CLA News / Forming the Climate-Aware Lawyers of the Future Through New Collaborations Among Environmental Law Clinics By Dr. Prosper Maguchu and Dr David Rossati
Introduction
Clinical legal education is expanding across the Commonwealth and beyond, proving to be a highly effective means for law students to learn the law and its complexities through experiential learning.[1] With the mounting pressures arising from ecological degradation and anthropogenic climate change, the challenge for legal education in Commonwealth countries extends beyond integrating the evolving and fast-growing landscape of climate litigation into curricula. It encompasses the broader ambition of forming climate-aware lawyers of the future, as professionals equipped not only with doctrinal knowledge but also with the practical skills and cross-jurisdictional awareness to address a truly global crisis. Environmental law clinics, where students engage with real-world environmental and climate cases under academic supervision, are emerging as a particularly promising vehicle for achieving this goal.
The Growth of Environmental Law Clinics
Two noticeable trends deserve attention. First, there is a growing movement of law clinics dedicated to environmental issues, many of them with a specific focus on climate change. In the Commonwealth context, prominent examples include the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic at Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada[2] and the King’s Human Rights and Environment Clinic in the United Kingdom.[3] More recently established initiatives, such as the Environmental and Climate Justice Clinic at the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria,[4] or the Environmental Legal Clinic at the Law Faculty of Chiang Mai University, demonstrate that this model is gaining traction in other jurisdictions. Furthermore, clinics that are not strictly focused on environmental matters are increasingly engaging with climate-related projects. A notable illustration is the International Law Clinic of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, whose students have contributed to shaping the petition for an advisory opinion on climate change before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.[5]
Transnational Collaborations as a Growing Feature
A second relevant trend is the growing incidence of collaborations among environmental law clinics across borders, and the promise that more facilitative forms of such collaboration can generate. Several clinics already engage in transnational projects on environmental issues. For instance, the King’s Human Rights and Environment Clinic has pursued a project on transnational soft law remedies for climate change affecting communities in the Indian Sundarbans, involving collaboration with local communities to understand climate impacts and identify pathways for accountability.[6] Another example is the long-standing collaboration between clinic students from the University of Malawi and the University of Maryland in the United States.[7]
These examples illustrate that transnational collaborations are not merely incidental but are becoming a structural feature – if not a necessity – of clinical engagement with the global environmental crisis. Building on this momentum, environmental law clinics are now exploring new networks to further integrate their knowledge and practices. Somewhat in the Commonwealth context, the Alliance of Environmental Law Clinics in Latin America and the Caribbean represents a pioneering network[8] that has led to impactful forms of collaboration, including the submission of an amicus curiae intervention to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in its advisory proceedings on climate change.[9]
More recently, in December 2025, a group of climate law clinicians, non-governmental organisations, and environmental groups adopted a Nairobi Declaration calling for the strengthening of the environmental law clinic model in the global context and recognising the transformative role of intergenerational collaboration and youth leadership within clinical work.[10] At the same meeting, an initiative aimed at establishing a new Global Network of Environmental Law Clinics was launched, signalling a step change in ambition.
The Promise of New Collaborative Models
The global trend thus points toward exploring new forms of effective collaboration among law clinics dealing with the environment and climate change. Bottom-up networking appears to be the leading means for achieving this, including as a way to promote the dissemination of clinical legal education in Commonwealth countries where it remains emergent – such as in parts of Africa, South-East Asia, and India. As environmental law clinics seek to increase their impact and expose students to the necessarily transnational and global dimensions of climate action, forms of knowledge transfer and mutual support on how to establish and run an environmental law clinic become increasingly important.
Another dimension of enhanced transnational collaboration lies in the very projects that law clinics conduct. Bottom-up networks create the fertile ground to move beyond the current sporadic and mostly bilateral forms of cooperation. For instance, regional and global networks could adopt a ‘clearing house’ model – a facilitative mechanism that matches calls for legal support with the clinics best placed to provide it. Such models are already employed in legal aid contexts: PILnet, for example, operates regional clearing houses as points of contact that facilitate the matching of direct calls for legal support with law firms in its network that can offer pro bono assistance.[11] A similar mechanism adapted for environmental law clinic networks could facilitate the creation of new and more impactful transnational clinical projects on the environment and climate, by sourcing calls for legal support from local groups affected by the climate crisis, reshaping them into clinical legal projects, and connecting environmental law clinics with the complementary capacities and expertise to carry them out.
Conclusion
Despite the practical challenges and resource needs that such initiatives would entail, the potential for new collaborations among environmental law clinics can bolster clinical legal education as a vehicle for preparing the next generation of climate-aware. Commonwealth legal professionals and educators are well-placed to contribute to and benefit from these emerging networks. The evolving landscape of environmental law clinics and their collaborative ambitions deserves the close attention of all those committed to climate justice and the rule of law.
By Dr. Prosper Simbarashe Maguchu and Dr David Rossati
Dr. Prosper Simbarashe Maguchu, p.s.maguchu@vu.nl
Prosper Simbarashe Maguchu Prosper Simbarashe Maguchu is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he coordinates the International Human Rights Law Clinic. Alongside clinical legal education, he is a specialist in financial crimes law and human rights.
Dr David Rossati, d.rossati@vu.nl
David Rossati is an Assistant Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is a co-Director of the Climate Change & Sustainability Law Clinic of the Faculty, and a researcher and educator in the fields of international climate change law and international economic law.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]See generally Richard Wilson, The Global Evolution of Clinical Legal Education: More Than a Method (CUP 2017).
[2] Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic, Osgoode Hall Law School < https://ejsclinic.info.yorku.ca/> accessed 27 February 2026.
[3]King’s Human Rights and Environment Clinic < https://www.kcl.ac.uk/legal-clinic/how-we-can-help/human-rights-and-environment > accessed 27 February 2026.
[4] Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa
https://www.chr.up.ac.za/
[5] International Law Clinic, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam <ttps://research.vu.nl/en/courses/international-law-clinic-5/> See Request for Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights Advisory Opinion No. 001/2025.
[6]King’s Human Rights and Environment Clinic, ‘Pursuing Transnational Soft Law Remedies for Climate Change in the Indian Sundarbans’ < https://www.kcl.ac.uk/legal-clinic/how-we-can-help/human-rights-and-environment-sundarbans-justice-project> accessed 27 February 2026.
[7] ‘Maryland Carey Law Students’ Immersive Experience in Malawi’ https://law.umaryland.edu/content/articles/name-768424-en.html
[8]Alianca de Clinicas Juridicas Ambientales de Latino America y el Caribe < https://alianzadeclinicasambientales.com/ /> accessed 27 February 2026.
[9]See Alliance of Environmental Law Clinics, ‘Amicus Curiae Brief on States’ Obligations Regarding the Climate Emergency’ (2024), submitted to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Advisory Opinion OC-32.
[10]Nairobi Declaration on Strengthening the Environmental Law Clinic Model in the Global Context (December 2025) forthcoming.
[11]See PILnet, ‘FAQ for PILNet’s Clearing House’ < https://www.pilnet.org/faq-for-pilnets-clearinghouses/> accessed 27 February 2026.
