Accessibility of legal services for people with no sufficient means to pay for a lawyer depends on the goodwill of attorneys to provide their services pro bono. Therefore, law students must be aware of their position in society and the role of their profession in ensuring justice. Future lawyers should be exposed to inequality in society and become acquainted with pro bono culture and the concept of the right to legal aid. Despite the above, the right to legal aid has been absent in curricula worldwide as well as at the Faculty of Law, Comenius University in Slovakia.
This is the primary reason for opening a new course, Legal Aid Studies, with the main challenge to promote legal aid among future lawyers. The course has a three-part structure focused on student-centered learning and peer learning methods. The presentation aims to acquaint participants with the process of opening a brand new course on a topic that had not been part of the curriculum, designing of syllabus and developing lecture plans. Moreover, the goal is to introduce a three-part course structure and a peer learning method. The audience will be engaged through an interactive presentation and examples of student involvement in the teaching process.
