What is ENCLE

ENCLE is a European Network of persons committed to achieving justice through education. It aims to bring together persons from different countries, who exchange perspectives and work collaboratively from a variety of legal, educational and  organizational settings in order to promote justice and increase the quality of law teaching through Clinical Legal Education (CLE).

What are our Goals

The general purpose of ENCLE is to promote justice and to increase the quality of legal education through through the use of clinical legal education (CLE) by bringing together people from a host of European countries, who exchange perspectives and work collaboratively from a variety of legal, educational and organisational settings.

ENCLE pursues in particular, among others, the following specific objectives:

• To pursue and promote social justice and diversity as core values of the legal profession.

• To improve the quality of legal education.

• To foster awareness of fundamental rights (as expressed, for instance, in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, and any other relevant instruments) and the mechanisms to enforce them.

• To promote an understanding of how domestic law and European law interact in practice.

In order to pursue its objectives, ENCLE undertakes several actions, including but not limited to:

• Promoting, supporting and facilitating the creation of CLE programs across Europe, with a special emphasis on life client clinics.

• Facilitating transnational information sharing and collaboration with regard to CLE, by providing in particular tools for sharing information on teaching methods, effective practices and materials among teachers, such as websites and databases.

• Fostering research on CLE and creating platforms for the sharing and exchange of relevant research products.

• Supporting and implementing advocacy projects at regional, national or European level in order to create greater awareness in Europe about the merits and advantages of CLE.

• Convening conferences, workshops and training sessions.

• Providing a platform for, and facilitating, transnational projects on innovative methods of legal education and the sensitisation to social justice through legal education.

• Training trainers in order to promote the creation of a pool of excellent clinical trainers in Europe.

• Facilitating transnational study visits and exchange programs.

• Promoting collaboration between clinical legal education programs and legal professionals. This includes, among others, promoting initiatives that might improve the community understanding of the benefits of CLE, and establishing connections with professionals and legal professional associations in Europe.

Mission Statement

Clinical Legal Education (CLE) is a rapidly growing form of legal education across much of Europe. It is widely accepted as a powerful pedagogical model which engages students and universities in the life of the community. By creating a network of persons and institutions who are committed to CLE, ENCLE aims to support the growth and quality of CLE programmes in Europe through facilitating transnational information sharing, fostering CLE scholarship and research, convening conferences, workshops and training sessions, establishing a website as an open resource for information sharing and promoting collaboration between CLE programmes and legal professionals.