Abstract:
The Access To Justice Fellowship (A2J Fellowship) is an innovative, student-led initiative that tackles barriers to access to justice by increasing NGOs’ legal capacity in serving underprivileged communities.
NGOs in Hong Kong have become the contact point of underprivileged communities when they encounter legal problems. However, social, economic, legal and institutional barriers hinder the ability of NGOs to access legal resources and support systems, such that access to justice for the vulnerable communities they serve are often delayed or even denied. The A2J Fellowship addresses this by placing law graduates into partnering NGOs for 10 months to undertake quasi-legal capacity building projects, which aim to enhance NGOs’ internal capacity to handle cases with legal elements. The speakers will share in the presentation how this solution, currently at its prototype stage, can leverage students’ ability as “producers” to solve pressing legal problems beyond the context of law schools. The speakers will also reflect upon how the Fellowship can supplement the deficiencies in current legal education, in particular, the lack of clinical legal education and exposure to public interest law.
The A2J Fellowship, being the first project of this nature in Hong Kong, was initiated by current PCLL students at HKU and CUHK, and was the winner of the 2019 PILnet Law for Change Student Competition. Throughout this journey, the co-founders have been inspired by those they have talked to. During this presentation, they will share what motivated them to become “producers” themselves and highlight from their experience how law schools, academics, legal practitioners and NGOs can facilitate students to use their legal knowledge and skills innovatively to propose solutions to address the pressing problems they see in society. The co-founders hope that their participation as “producers” in this conference can vividly illustrate what “students as producers” mean.
Speaker:
The Access to Justice Fellowship was co-founded by five PCLL students, brought together by their passion for strengthening the public interest law landscape in Hong Kong.
Acacia Chan – A2J Fellowship Co-founder; PCLL Student, HKU
Acacia obtained her Bachelor of Social Sciences (Government & Laws) and Bachelor of Law at the University of Hong Kong. Acacia has a heart for the underprivileged and has been involved in Refugee programmes and self-initiated programme for AIDs orphans in the Mainland and an orphanage in Mozambique. She is currently taking the PCLL at the University of Hong Kong.
Celine Chan – A2J Fellowship Co-founder; PCLL Student, HKU
Celine obtained her Bachelor of Laws at the University of Hong Kong, and aims to become a trainee solicitor upon completing the PCLL course at HKU. During her studies, Celine was actively involved with NGOs, and particularly focused on educating underserved children. In this regard, she participated in designing English and Cantonese language courses for primary and secondary school students from different backgrounds.
George Ho – A2J Fellowship Co-founder; PCLL Student, CUHK
George was educated in Hong Kong prior to reading law at undergraduate level at the University of Cambridge. Upon graduation, he returned to Hong Kong to take the PCLL course at CUHK. George aspires to become a trainee solicitor after completion of the PCLL course. George has also been engaged in multiple social entrepreneurial and charitable projects during his years in secondary school and university. He is also particularly interested in education, having organized programmes to level the playing field for under-resourced children, volunteering trips to teach kids in South-East Asian countries and tutoring sessions to help underprivileged students apply to overseas universities.
Jaime Wong – A2J Fellowship Co-founder; PCLL Student, HKU
Jaime obtained her Bachelor of Laws and is currently taking the PCLL at the University of Hong Kong. Jaime is passionate about social justice and human rights, having previously done internships in the NGO and legal sectors, and having done research for a local rights-based NGO and for two professors at HKU. Outside of her legal studies, Jaime is heavily involved with an international human rights NGO in both strategic and governance capacities. She currently holds the office of Vice Chairperson of the organisation’s Executive Committee.
Michelle Wong – A2J Fellowship Co-founder; PCLL Student, HKU
Michelle studied her undergraduate law degree at the University of Cambridge, and is currently a PCLL student at the University of Hong Kong. Michelle is passionate about human rights and public interest law, and aspires to be a trainee solicitor upon graduation. During her undergraduate years, Michelle co-founded the only human rights law society at Cambridge, and was Co-President of the Cambridge Refugee Scholarship Campaign, an organisation that helped establish a studentship for students from zones of conflict facing severe barriers to studying in Cambridge. Beyond her legal studies, Michelle is conducting legal research in constitutional and administrative law for a law professor, and is organising an online English tutoring initiative for underprivileged primary school children during the COVID-19 class suspension period.