Legal Clinic in Olomouc - First in Central Europe
In 1996, the Faculty of Law of the Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, was the first law school in Central Europe to introduce legal clinics. In years 2006-2012, the clinical programme was significantly enhanced thanks to two projects, “Development of practical forms of teaching at Law Faculty of Palacký University” (reg. no. CZ.04.1.03/3.2.15.2/0273) and “Lifelong Learning in Law” (reg. no. CZ.1.07/2.2.00/15.0290) financed from the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic. Today, the clinical programme at Palacký Law Faculty comprises of four live-client clinics, nine clinical courses operating without live-clients, such as policy clinics or clinics in cooperation with NGOs or law firms, and a complex Street Law programme. The Centre for Clinical Legal Education, which provides administrative and organisational support for the clinics, complements the clinical subjects with the compulsory Legal Skills Course and with optional Professional Ethics course.
All four live-client clinics operate under the “roof” of the Student Law Office that helps around 150 clients each year. In order to be part of the Student Law Office team the students enrol into one of the four clinical courses: Student Law Office (clinic with general agenda, mostly civil law cases), and three specialized clinics: Consumers’ Rights Clinics, Administrative Law Clinic, and Law and Business Clinic. All the students enrolled in live-client clinics take part in a weekend training workshop; participate in regular supervision sessions for the whole team (classroom component) once in two weeks and separately with their supervisors each week. Students in live-clients clinics work in teams of two students and each pair works on five cases per semester.