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Full Year

Freedom of Expression Law Clinic (LAWS10190)

Subject

Law

College

CAHSS

Credits

40

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 Law courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. This course is only open to visiting students who are nominated to study with us on a Law exchange agreement. Exchange students outside of Law and study abroad students are not eligible to enrol on this course before teaching begins, with no exceptions, and spaces cannot be guaranteed to those students at any time. **Please see Additional Restrictions**

Course Summary

The Freedom of Expression Law Clinic provides a unique opportunity for students at Edinburgh Law School to work alongside practicing lawyers on international casework. The perspective of the course is both analytical and practical and the key objective is to afford students the opportunity to apply their knowledge of substantive law to a real client case. In so doing, students will be exposed to ethical-social values instrumental to the practice of law and reflect on the relevant social, political and economic context of legal casework. The clinic will specifically address cases of violation of Freedom of Expression and human rights violations against journalists. The Clinic is a collaboration between Edinburgh Law School and the international NGO Media Legal Defence Initiative based in London. Traditional academic teaching will be complemented by clinical supervision from experienced practitioners both within the law school and with the partner organisations. Throughout the course, students will work towards draft submissions to the United Nations Special Procedures Mechanisms, notably the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Course Description

The weekly sessions will typically consist of two parts, approximately 50 minutes long each. These will combine both theoretical academic lectures and clinical supervision, allowing for follow up on the lectures and group work on cases. The course will be available to a selected group of 12 students, which will allow dedicated and personalised clinical supervision. The students will be split into smaller groups and each will work towards drafting a submission for a different case. While the academic lectures and the general clinical supervision will be common to both the groups, the supervision on the draft submission will be personalised and group-specific. The course will include two main parts: an academic and a clinical component, which, although mutually reinforcing, will deliver different but intertwined programmes. Throughout the course, the academic and clinical component will provide the students with a unique set of substantial knowledge about freedom of expression and the regulation of newsgathering activities in a comparative perspective, on the one hand, and practical and usable skills relevant to their future professions, as well as first-hand experience in drafting submissions to the UN Special Rapporteur and working on human rights cases. **Throughout the seminars the course will cover academic topics such as: - Introduction to the Legal Mechanisms for the Protection of Human Rights; - Legal theories of Freedom of Expression; - Human Rights in action and the three-part test; - Freedom of Expression in the ICCPR and in the UN Human Rights Mechanisms; - Freedom of Expression in a comparative perspective: the ECHR, the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, the African Convention on Human and Peoples' Rights; - Legal protections for journalists and media operators in a comparative perspective; - The scope of journalistic privileges and shield laws: the case of bloggers and citizen journalism; - Data protection and the case of whistleblowers; - Hate speech; - The right to privacy; - The legal background of the cases: substantive questions and issues arising from the work-in-progress on the draft submissions. **The clinical component may cover the following topics: - Introduction to clinical legal education and professional identity; - The role of NGOs in international advocacy and casework; - Presentation of the Freedom of Expression Law Clinic, allocation of research and writing exercise and timeline of deliverables; - Introduction to reflective journal writing; - Legal research and case theory - exploration of case theory and allocation of cases to students; - Case management - how to maintain case files, preparation of case outline and legal work plan; - Case investigation - evidence gathering, legal research and drafting the skeleton submission; - Client handling - client consent and first draft of the submission; - Feedback on draft submissions and preparation of final drafts.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

**All 3rd year Law courses are ONLY open to visiting students nominated on an exchange agreement within the School of Law (including Erasmus students on a Law-specific exchange). Exchange students outside of Law, and independent study abroad students, are not eligible to enrol in these courses, with no exceptions.** Please note that 3rd year Law courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces. These enrolments are managed strictly by the CAHSS Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the Law School directly to request additional spaces. If there is sufficient space for other visiting students to enrol at the start of the semester (which cannot be guaranteed at all), visiting students must meet the pre-requisites listed above.

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