The Clinical Youth Law Program is an elective course. Students who have completed 48 units of LAWS courses are eligible to enrol and places are allocated by date of application.

This is a clinical program based in a community legal practice environment. Students participate in the Youth Law Centre, a non-profit legal service for ACT youth aged 12-25 years. While analysing the various roles that lawyers can play, students will focus on extending legal assistance, social justice and reform - particularly in relation to youth legal needs in the ACT.

The course objectives are to:

• contextualise the study of law and student learning in a wide range of other law courses
• guide and support students in identifying, developing and applying ethical legal practice skills
• develop students' critical understanding of legal practice approaches, the roles of lawyers in relation to individual clients and social justice issues
• encourage, promote and validate student aspirations to promote access to justice and equality before the law.

The course also explores issues such as:

• the concept of ‘reflective practice'
• the links between the legal framework of legal practice and operating routines that apply to provision of all legal services (duties to client, confidentiality, conflict of interest)
• legal and non-legal problems - implications for practice/service provision of an appreciation of the relevant services and the meshing of non-legal issues
• interviewing routine - difference between legal information and legal advice
• legal practice approaches - ‘reactive', ‘proactive', ‘preventative', ‘activist'
• tailoring service models to client needs.

At the conclusion of this course students should be able to:

• describe and critique how knowledge and skills acquired through the study of law relate to a legal practice setting, assisting individual clients and working for social justice
• reflect on their personal motivation for studying law, their goals and career aspirations
• demonstrate a reflective and ethical approach in performing paralegal tasks
• demonstrate substantial improvement in their practical legal skills particularly relating to work routines, communication, interviewing, writing, and legal research
• describe and critique a range of legal practice approaches having regard to the legal needs of individual clients
• analyse the predicament of individual clients having regard to the operation of the law and the legal system
• describe and critically assess a range of strategies to improve justice / social justice outcomes,
• identify concrete and achievable ways in which they can promote access to justice and equality before the law.

The assessment for this course will involve evaluation of the student's onsite work at the Youth Law Centre, seminar participation and a research project which involves preparation and presentation of a paper.

More information about the means of assessment, including the relationship between the assessment and the learning outcomes of the course, will be available on the course home page by the first week of semester.

Students undertake a compulsory 2 day orientation at the start of the course, undertake onsite work for one afternoon a week throughout the course and attend a workshop once a week. The workshop times vary between 1 and 2 hours but one workshop is for a full morning. Students also undertake a research project which they present at a presentation session.

Students are generally expected to devote approximately 8 hours per week to this course.

This course does not assume that you have particular legal knowledge, experience or skills. However, knowledge from other law courses, any legal experience which you do have as well as  interpersonal and work related skills will be useful to you in this course. 

Completion of 48 units of law courses
This course is capped at 10 students

It would be helpful but not compulsory for students to have completed Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Family Law and Administrative Law before commencing this course. 

Information about prescribed texts will be made available in the course outline.  See the course home page.

The preliminary reading required for this course will be available through the Wattle area for the course at least one week prior to the commencement of the course.

The reading guide is available in the course outline which can be found on the course home page.

Students must have access to Wattle to use course resources relevant to the course and for course coordination purposes.