THE STELLENBOSCH / COVENTRY UNIVERSITY LAW CLINICS PROJECT: INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION THROUGH DOUBLE ROBOTICS TECHNOLOGY

During 2017, the Law Clinic entered into talks with Coventry University in England with the view of establishing a mutually beneficial International Clinical Legal Education (CLE) partnership. This has led to a site visit at our Clinic by mr Alan East from Coventry and, after being awarded a grant by the Research Committee of the Faculty of Law, Stephan van der Merwe visited Coventry University where he presented lectures and a keynote address at a CLE mini-conference. We have now launched a completely innovative collaboration project between the two Clinics, using double robotics technology. Students from our CLE programme receive training, engage in consultations, interviews, tribunals and generally work with students, staff and clients in Coventry. They do all of this from our Clinic in Stellenbosch, but by having physical presence inside our partner Clinic through their online control of interactive robots! The pilot project ran during March 2018, and we are very enthusiastic about the exciting possibilities presented by this international online learning project.