Clinical Legal Education and the National Qualifications Framework for Higher Education

Abstract

Clinical Legal Education (CLE) is a method of teaching and studying law. The CLE teaching methodologies require students to learn through doing, to implement legal theories and principles in real situations, to perform lawyer’s roles under faculty supervision, and to review and reflect their experiences. Many interactive teaching methods and evaluation techniques are employed throughout the course.

CLE teaching methodologies enable students to enhance necessary lawyering skills, to gain knowledge and understanding of legal theories and provisions, and to understand the potential and limitation of legal system in real world. More important, CLE is accomplished in instilling lawyer values and ethics into the students. CLE, then, is in accordance with the framework of the Thai education reform as appeared in the National Education Act of B.E. 2542, and is able to make the legal education achieve the expected learning outcomes required by the National Qualifications Framework for Higher Education in Thailand.