Street Law as a unique learning method: What do students themselves actually find to be its benefits? Answers from the Czech Republic

Abstract

Street Law is believed to be a unique learning method. But do Street Law university students actually acknowledge the benefits Street Law is supposed to bring them? Has a Street Law course influenced them for their future? And how? This paper focuses on the benefits of Street Law for university students based on the empirical research conducted among the graduates of the Street Law course at Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Law, during which law students teach law in secondary schools. To find out whether Street Law actually provided the graduates with benefits, which are often stated in the literature as well as during the courses, all of the Street Law graduates were approached with a questionnaire. The paper focuses on the results – it shows which particular skills Street Law graduates feel have improved, whether they feel it has helped them to improve their legal knowledge or influenced their values. It also focuses on the opportunities Street Law skills can provide in legal practice and whether Street Law somehow influenced the teaching careers of its graduates. Although the research is not on a large scale, it creates an interesting picture about the impact of this untraditional type of education from the perspective of one of the target groups. In general Street Law graduates in the Czech Republic confirmed that they find Street Law to be a strong educational tool for faculties of law to produce better lawyers.