ABSTRACT
Clinical legal education provides an ideal forum in which to surface anti-racist legal practice in higher education. Teaching critical race theory should be integral to the clinical legal education curriculum as it allows students the opportunity to analyse law, policies, and practices through an anti-racist and intersectional lens. Clinical legal education provides space for reflection on racial biases and is well-placed to equip students with the tools to deconstruct these. It provides the space to examine the impact of systemic and judicial racism on the actors within the legal system. There is the chance to critically consider whether the government provides sufficient resources to ensure meaningful participation and representation of racialised minorities within the justice system.
The first way it is suggested this can be done is through using critical race theory to understand the client, the self, and the system. Students should be prompted to think metacognitively regarding their responses to a case simulation – surfacing discussions on race and intersectionality, underpinned by critical race theoretical literature – as well as considering the relationship between interest convergence and racialised paternalism.
Second, critical race theory can be used to facilitate acceptance and understanding of judicial racism and lack of diversity within the judiciary, and to analyse how systemic racism in the justice sector is perpetuated.
The aim is to develop clinical legal education in a way which equips students with the tools to identify, challenge, and change the legacy of systemic racism within the legal sector, and in the administration of justice.
