Stateless Legal Clinic (LAWS90259)

The Stateless Legal Clinic (SLC) offers students the opportunity to develop their practical legal skills while making a real difference to the lives of stateless adults and children living in the Australian community. There are an estimated 10-15 million stateless people in the world; approximately one third are children. Without nationality, stateless people face barriers in accessing basic rights, and in Australia, the threat of prolonged or indefinite detention.

In this clinic, students will support lawyers working with stateless clients to provide direct assistance to stateless children and adults, in a range of matters including applications for Australian citizenship (through the Stateless Children Program stream), and visa cancellations (through the Stateless Adults Program stream). Complementary seminars will include theoretical and practical components relevant to clinic work and statelessness law; offering students a solid theoretical understanding of statelessness at the global and national level, as well as practical skills-based training focused on working directly with stateless clients.

Students will undertake 12 days of clinical work based at Melbourne Law School under the supervision of the Clinic Coordinator and partner organisations. During the Clinic and under supervision, students will utilise the legal knowledge and skills acquired during their degree to undertake work on legal issues with real clients, and in doing so, will be exposed to the realities of legal practice. The Clinical work will be conducted through regular, scheduled attendances throughout semester.

Students’ practical work will be complemented by 12 two hour seminars during semester (held on Clinic days), which will focus on both practical skill development and theoretical understandings of statelessness law.

Principal topics will include:

• the meaning of nationality in international law
• the core international treaties relevant to statelessness
• the right to nationality and deprivation of nationality
• childhood statelessness
• the intersection between refugeehood and statelessness
• statelessness determination frameworks
• the nexus between statelessness, minorities, discrimination and development
• the prevention of statelessness
• effective legal communication (including client interviews, working with interpreters and legal writing)
• resilience, professional well-being and managing complex client situations.