The Stateless Legal Clinic: Innovative Models for Addressing Unmet Legal Need in Australia through Clinical Legal Education

Abstract

The Stateless Legal Clinic is a unique service providing legal education and aid to eligible stateless children in their application for Australian citizenship. It also provides law students at the University of Melbourne with the opportunity to gain practical legal experience and engage in experiential learning, through a clinical legal education elective subject offered within the Juris Doctor (JD) degree. The Stateless Legal Clinic aims to address a critical gap in legal services for stateless children in Australia and situates clinical legal education within the relatively new and emerging discipline of ‘statelessness studies.’ Through an examination of Australia's legal framework for addressing the global human rights issue of statelessness, this article examines the design and operation of the Stateless Legal Clinic, arguing that clinical legal education can provide innovative models for increasing access to justice for communities often overlooked or under-serviced by the legal industry.