A CHILD law clinic offering research and expertise to lawyers working on behalf of children is being established in the law department of University College Cork.
It could become linked to a children’s law centre along the lines of that operating in Belfast, according to Dr Ursula Kilkelly, child law expert and law lecturer at UCC.
"The clinic will provide an opportunity for students to work on real cases," she told The Irish Times. "We are looking at the models that exist to see what is appropriate to . . . Ireland."
Many of those models are based in the US, using trainee lawyers who have the right of audience in the courts, which law students do not have here, she said. However, the model being developed at UCC next year will be able to collect international evidence and jurisprudence to support legal challenges on child law issues.
The kind of issue being pursued includes the detention of children on remand, other than for a short period, she said.
In developing the clinic, Dr Kilkelly plans a round-table discussion with lawyers in the new year, with the participation of Prof Alan Lerner of the University of Pennsylvania. His trip and research on the project is supported by the National Academy for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning.
The students who will be providing the research are PhD students working under the supervision of Dr Kilkelly.
She said students were increasingly keen to do this kind of work, and she planned to develop a programme linked to the clinic whereby those participating would get credits for working in it.
“It will be a free legal research service for people who would recognise gaps in their own knowledge,” she said.
“There is a bright cohort of PhD students who are a huge resource.”
In addition to the clinic, Dr Kilkelly and a group of lawyers interested in child law and in strategic litigation on children’s rights issues, which includes the FLAC-based Public Interest Law Initiative, are involved in work aimed at setting up a children’s law centre in the Republic. This will draw on the experience of the Children’s Law Centre in Belfast.