The Necessity of Transitioning from Generic Legal Clinics to Specialized Environmental Law Clinics in MENA Region with Focus on Iran

Abstract

Legal clinics in the MENA region countries—like in other developing parts of the world—might be in a position, especially in their first years of activity, where they are obliged to provide legal assistance in various areas to the vulnerable groups of the society due to two factors. First, there is a lack of specialized and professional activists and volunteers, alongside the need for other resources like funds and supporting organizations. Second, the basic civil needs in the society that have not been met by other juridical organizations are diverse, and, therefore, they are passed on to legal clinics trying to meet the basic legal information and needs of the society, let alone concentrating on specialized matters such as environmental subjects. The main outline of this article is to indicate that for having a more effective performance by legal clinics in the legal structure of their countries, it is necessary that they transition from offering legal aid and teaching laws in every area to much more specialized fields like environmental law due to the local needs of where they are situated and referring to their professional human resources. If clinics specialize in special areas of law such as environmental law, they would gain at least two achievements—first, being able to protect the vulnerable ecology of their local rich environment and to enrich their own knowledge on their rights and laws they should be aware, and second, these specialized clinics would have the opportunity to play a creative and significant role in the legal and juridical system of the country, for example, through comparative studies, exposing the new point of view to the jurists and judges, drafting new legal bills and altering the existing impractical laws that do not answer the local needs.