Bridging the gap between classroom education and social justice through clinical legal education on migrants’ rights.
Launched in 2008, together with the clinical programs of the Universities of Brescia and Roma Tre, the IUC Clinical Legal Education Program on Migrants’ Rights was the first legal clinical experience in Italy, attempting to bridge the gap between classroom education and the reality of professional practice, and sensitizing its students to the problems of social justice.
Right from its beginnings, the IUC became a promoter of Clinical Legal Education in Italy, Europe, and beyond. After the creation of its own clinical program, the IUC assisted other universities in effectively establishing this new style of legal education within their academic proposals, entering the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE), and becoming a founding member and one of the driving institutions behind the establishment of the European Network for Clinical Legal Education (ENCLE) and of the Italian Law Clinic Network (Coordinamento nazionale delle cliniche legali).
Today, the IUC Legal Clinics Coordinator, Ulrich Stege, is Co‑President of GAJE, Executive Secretary of ENCLE, and Board Member of the Italian Law Clinic Network.
Over 320 students from more than 55 countries (such as: Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, India, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Puerto Rico, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, USA) have participated in the IUC legal clinical activities.
The Migrants’ Rights Clinic (formerly also known as the “Human Rights and Migration Law Clinic”) is coordinated by Ulrich Stege together with Maurizio Veglio and supported by Paula Doyle.
The clinical program explores law in action (in particular in the field of migration and asylum), investigating the myriad of legal and non‑legal factors that influence the social, legal, political, and economic arrangements in society while preparing at the same time students for the rigorous demands of public or private practice.
To provide: (1) a window into the true operational migration and asylum law; (2) an opportunity to understand and test the influence that EU law and international human rights law have on Italian migration and asylum law practice; (3) a hands‑on and interdisciplinary learning experience and exposure to real‑world legal problems; (4) an opportunity to interact with local organizations and professionals.
To offer: (1) a contribution from qualified, motivated, and supervised students and volunteers to improving access to justice and inclusion for migrants; (2) support to research activities and advocacy in the field of migration in its social, cultural, and economic dimensions.
Besides their clear educational focus, the IUC clinics have a strong social justice mission, which combines components such as: providing support to people/communities falling out of institutional support; building among students a sensitivity to social problems and the role of legal professionals as social actors; building systemic change; and understanding law as a social policy tool.
The current Migrants’ Rights Clinic offers principally two ways of getting involved: students may attend the legal clinic as part of their curriculum of studies, and the IUC also offers alumni and volunteers the possibility to engage in extracurricular legal clinic activities.
The Migrants’ Rights Clinic combines a classroom component (including the content of law with capacity building on professional skills, such as “Interview skills” and “Legal Research and Writing”) with involvement in practical project activities.
Classroom courses include:
The IUC Legal Clinics Coordinator, Ulrich Stege, is Co‑President of GAJE, Executive Secretary of ENCLE, and Board Member of the Italian Law Clinic Network.
Students work on real asylum and migration law cases. Clinical students – supervised by specialized lawyers – meet asylum seekers/migrants, scrutinize applicants' stories, search for relevant information (case law and Country of Origin Information), prepare legal memos containing the story and legal analysis, and provide applicants with theoretical and practical information on their case (e.g. guidance for their asylum interview).
Created in 2016 by an initiative of students and in cooperation with the University of Turin’s law clinic on “Carcere e diritti I”. Clinical students provide legal support to victims of trafficking in human beings, by interviewing the beneficiaries, writing the legal facts, and preparing further legal actions. This clinic has also launched cooperation with the Migration & Trafficked Persons Law Clinic in Abuja (Nigeria).
A joint legal training program between the IUC Migrants’ Rights Clinic, the International Protection of Human Rights Legal Clinic of the Department of Law of Roma Tre, and the Clinical Legal Clinic II course of the Department of Law of the Federico II University (Naples), implemented with the support and backing of UNHCR.
Objectives are: (1) to provide students/volunteers with a practical insight into the reality of statelessness; and (2) to provide free legal guidance to stateless persons or persons at risk of statelessness in order to guarantee them protection and access to rights and services.
Law students are involved in strategic litigation activities preparing expert opinions, third‑party interventions, or legal drafts linked to litigations before the Court of Justice of the EU, the European Court of Human Rights, or UN complaint bodies.
To date, legal clinic interventions have been mainly linked to issues related to Search and Rescue operations and the duties of States in the Mediterranean Sea, immigration detention (CPR/Hotspots), or push‑backs on EU external borders.
Thanks to a cooperation agreement between the local prison in Turin, the local ombudsmen for detainees, and the IUC, students and volunteers provide legal support to asylum seekers inside the prison.
Due only to the law clinic support, it is now possible for asylum seekers to overcome bureaucratic boundaries and formalize their asylum request while still detained in Turin’s prison, avoiding the risk of deportation and inhuman treatment in their country of origin.
Since its founding, the IUC clinical program has focused on scrutinizing the treatment of immigration detainees in Turin’s CPR (Centri di Permanenza per il Rimpatrio). Clinical students interview detainees and major stakeholders, analyze case law (such as detention and expulsion decisions by the Giudice di Pace), publish awareness‑raising reports and legal assessments, and launch legal actions together with partners.
Students are engaged in general supervision/reflection sessions, sharing experiences and reflecting on how legal institutions and practices operate and how they could be reformed to better meet the needs of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants.
The Migrants’ Rights Clinic is in part implemented in cooperation with the Departments of Law of the Universities of Turin and Eastern Piedmont in Alessandria, and is open to the IUC international student body. It involves undergraduate law students from the Universities of Turin and Eastern Piedmont, engaging a group of selected Italian and international students who are highly qualified and motivated.