During the clinic, students work on legal issues that are structurally identified in the law clinics, assist in the design of strategic procedures that pursue a social interest, or provide advice that organisations can use to go to agencies to demand adjustment of policies. We coordinate this profession and ensure that the law clinics can identify social problems and forward this as a policy issue to the Law & Policy Clinic.

Goal

The aim of the Law & Policy Clinic is to teach law students to better recognise and articulate social problems, and for students participating in the clinic to develop skills around strategic litigation, professional attitude, client contact and legal research.

Activities

Students work in teams of 3-5 students and are intensively supervised by the Amsterdam Law Hub. Some examples of clinics:

• Research was conducted for Vrouwenrechtswinkel Amsterdam into what can be done in policy terms to address the fact that, when establishing visitation arrangements and custody decisions, hardly any account is taken of a history of domestic violence.
• The next Law & Policy Clinic will investigate ways to gain quicker insight into the income details of maintenance obligated persons. In doing so, current Dutch legal practice will be mapped out and compared with a number of other European countries.

Impact numbers

• A total of three clinics were coordinated from the Amsterdam Law Hub during the 2022-2023 academic year. Ten students participated in these.
• A report, knowledge clips and infographics have been created for Women's Law Clinic Amsterdam by the students in the Law & Policy Clinic on access arrangements. These will come in handy for law clinic students.
• Two more advisory reports were delivered for the remaining clinics.