The Influence of Comparative Law in Teaching “Street Law” in Italy

This paper analyzes various comparative-law features inherent to teaching “Street Law” in Italy, a legal clinic now offered at Roma Tre’s Law Department. The clinic examines basic legal notions such as the rule of law, democracy and justice, framed around active-citizenship initiatives enabled by the principle of horizontal subsidiarity. Street Law presents these concepts using learner-based, interactive methodology – typical of all legal clinics – in a “train-the-trainer” format. As part of the clinic, the law students in turn teach these concepts to high school students in several theoretical and hands-on lessons at a local high school, resulting in “peer-to-peer” teaching. Not surprisingly, Street Law, initiated by student-activists in Washington DC in the early 1970s, is deeply infused with common-law legal-education methodology and principles. Traditional lecture-based methods typical of civil-law legal education give way to the Socratic method, guided discussions, guest speakers, onsite visits to local government offices, role-play, games and other hands-on activities designed to engage students in a challenging, new experience aimed at both increasing their practical skills and mastering legal principles. This paper will analyze the methodological aspects of the course, and the policy guidelines embedded in soft-law provisions emanating from various sources that offer sound rationales for including Street Law in legal education. It will also review the comparative-law notions inherent to the clinic that extend also to substantive legal concepts such as subsidiarity, a largely European notion, seeking parallels to it in the American legal system, as well as several of the fundamental rights and duties of democracy.