Experience-based Law Learning

We had identified four objectives for our joint project. 1. Piloting pedagogical methodologies to democratize legal education: to develop, pilot, and exchange findings on experience-based method...

We had identified four objectives for our joint project. 1. Piloting pedagogical methodologies to democratize legal education: to develop, pilot, and exchange findings on experience-based methodologies such as courtwatching and storytelling, to create accessible learning environments. 2. Lived Experience-Centric Legal Literacy: to develop through participatory methods a pilot adult education project that covers areas of the law that interest the target group. 3. Civic Empowerment: to develop and test methods to provide target group with the knowledge and skills needed to actively engage in democratic processes. 4. Advancing experience-based adult education: to produce joint findings from our piloted education program, useful for our organizations' own future work/collaborations on adult education. Similar target groups exist throughout Europe, and when tailored to local legal contexts, our findings will also benefit these groups.

In Phase 1 (Research and exchange on pedagogies for experience-based adult education), Justice Collective (JC) and (RE)Claim (RC) conducted desk based research on experience-based methodologies. JC focused on courtwatching and RC on storytelling/collective narratives. We also exchanged about findings. In Phase 2 (Co-design and plan learning path), we identified substantive areas of law from the bottom up through exchange with the target group. We exchanged with each other about key issues around people’s negative experiences with law, power dynamics in teaching, and specific violations of rights. In Phase 3 (Develop pilot curriculum), we developed a pilot curriculum. JC focused on courtwatching as a tool for community members and on immediate know-your-rights education for people facing criminal cases.RC developed a 4-phase learning pathway (deconstruction, politicization, legal appropriation, and collective action). In Phase 4 (Experimentation), each partner implemented the pilot project with their target group and discussed with each other. In Phase 5 (Evaluation and dissemination), we analyzed results and produced together a joint findings document, including through in -person exchange.

We exchanged and identified key principles for law-learning for our target groups including starting where people are; recognizing the injustices people have experienced; anchoring content to people’s experiences; adapting methods to the legal context; and moving from the individual to the collective. JC developed pedagogies for people directly impacted by fines and criminalization and community members. Our community member pedagogy is in the form of courtwatching, a collective activity of being present at court trials to build knowledge and become active participants of the legal system. For impacted people, we meet people in courthouses as they face prosecution and provide accessible know-your-rights information they can use at or after trial. RC developed a 4-phase methodology for marginalized adults facing police discrimination. 1) (Deconstruction) creates safe spaces to express lived experiences of oppression. 2) (Politicization) shifts understanding from individual guilt to systemic analysis and introduce ambivalence of law. 3) (Critical Appropriation) combines learning rights with analysis of conditions for use and risks. 4) (Collective Action) includes peer training to ensure transmission.