The Italian legal clinics movement : Data and prospects

1. THE INQUIRY It is not more than 5 years since legal clinics were founded in Italian Universities: a very recent history indeed and similar to that of other Western European countries 1. I will try to explain this through some data collected by an inquiry that I ran in order to have a more detailed map of this phenomena and to conjecture its future evolution2. The survey I submitted to the Italian clinics is composed mainly of multiple choice questions with some open-ended questions. It is divided into six sections: a) general description of the clinic; b) economic profile; c) the educational issue; d) areas of interventions and types of clients; e) the network; f) its social impact. The survey was sent to all directors of Italian Law Departments with a letter where they were requested to readdress it to the head of the legal clinic, where these existed. 21 clinics, placed in 13 different towns, have completed the survey: among them are both established and fledgling clinics (fig. 1-2-3). There may be some facts that escaped my enquiry. However, I believe that I can offer a suitable overview of the situation in the country3. Anyway we must consider this as a state of affairs in ferment, which is highly changeable.


THE INQUIRY
It is not more than 5 years since legal clinics were founded in Italian Universities: a very recent history indeed and similar to that of other Western European countries1 .I will try to explain this through some data collected by an inquiry that I ran in order to have a more detailed map of this phenomena and to conjecture its future evolution2 .
The survey I submitted to the Italian clinics is composed mainly of multiple choice questions with some open-ended questions.It is divided into six sections: a) general description of the clinic; b) economic profile; c) the educational issue; d) areas of interventions and types of clients; e) the network; f) its social impact.
The survey was sent to all directors of Italian Law Departments with a letter where they were requested to readdress it to the head of the legal clinic, where these existed.21 clinics, placed in 13 different towns, have completed the survey: among them are both established and fledgling clinics (fig.1-2-3).There may be some facts that escaped my enquiry.However, I believe that I can offer a suitable overview of the situation in the country 3 .Anyway we must consider this as a state of affairs in ferment, which is highly changeable.
In the following paragraphs I will present the data inquiry and I will try to explain the process of establishing the Italian movement for legal education, its options and challenges.
It is worth pointing out why I use the term "movement".What is going on in Italy, and I think elsewhere, is not simply the proliferation of single clinics, but the emergence of a new wave in academia.On the basis of the clinician idea and history, Italian scholars involved in this process are formulating a different way to teach law, and a different view of law too.I think it is not by chance that many of the pioneers of clinical education have a philosophical background or a highly speculative approach.
It would seem strange that such a practical teaching style is promoted by the most theoretical part of the law faculty staff.The reason for this is probably that the clinician approach needs a paradigm shift through a more realistic, critical and socially committed conception of law.

THE ITALIAN CLINICS
Clinics at least four-years-old are located in a few towns (Brescia, Roma, Torino).In Bergamo, Teramo, Perugia and Verona clinics have existed for two or three years.
We have to note the particular case of "L'altro diritto".This is an association founded in the University of Florence about twenty years ago and, even though it never called itself a "legal clinic" it has always performed in a similar way.At the beginning, the students were involved in providing legal aid for the detainees of some Tuscan prisons.In addition, over time, "L'altro diritto" has developed a large number of activities and projects in favour of migrants, refugees, Romas and every kind of exploited and excluded people in different towns of Central Italy, where hundreds of law students and other volunteers are engaged.This association is also a documentation centre, legislation observatory and it produces drafts for social policies.Recently it has opened a Sicilian branch connected with the Human Rights PhD of the University of Palermo.After many years of informal clinician work, "L'altro diritto" has decided to give to a part of its pursuits the status of legal clinic.I have chosen to enclose this association in my survey, not only because "L'altro diritto" was acting as a law clinic, but because it plays an important role in the Italian movement for clinical education thanks to its experience and extent.As can be seen from the map (fig.3), the concentration of clinics is more in the Centre and in the North of Italy, but some clinician projects are growing in the South too.

ECONOMIC PROFILES
Money is not the brightest aspect of this story.Italian clinics work with extremely low budgets.35% of them assert that their coffers are empty (of course among these there are the fledgling clinics seeking grants to start), 24% have an annual income under 10,000 €.
The remaining 29% have a budget around 15,000 € or a little more, and in any case there is not a clinic performing with 40,000 € or more per year (fig.4).
Those who have funds for their activities generally utilize the University's money.8 clinics out of 21 integrate their budget with donations from private foundations and institutions, mainly Open Society, but this is not the only one (fig.5).The other forms of income are residuals, but it could also be promising to compete for European and international grants, also because this promotes supranational networking.

Fig. 5 -Where do the funds come from?
Nearly all the respondents wish to compete for European Union grants with a project related with clinical education.But most of them did not find the right call.7 clinics out of 21 applied but only 3 were successful (fig.6).Although until now, few clinical projects with a European partnership were approved, going forward we can expect an improvement in the economic situation if the Italian clinics enhance their fundraising skills, identify the most appropriate measures among Union projects and join in a more proactive national and international network able to plan and achieve more ambitious goals.

EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS
The relatively "senior" clinics involve a good quantity of youth in training, the vast majority are law students, but there is a significant number enrolled in other faculties, furthermore graduates, PhD students and post-docs participate in clinical activities too.This would seem to suggest a capability both to face the clients' situation with an interdisciplinary approach and also to gain and keep students after their degree.
Clinical legal education in Italy is lacking institutionalization, therefore each project must find its own modus operandi and its peculiar solution to stay in the official curricula.So, clinical experience assumes many forms in the different universities, it can be: a) a short seminary with credits; b) one of the optional classes required to complete the path for the

Few or nothing
In this section, the last question aimed to gauge points of view about the impact on students of the involvement in clinical activities.More than half of respondents were shown to be very optimistic, asserting that this experience grew both professional chances and ethical responsiveness.Four clinics admitted that they could not foretell the implications on students' life due to a lack of data.15% believed this form of education definitely permits human development, but because of the dramatic unemployment crisis of the country they cannot assume a rise of professional opportunities.Only two clinics trust in a greater employability, without a certain moral development.It is no accident that one of those is the only clinic specialized in company and banking law.That is certainly the only one not committed to the social justice mission.As in some American law schools, it sees the clinical activity more as an effective teaching method rather than an opportunity to aid vulnerable people and to act in the public interest.There is certainly an impact for the human development of the student, but not necessarily greater employability They acquire more skills and opportunities in the professional field, but not necessarily more ethical sensitivity

Students acquire both professional opportunities and a commitment to social justice
There aren't enough data to detect 5.

AREAS OF INTERVENTION AND TYPES OF "CLIENTS"
As I warned with the results of the last question in the previous paragraph -monitoring the areas of intervention and the types of clients -it is evident that almost all the Italian clinics have a strong vocation for social justice.In fact they propose a legal training through the methodology of learning by doing, but also they aim to deconstruct the University as an aseptic fortress, an ivory tower of "navel-gazing" theory afraid to engage with harsh reality.Scholars who decide to become involved in a legal clinic generally undergo the alienation and the feeling of uselessness that can sometimes go with academic work.For this reason they consider essential a civic commitment of cultural institutions.
So, it is no wonder that areas of intervention where the Italian clinics are more dynamic are: migration and asylum, detention, antidiscrimination and human rights (fig.9).

Fig. 9 -Areas of intervention
Consistent with the declared areas of intervention, the clients belong to different vulnerable categories such as: indigents and marginalised persons, prisoners, migrants, Romas, asylum seekers and refugees, but also associations working for human rights and environment (Save the Children, Caritas, Asgi, WWF, etc.) (fig.10).Although only 4 clinics attend to production of law drafts, reviewing of regulations and design of innovative policy (fig.11) I believe that is a very promising pursuit.In this case, in fact, the clinic performs as a think tank specialized in law for social justice, the peculiar research capacity of the Academy is acknowledged and optimized and it makes the jurist's role wider and his commitment more proactive.

EUROPEAN RELEVANCE
The relevance of European Law in the Italian clinics' daily work is significant, even if it could be more propelled: it results low for 34%; medium for 19% and high for 48% (fig.13).

Fig. 12 -Relevance of the European Law in the clinical activities on a scale of 1 to 5
Lamin Kadhar, in a good paper titled Why the EU should take note of Europe's newest legal clinics, says: "studies consistently show that people residing in the EU (especially members of marginalized groups) face considerable obstacles in accessing their EU law rights.There seems to be both a knowledge gap and skills gap separating the people of Europe and their EU law rights.[…] The knowledge gap amongst individual rights-holders is exacerbated by a skills gap within the legal profession.Although there are increasingly more EU law specialists, their services are expensive and they are often unwilling to take on unprofitable, simple and run-of-the-mill EU law queries.Beyond this group of specialists, most domestic lawyers avoid the vast and seemingly exponentially increasing body of EU law". 6After this analysis the author presents the movement for clinical 75% of clinics (all the established ones plus some in the pilot phase) collaborate with institutions, mostly by memoranda of understanding or similar formal agreements.
Among these there are prison admins, courts, job advisers, and so on.But they were also able to involve the younger and fledgling projects.In fact at each network meeting the number of participants increases.People acting within the University in the social justice field and with an approach similar to clinicians are joining in this young movement, even if they do not yet have the proper status of a clinic.They manifest a civic and, in a broader sense, political attitude, they often feel like a minority in their faculty, needing recognition in a larger group, that gives name and acknowledgment to their idea of legal education and the jurist's role in society.
The issues most discussed are the definition of the identity profile of a legal clinic and its mandate, the ways to enforce clinical education ensuring more institutionalization and a broader recognition within the University curricula, and evaluation of possible strategies to guarantee the sustainability of the related projects.
In this respect I asked which policies could empower the clinics.All the respondents have stressed the need to improve funding, many consider important strengthening networking and exchange between clinics, also a good number believe it is important to reward the universities that activate legal clinics.6 out of 21 consider it a good idea to make legal education mandatory within law faculties and only 5 think it useful to establish quality standards (fig.14).

Fig. 12 -How to enhance the role of legal clinics
Despite the variety of opinions, all the participants in this movement wish to keep the pedagogic mission and the pursuit of social justice together.In fact to the question about mission only one clinic has answered that its only commitment is professional training, Moscovici calls the minority influence7 : "Our results support the notion that majority and minority influence are different processes, the former producing mostly public submissiveness without private acceptance, and the latter producing primarily changes in private responses.These processes, called compliance and conversion, are mutually exclusive and to a certain extent, opposite"8 .This means that the Italian movement probably cannot become mainstream and enrol the mass of students and scholars, but it can nonetheless have a deeper effect through changing a little the vision and also the attitude of those jurists who will never become clinicians.

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Fig. 4 -Budget degree; c) a way to fulfil the compulsory training or a part of the internship period required to became a lawyer 5 ; d) a post-degree course; e) voluntary work (fig.7).

Fig. 7 -
Fig. 7 -Benefit for students enrolled into clinical activities

Fig
Fig. 8 -Learning experiences proposed

Fig. 9 -
Fig. 9 -Opinions on the impact of clinical experience for the students Fig. 10 -Clients

Fig
Fig. 11 -Activities education as a good opportunity to improve human rights in Europe, through the training of a new generation of lawyers more socially conscious and more skilled in EU law.Developing a vision of the possible role of clinical education on the European stage is particularly important and urgent in an on-going process of institutionalization and definition of standards, where the mission is partially still open.Starting from and expanding Khadar's proposal, in the survey I have suggested five potential impacts of the clinics in the EU context on human rights protection: a) to contribute to the formation of a new generation of attorneys/lawyers who are EU law experts; b) to enhance the access of disadvantaged people to rights guaranteed by EU legislation by providing opportunities for pro bono legal advice given by clinics; c) to produce advanced and authoritative case law/doctrines, thanks to research carried out in universities, which will push institutions and European justice towards a growing commitment to human rights protection; d) to collaborate on the production of draft regulations and policies to implement the protection of fundamental rights at the European and international level; e) to create a venue which provides free legal advice outside courts for marginalised people.They are entirely approved by almost all the respondents.7. NETWORK AND MOVEMENT One of the most relevant aspects of legal education is being open to the external world, developing collaborations with subjects out of the academic orbit.So, in order to have a more comprehensive overview, it has been necessary inquiring clinics' partnership.The data indicates that all clinics have formal or informal relationships with lawyers and law firms.With the Bar association 5 clinics are said to be on good terms, 6 act fully independently, while the others do not respond or state that they should improve the relation.

level and 6
of these have developed connections with associations and NGOs at European level.Among these we find Unions, NGOs working in international cooperation, groups that uphold the rights of migrants, children, prisoners and the environment (such as: Antigone, L'Altro diritto, Ciss, Asgi, Caritas, Teatro e società, Save the Children, Cospes, CGIL Torino, CUB, USB, Gruppo Abele, WWF).With few exceptions, the network among clinics is generally good.14 clinics declare that they are linked with other Italian clinics and 6 with European ones (fig.11).Although in my opinion this result underestimates the actual reality, because -in the months after the collection of survey data -a brisk improvement of the national network is taking place and opening more chances of dialogue with ENCLE too.

Fig. 11 -
Fig. 11 -Relationships with other clinics involvement with ethics or social work.But this clinic acts independently without participating in the network meetings and discussions.At present, the movement does not have any formal status.But I have to mention the recent birth of an inter-departmental centre with the goal of creating a legal clinic in any associated department, if there is not one already, and developing a synergy among all the members.This Centre connects the Universities of Bari, Turin, Salerno, Naples, Cosenza, Palermo, Pisa, Rome and Florence and is specialized in human rights, migration, marginality and detention.The emergence of such a movement could influence the professional culture of Italian lawyers.The students enrolled in the clinics' activities have the opportunity to experiment with the law in action, to use their legal competence for rights, equity and public interest; they meet people who rarely arrive in a law firm due to their economic or social condition.So, they usually declare that they have been very affected by clinical experience and claim to have acquired more awareness and even a different sensitivity.Of course these young people are much less than the totality of law students, and the scholars involved are a very small part of the faculty staff, but they can play what Serge