Experiential learning in law

This paper outlines the pedagogical underpinnings of a project which seeks to give undergraduate lawyers a rare opportunity to gain practical experience of giving advice in two of the most popular and interesting areas of the law: criminal law and human rights. Under normal circumstances, it is difficult to obtain criminal work experience and even rarer for the students to have any experience of dealing with human rights prior to graduation. However, developing an Innocence Project would allow students to deal with a real case concerning a miscarriage of justice and encourage them to grapple with the practicalities of the law of evidence, as well as relevant areas of human rights and criminal law. The students should have the confidence to think independently, be creative in seeking solutions, collaborate professionally with established professionals and ambitiously enquire to solve problems. The students will also have to challenge the complexity of professional practice and deal with it as professionals.