Critical Legal Studies within Legal Clinics

Abstract

The article suggests schemes of thought that help align the work carried out in legal clinics from a critical legal perspective. The point of departure is understanding that the abilities or skills that the clinics intend to teach do not necessarily imply a critical way of thinking-practicing the law, therefore, the links between critical legal schools of thought that allow expanding the critical horizons of the human rights clinics will be made explicit. The argument will highlight the importance of stimulating the legal imagination in the clinical spaces of human rights as a fundamental element of the clinical-critical method, for which the developments of the law and literature movement and the notion of jurisliterature will be used. The first part of the paper tracks the course of clinical teaching in the Latin American context, identifying where they have focused their efforts and highlighting those that enrich the critical approach. The second section identifies critical legal studies that, in a similar way to the clinical movement, seek to understand and practice law critically.