Legal clinical education as a socially oriented educational activity in the field of law

The article is devoted to the general theoretical characteristics of one of the non-traditional forms and methods of teaching — legal clinical education as a means of forming a new teaching methodology in Ukraine. Based on the achievements of modern domestic and foreign scientists, the theoretical foundations of legal clinical education in Ukraine and regulatory tools for the organization and operation of legal clinics in Ukraine are analyzed and developed. Among the three main functions of legal clinical activity (human rights, education and educational), the content of the latter is disclosed, as legal clinics in higher education are created primarily for student education, and other functions are implemented as derivatives. It is established that the main purpose of the legal clinic — educational — students gain practical skills in the process of providing free legal aid to the population, while other areas of their activities are secondary (derivative). The purpose of legal clinical education as an interactive method of teaching law students is to strengthen their practical training by engaging in practical legal activities and providing free legal aid to the poor. In contrast to other methods of training lawyers, the advantages of legal clinical education are: the acquisition of practical skills by students before the start of real practice; combination of theoretical knowledge simultaneously with the acquisition of practical skills. In order to legalize the concept of «legal clinical education» and the acquisition of the latter’s official status — the legal definition, the author considers it necessary: To adopt in general the draft «Concept of development of legal education», developed by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. To establish in normative-legal acts on the organization of educational process, carrying out educational practice and the account of time of work of scientific and pedagogical workers instructions concerning necessity of direct introduction of provisions on activity of legal clinics; To enshrine at the level of a binding rule of law instructions on the need to operate a legal clinic, as a condition for accreditation of a legal institution of higher education and obtaining a license to train lawyers; Regulatory provision of a system of public control over the quality of functioning of legal clinics in the structure of a legal institution of higher education. Key words: legal clinic, legal clinical education, legal clinical activity.