Street Law
What Is Street Law?
Street Law is a practical and participatory educational program that teaches about law, democracy, and human rights. A unique blend of content and methodology, Street Law uses techniques that promote cooperative learning, critical thinking, and the ability to participate in a democratic society. For more than 30 years, Street Law programs and curricula have promoted knowledge of legal rights and responsibilities, engagement in the democratic process, and belief in the rule of law, among both youth and adults.
Street Law began in 1972 as a practical law curriculum designed as part of a clinical project by a group of Georgetown University law students. Washington, DC public high school students who took the course and the law students who taught it were extremely enthusiastic. With this encouragement, the law school/high school partnership model was expanded to all District of Columbia high schools, where it continues today as the DC Street Law Clinic.
Street Law at Rutgers School of Law–Newark
Two first-year law students with an interest in working with young people and a desire to use their legal knowledge in a classroom setting founded Street Law at Rutgers School of Law–Newark in the spring of 2006. Our Street Law program seeks to bring proficiency in practical law to youth and adults and to empower them to use the law and become more active citizens. To this end, Street Law partners with community organizations and local schools to add a law-related component to their programs. Working in pairs, Street Law members teach classes designed to provide knowledge of every day legal problems and develop problem-solving skills necessary for dealing with everyday legal issues.
Goals of Street Law
Street Law is a practical and participatory educational program that teaches about law, democracy, and human rights. A unique blend of content and methodology, Street Law uses techniques that promote cooperative learning, critical thinking, and the ability to participate in a democratic society. For more than 30 years, Street Law programs and curricula have promoted knowledge of legal rights and responsibilities, engagement in the democratic process, and belief in the rule of law, among both youth and adults.
Street Law began in 1972 as a practical law curriculum designed as part of a clinical project by a group of Georgetown University law students. Washington, DC public high school students who took the course and the law students who taught it were extremely enthusiastic. With this encouragement, the law school/high school partnership model was expanded to all District of Columbia high schools, where it continues today as the DC Street Law Clinic.
Street Law at Rutgers School of Law–Newark
Two first-year law students with an interest in working with young people and a desire to use their legal knowledge in a classroom setting founded Street Law at Rutgers School of Law–Newark in the spring of 2006. Our Street Law program seeks to bring proficiency in practical law to youth and adults and to empower them to use the law and become more active citizens. To this end, Street Law partners with community organizations and local schools to add a law-related component to their programs. Working in pairs, Street Law members teach classes designed to provide knowledge of every day legal problems and develop problem-solving skills necessary for dealing with everyday legal issues.
Goals of Street Law
- To provide opportunities for Newark’s inner-city community to learn about their legal rights and responsibilities, the basic workings of government, and legal issues that pervade daily life.
- To provide opportunities for communities to develop skills, such as analytical, critical thinking, advocacy, negotiation and persuasion, that are essential in utilizing the law to be effective within legal systems.
- To provide opportunities for law students to improve their presentation and research skills, to participate in a pro bono program, and to learn from the communities they will be teaching.
- To establish connections between the law school and the Newark community.