Humboldt Law Clinic

Humboldt Law Clinic

What is the Humboldt Law Clinic?

The Humboldt Law Clinic is a year-long program, in which participants have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in a specific field of law by working on practical cases during their studies.

The Clinic consists of two separate cycles: a human rights law cycle (taught in English), and an anti-discrimination law cycle (taught in German). The human rights cycle will begin in the winter semester 2010/11, the anti-discrimination cycle will begin in the summer term of 2011. Students will choose to participate in either one or the other cycle in a given year.

The Humboldt Law Clinic is affiliated with the Law and Society Institute Berlin at Humboldt University. It is supervised by Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer LL.M. (Michigan), Dr. Sarah Elsuni, Karina Theurer und Ass. iur. Nora Markard (MA). Jacqui Zalcberg, LL.M. (Columbia) was a co-founder of the Clinic.

An innovative format

Law Clinics offer students the opportunity to contribute to a good cause while being trained in a specific field of law and acquiring practical skills. Being part of a Clinic requires determination, enthusiasm, creativity, initiative, the ability to work closely with others, to deal with setbacks, and the motivation to invest into a project long-term. It teaches skills directly relevant to professional practice and allows students to pursue their interest under academic as well as practical supervision. While academia can at times seem far removed from practice, clinics endeavour to engage with practice to the benefit of all parties involved. In the USA, many law schools run all kinds of clinics. In Germany, this is still an innovative format where Humboldt Law Clinic is one of the pioneers.

Who sponsors the Humboldt Law Clinic?

During the preliminary phase, the Humboldt Law Clinic received one-time start-up funds from the Innovationsfonds Lehre (teaching innovation fund). The Faculty and Prof. Baer provide rooms, staff and administration services.

For teaching, supervision and the establishment of our cooperations, we have received start-up funds from a private sponsor as well as two cooperating law firms from the Frankfurt Pro-bono Roundtable.

How does the Humboldt Law Clinic work?

Each cycle has the following three-part structure:

In the first term of the Law Clinic cycle, participants take a BZQ class (berufsorientierte Zusatzqualifikation, BZQ). This is a required class format for second-year students with a focus on practical skill training. The BZQ class will therefore teach human rights or anti-discrimination law using real cases from NGOs or private practitioners as the paradigm through which students not only explore the substantive issues but participate in inter-active activities which allow them to develop their legal skills. Using cases, students will develop a grasp of the workings of specialised advice centres or institutions and will explore legal strategies for bringing a case - e.g., how to work with clients, how to make strategic decisions on which plaintiff would be the most appropriate, or which cause of actions should be brought in which human rights body - and learn how to write briefs as a party or as an amicus curiae.

In the term break, participants will be placed with Humboldt Law Clinic partners - we co-operate with NGOs, lawyers specialised in human rights or non-discrimination work, and also with law firms. These internships fulfil all the requirements of the mandatory placements provided for by s. 2 JAO. The students will work there full-time for a minimum of four weeks. This is to allow students to have an intensive period working on a current case and deepening their knowledge of the issues. Placements will be selected in collaboration with the Clinic, with the aim to identify projects that will allow for maximum collaborative work by all parties involved.

During the second term of the Law Clinic cycle, students continue to work on their cases in an advanced seminar under the supervision of the Humboldt Law Clinic. In this seminar, relevant legal issues that arise out of the cases will be explored. Students will produce a piece of work that will be useful to the Clinic partner whose case they have been working on. This could be in the form of a legal brief, and amicus curiae or a legal report.

Further Information and Contact

For further information, please explore our website. A two-page leaflet is available for download here (in German).

You can email the Clinic: lawclinic@rewi.hu-berlin.de.