Street Law Partners with White & Case to Start Public Legal Education Program in Tashkent

For the past year, Street Law has been working with Tashkent State University of Law (TSUL) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to develop a law school-based public legal education program. With significant on-the-ground support from White & Case and the support of the Ministry of Justice of Uzbekistan, the program is now fully up and running.

After an initial training in Tashkent led by Street Law, 30 law students are now teaching law-related lessons in five local high schools. The classes, which are taught in the interactive and participatory style common to all of Street Law’s programs, are highly engaging for the high school students. In one class, students role played a court process complete with counsel on each side and a panel of judges—an approach that students reported was not only more fun but more relevant and applicable than their usual classes, which are taught in a traditional and didactic way. As Mahsuda Tadjibayeva, director of the TSUL Street Law program, said, “Because law students are teaching them with untraditional methods like educational games and activities, they are more effectively learning about law and their rights.”

In order to strengthen the program and ensure its impact, Street Law continues to support the program at TSUL. In May 2019, Street Law led a best practices study tour on running a public legal education program. The workshop, hosted at White & Case’s offices in Washington, DC, included as participants a professor from TSUL and six law professors and practicing lawyers from around Eastern Europe. Participants learned about interactive teaching, lesson development, and moot courts from Street Law staff members and a variety of DC-area clinical legal education experts. The study tour also included meetings with the Hon. Neal Kravits (associate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia), Lisa Dewey (pro bono partner at DLA Piper and director of New Perimeter, DLA Piper’s non-profit affiliate), and Michael Shenkman (special assistant at the Office of the Counselor to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States).

Street Law will continue to support the TSUL program throughout 2019-2020 school year with additional trainings both in Tashkent and elsewhere in the region. This project is funded by the United States Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

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