Meaningful Exchange: Collaboration Among Clinicians and Law Teachers in India and the United States

Abstract

This chapter briefly examines current literature about the Law and Development movement, which criticizes an 'export' approach taken by some legal professionals as they consult abroad about legal change and legal education. It then describes the Indian legal and educational contexts in which law students and teachers work, and concludes with a discussion of possible themes and goals for comparative study and collaboration for clinicians from India and the United States. Collaboration with foreign colleagues on legal education activities in communities provides opportunities for rethinking one's own culture as well as learning about others and about interconnections between cultures. The paradigm of collaboration, which connotes interaction, effort and mutual benefit, contrasts with that of outside expertise on or export of clinical legal education methodology. Interaction between law teachers in the United States and India may beneficially affect the teachers' work at home and abroad.