This two-week applied legal practice course aims to strengthen the professional development of students, who are lawyers and other legal advocates in the field of mental health and disability rights law from Central and Eastern Europe and further afield. While being an applied course exploring rights in real life, the course will introduce interdisciplinary perspectives from social sciences, politics, social work, and clinical sciences.
The four faculty members are all internationally recognized and outstanding scholars and activists in the field. Together, the faculty members have experience in human rights advocacy, teaching, and programming in central and eastern Europe, Africa, and North America and are sensitive to and knowledgeable about the specific needs and problems of these regions from where the participants will come.
The course focuses on the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - an instrument that entered into force in 2008. Using this piece of law, the course objectives are to heighten students' awareness of the legislative and policy implications of their mental health lawyering, and an awareness of the range of ways they can engage with reforms in their home countries; to advance their skills to effectively represent people with mental health disabilities in courtroom and other settings; to develop students' understanding and knowledge of the issues in such a way as to facilitate further postgraduate study.
The course uses innovative teaching methods and encourages students to reflect on the law in practice, and how lawyers can impact upon policy-making at the domestic level to ensure the implementation of international human rights law. The methods include a site visit to a mental health institution, a site visit to a community-based service for people with mental health disabilities, and interviews with people with mental health disabilities. In the classroom, the methods include group preparations and presentations, practice of courtroom advocacy skills, tutor presentations, and discussions, and the course culminates with a moot court.
Completed CEU Summer University Application Form
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Notes:
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Notification
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