Legal Clinic
Sustainable Development and Global Justice
Every year, the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp organizes a Sustainable Development and Global Justice legal clinic as part of the Master of Laws Programme. The clinic is coordinated by Professor Tomaso Ferrando and lasts for the whole second semester of Year 1. Students choosing dissertation related to the Sustainable Development and Global Justice module are automatically enrolled in the clinic.
The aim of the clinic is to bring students as close as possible to concrete legal cases and to the reality of law in the context of human rights, environmental and global justice challenges. Students are divided into small groups, supported by a mentor from within the Law and Development Research Group, and put in direct contact with a ‘client’ or ‘partner’ of the clinic. Along the years, ‘clients/partners’ have been local communities, international and national NGOs, human rights law firms, United Nations treaty bodies and other actors who are promoting human and environmental rights, or asking for legal redress.
During the semester, students learn how to translate the theory of law into concrete cases, how to communicate about law and legal instances, how to work in group and how to draft legal documents that differ from the usual essays: legal analysis, human rights based assessments, policy briefs, submissions to the United Nations human rights bodies and legal strategies are among the outputs that have been realized in the course of the last years and that represent the backbone of international lawyering.
At the end of the semester, students are also given the opportunity to present their work to the ‘client/partners’ and other relevant stakeholders, and often there is the possibility of making the work public and therefore obtain international visibility beyond the module.
For academic year. 2022/2023, the legal clinic will rely on the support of Maha Abdallah, Arinç Onat Kiliç and Michael Marcondes Smith.
2022-2023 projects
Plastic waste trade and accountability of EU Member States
- Assisting ClientEarth to map the legal frameworks in the EU with a view to elaborate a legal strategy to hold Member States accountable for the negative impacts of (illegally) trading in waste with non-EU countries.
Corporate accountability in the context of contemporary apartheid
- Working with Al-Haq in mapping possible accountability mechanisms to redress the private sector’s responsibility in entrenching Israel’s settler colonialism and apartheid in Palestine that exacerbates violations of human rights and international law.
The Right to Social Security in South Africa: A Close Look to Child Support and Disability Allowances, Considering Race and Gender
- Collaboration with Amnesty International UK to examine the social security framework of South Africa from the perspective of a human rights to social security with a strong focus on intersectionality of gender and race.
2020-2021 projects
Support to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
- Supporting the special rapporteur, Professor Michael Fakhri, in the analysis of the state of the right to food in the European Union. Realization of a report and recommendations.
Legal strategy Challenging Micro-plastic Production
- Collaboration with ClientEarth in the elaboration of an international legal strategy aimed at challenging the expansion of micro-plastic production in the port of Antwerp, notably in the case of INEOS’ plans for a new plant (Project One). Realization of an overarching legal assessment of state of the art and jurisprudence at international and European level.
Legal assessment of land acquiring for wind farms
- Support to INDEPAZ in the assessment of the possible legal avenues to hold to account EU companies acquiring land for the construction of wind farms in the region of Guajira, Colombia. Realization of a report with indication of main international legal constraints, jurisprudential precedents and possible legal interventions.
2021-2022 projects
Evaluating Non-financial Reporting on Plastic Packaging
- Students assisted ClientEarth to structure an assessment framework based on non-financial reporting obligations of companies in the EU relating to plastic packaging
Legal Claims Against Land Grabbing and Mining Activities in Amazon
- Support the legal claims put forward by indigenous, fishing and artisanal communities in the Amazon bring against land grabbing and mining activities
Protection of the Rights of Traditional Peoples and Traditional Commercial Activities
- Assisting, through legal research, a civil society organization in the production of an amicus curiae to the higher administrative court concerning the human rights standards of the protection of the rights of traditional peoples and traditional commercial activities in Colombia.