Collaboration with Coventry University

LAW CLINIC WELCOMES VISITORS FROM COVENTRY UNIVERSITY

The Stellenbosch University Law Clinic recently hosted a group of staff and students from Coventry University, United Kingdom. They visited the Law Clinic for the first week of September. The visit follows on a collaborative advocacy project conducted via robot double technology in March 2018. Alan East and Harriet Lodge of the Coventry University Law School, along with Matthew Finch from the Central England Law Centre, accompanied seven students of Coventry Law School for a week in Stellenbosch. The visit enabled the students to be exposed to the day to day operations of the Stellenbosch University Law Clinic and, in particular, the integration into the Law Clinic’s operations of final year students through practical legal training.

The Coventry students had the opportunity to sit in on client consultations and partake in file discussions with the Law Clinic’s Practical Legal Training (final year elective module) students. The Coventry students assisted the Practical Legal Training students with research on various aspects of South African law relevant to their client files. They also honed their examination-in-chief and cross-examination skills. On Thursday, 6 September 2018, the Coventry visitors accompanied several of the Law Clinic staff on an outreach to the Klapmuts Community Centre where they had the opportunity to visit a community where many of the Law Clinic’s clients come from and to engage with these clients.

We anticipate the visit to become an annual occurrence and a reciprocal one, and that the Law Clinic will continue developing and strengthening our ties with Coventry University and the Central England Law Centre.