Global Legal Education Approaches: Experiences for Palestine
1-3 October 2013
Hebron University, Hebron, West Bank, Palestine
Context
The HU Legal Clinic, UNITERRANEE, in collaboration with the Faculty of Law of Aix-en-Provence University, France, are organizing an international conference that would examine the trends on legal education systems and methodologies from global and comparative perspectives with the purpose to enhance the quality of legal education in Palestine. The conference is scheduled to take place from 1 to 3 October 2013 at the HU campus, Hebron, West Bank, Palestine.
As a result of different regimes that ruled Palestine since its separation from the Ottoman Empire in 1917, the applicable law in Palestine is mixed of various legal systems: Ottoman, British, Jordanian, Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian. These regimes, in turn, derived their legal traditions from Islamic law, common law, and continental law. The mixed system has, naturally, influenced the legal education. Due to the fact that most law faculty graduated from Arab world and European universities, the teaching of law has been, by and large, based on the French model. Inspired by globalized trends and influenced by the tradition of career-oriented legal education, Palestinian law schools are increasingly shifting towards practical teaching methods, including clinical legal education, moot courts, and focusing on practical skills through the engagement with the legal profession, judges, prosecutors, official, non-governmental and international institutions. Yet, the legal education system, as the whole status of the country, remains in transition and its future is undetermined.
Due to the Israeli occupation, Palestinian universities were for long time prevented from initiating law programs. In 1986, HU was the first university to teach law. After one year of instruction, Israel threatened to close down HU if the teaching of law would continue, concerned that the Palestinians would use the vehicle of law and courts to resist the human rights violations of the military occupation. The situation eased with the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994 after signing the Israel-PLO Oslo interim agreement. While the first law program started in Palestine in 1995, there are currently eleven universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that teach law.
Hebron (30 km south of Jerusalem) is the largest district in Palestine, with over half a million people, some 15% of the State’s population. The old city of Hebron, which incorporates over 40,000 Palestinians and about 500 isolated settlers protected by similar number of soldiers, is still governed by Israel; the modern part of the city falls under the Palestinian self-rule. HU, which commenced with a single college in 1971, now incorporates nine colleges, 40 bachelor and seven masters’ programs, with 8,000 students. HU established the Department of Law in September 2008, offering a Bachelor of Laws, and the Legal Clinic in 2011. The Clinic seeks to build the capacity of students to practice law by applying their knowledge and providing pro bono assistance to marginalized groups. The Clinic has become a hub for legal information, conferencing, training and rights activism in Palestine.
Conference Topics
Papers for the conference might be written on any of the following topics:
- Continental and common law systems;
- Practical legal vs. theoretical education;
- Clinical legal education;
- Teaching of Islamic law the curricula of law schools;
- Thematic issues, such as teaching public and private international law, civil law, constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law, commercial law, legal writing, legal ethics (individual professors’ models on legal education are welcome);
- Human rights education;
- Teaching legislative drafting;
- Reforming legal education management (government, bar associations, universities);
- Relations between law schools and justice stakeholders, lawyers, judges, prosecutors and parliaments as well as governmental, civil society and international institutions.
Keynote Speakers
Keynote speakers include: Dr. Jean-Jacques Alexandre, Professor of Civil Law, France; Dr. James Apple, President, International Judicial Academy, Washington DC; Prof. Gérard Blanc, Professor of Commercial Law, France; Prof. Frank Bloch, Executive Secretary, Global Alliance on Justice Education, and Professor of Law Emeritus, Vanderbilt University Law School, USA; Dr. Gil Charbonnier, Professor of Legal Philosophy, France; Prof. David Chavkin, Professor of Law, Washington College of Law; Prof. Dr. Amin Dawwas, Professor of Law, American Arab University; Dr. Tonye Jaja, Editor, International Journal of Legislative Drafting, London; Dr. Philippe Mouron, Professor of Legal Information Technology, France; Dr. Jean-Baptiste Perrier, Professor of Criminal Law, France; Prof. Dr. Othman Takrouri, Professor of Law, Al-Quds University and Judge in the Palestinian Supreme Court; and Prof. Dr. Husain Tartouri, Dean, HU Faculty of Islamic Law.
Important Dates
- Deadline for abstract’s submission: 30 June 2013
- Deadline for full paper’s submission: 31 August 2013
- Full paper approval notification: 12 September 2013
Paper Requirements
Papers, in MS Word, can be written in Arabic, English or French, should relate to one of the above topics, and not be previously published. Style follows Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities. Abstracts should not exceed 400 words; papers range 5,000-10,000 words.
Selected papers of the conference will be referred and published in a collective book or in a peerreviewed journal. The last year’s conference papers were published by Cambridge Scholars, UK.
Conference Committee
- Dr. Mutaz M. Qafisheh (PhD, Geneva), Professor of International Law, HU, President
- Dr. Ratib Jabari (PhD, Morocco), Professor of Law, HU, Member
- Dr. Loui Ghzawi (PhD, Glasgow, UK), Head, Department of Jurisprudence, HU, Member
- Dr. Ahmed Swaitti (PhD, France), Head, Department of Law, HU, Member
- Mr. Hendam Rjoub (MA candidate), Legal Researcher, HU Legal Clinic, Coordinator
Communications
If you wish to participate as speaker, please send a cover letter with your CV and full address to:
- Abstracts and full papers in English or French can be submitted to: Dr. Mutaz M. Qafisheh, email: mmqafisheh@gmail.com
- Abstracts and full papers in Arabic can be submitted to: Mr. Hendam Rjoub, email: hendamr@hebron.edu
Notes
- Speakers coming from abroad as well as those arriving from outside Hebron or Bethlehem districts can be provided, upon request, with free hotel accommodation
- There are no participation fees for the conference attendance
- Participants should register via email with full address to: legalclinic@hebron.edu