington Lawyer. May/June 2000 at 48-50 (May/June 2000).