Street Law as a Space for Learning and Action: ALCU Shares Its Experience at the GAJE World Conference

The Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine (ALCU) presented its experience in implementing Street Law as a sustainable model of legal awareness at the 12th Global Conference of the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE).

The conference “Justice Education in a Changing World: Exploring New Approaches to Global Challenges” took place on July 22–27, 2025, in Warsaw. It brought together educators, students, legal professionals, and activists from over 90 countries. Participants explored how legal education is responding to global challenges and which methods and approaches effectively integrate legal instruction, student engagement, and work with real community needs.

Representatives of the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine — Yuliia Lomzhets, Mariia Tsypiashchuk, and Yuliia Saienko — facilitated an interactive workshop as part of the сonference. Together with colleagues from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, they co-hosted a joint session focused on exploring new formats of legal education grounded in practical experience, active engagement, and the real needs of communities.

Five Years of Street Law: From Concept to Sustainable Model

During the workshop, the ALCU team presented its experience in organizing Street Law competitions — a format that, since 2020, has become one of the flagship initiatives of Ukrainian legal clinics. Between 2020 and 2024, five national competitions were held, engaging more than 300 participants from across the country.

Over these five years, the ALCU developed an effective competition model that includes both an online phase and an in-person final. During the online phase, legal clinic teams gradually develop their own legal education product — a lesson plan, visual materials, games, videos, and other formats designed to engage audiences and make lessons interactive. Importantly, teams are not left to work alone — they receive guidance and support from legal professionals and educators, who deliver webinars on both the competition’s topics and the design of educational materials.

The teams that create the most impactful legal education products are selected to participate in the offline final, where they deliver their lessons in real-life settings — school classrooms with actual students. 

StreetLaw Fest 2024:  А New Level of Content and Outreach

One of the key highlights of the workshop was StreetLaw Fest 2024, held under the theme “Building Integrity in Business and Governance through Legal Education for Youth”. It became the largest competition in the five years of the implementation, bringing together 102 participants from 28 teams. The 2024 competition stood out for the diversity and creativity of the educational tools developed. Student teams created board games, mobile apps, quests, videos, and podcasts, transforming legal education content into accessible, modern, and dynamic learning experiences.

During the session, ALCU team showcased a collection of the ten best lessons along with an open-access platform that features student-developed resources — including teaching guides, videos, and presentations — in both Ukrainian and English. Workshop attendees were invited to explore the platform and participate in interactive exercises created by students.

All materials — including the lesson collection and platform — are freely available at: www.streetlaw.com.ua 

English version: www.streetlaw.com.ua/2024-en 

StreetLaw Fest 2024 and the development of the platform were made possible with support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Ukraine (UNODC) and funded by Siemens Business Integrity Initiative.

​​Street Law as a Strategic Priority for Legal Clinics

Today, Street Law in Ukraine is not just an engaging format — it is a well-established direction in the legal education work of university legal clinics. It helps students develop communication and analytical skills, understand the role of law in everyday life, and strengthen ties between legal clinics and local communities.