Access to Justice - Making it Come Alive and a Reality for Students and Enabling Engaged Future Practitioners

The presentation commenced with a 20 minute discussion and illustration by Dr. Liz Curran who has worked for many years as a clinical legal education supervising solicitor in an academic role and now works in Professional Legal Training role in the ANU Legal Workshop. She has been an active researcher on access to justice and human rights for over a decade with numerous research projects, articles and as a commentator. In 2008 Dr Curran wrote in the Alternative Law Journal that from this vantage point, being an academic and a practitioner, a constructive inter-play occurs where theory can inform practice and vice versa. It is this inter-play which can make a valuable contribution to policy debates, student learning and development and their sense of being involved in upholding justice and the rule of law. From such a vantage point, universities in their teaching and research and policy makers can tap into evidence based information on the experience of the day-to-day dilemmas facing the members of the community for whom survival, emotional and physical well-being can be precarious.