Word on the Street Law
Ask a law student what pressure feels like and they are likely to respond with one word: exams. But the JD students who have undertaken the Street Law subject know the stakes get even higher. In 2012, 14 JD students participated in the pilot of the Street Law program, which ultimately saw them deliver a series of lessons on the law to year 9 classes at low socio-economic status (SES) secondary schools across Melbourne.
The Street Law program at Melbourne Law School is based on an international model that has been running successfully for more than 40 years. The first Street Law program was developed and delivered by law students at Georgetown University, USA in 1972.
Today, programs that identify as being a part of the Street Law movement operate in more than 30 countries around the world. While each Street Law program is different, all have as a goal the legal education of a non-legal audience that may not have strong avenues of access to the legal profession or legal education.
The topics covered in Street Law programs are intended to be of relevance to the everyday lives of their audience, and Street Law lessons have a practical focus.
The Melbourne Law School Street Law program provides an opportunity for law students to work with secondary school students from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds. Street Law helps law students and secondary students alike understand the extent to which their view of the world is informed by their own beliefs, backgrounds and experiences.
JD student Kathryn Sutherland recalls her first teaching experience as initially frightening. She worried that her knowledge of the law wouldn’t be extensive enough to respond to the students’ questions.
“But when I went to the school I was pleasantly surprised,” she says. “The students were enthusiastic, attentive and willing to engage in critical thinking. The time just flew by.”
Rhys Aconley-Jones (pictured left) noted how different it is to teach a class compared with being a student studying law.
“It was intense. You need to quickly establish a rapport and get the students interested in a way that’s beneficial and helps them to realise how the law affects them. It’s definitely a challenge but it’s very rewarding,” he says.
Mr Aconley-Jones explained how the JD students prepared for delivering lessons at secondary schools, saying “There was a series of introductory classes that were taught at Melbourne Law School in collaboration with teachers from the Graduate School of Education. We talked about different ways we might communicate and activities that work well in teaching situations.
“We had classes with guest lecturers who gave us substantive information about the topics we would teach and then went out and delivered those lessons to students at our particular school over three classes,” he explains.
Street Law is open to law students from the second semester of their second year, by which time they will have learnt the language of law and developed sophisticated analytical skills. The program gives them a chance to take their knowledge and use it in a creative way that has tangible outcomes, not only for themselves, but also for their own students. In the 2012 pilot program, the JD students were required to prepare and deliver lessons about the legal consequences of sexting, unlawful discrimination in the workplace and human rights.
In addition to teaching secondary students about particular areas of law, the Street Law program aims to engage those students in a consideration of the law more generally – about what it means to be a citizen with legal rights and responsibilities, and what those rights and responsibilities might entail.
“It’s about community empowerment and creating relationships between Melbourne Law School and high school students through legal knowledge which they can use in a practical way,” Mr Aconley-Jones says.
Ms Sutherland agrees, noting that the program is not just another ‘black letter law’ subject for the JD students.
“It‘s about communication with another group. At university, it’s all about you and your learning. You do all the work that you can and you get marked. This is about another entity,” she says.
Watch short interviews of students discussing their Street Law experience online at
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