THE ED O ’ BRIEN STREET LAW AND LEGAL LITERACY INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES CONFERENCE , DURBAN , SOUTH AFRICA , APRIL 2016

South Africa has been the home of a vibrant public legal education (PLE)　programme for many years. Indeed its Street Law initiative has been　described as one of the strategic responses to　and a　catalyst for change during the apartheid era. The focus on democracy and human rights for all　in the lead up to and following the 1994 election has aided the transition from the old regime to the new.　 Ignorance of the law and legal process is of course a problem in many developing and developed countries and an　international conference was therefore　planned last year to bring the ever-expanding international legal literacy scene to Durban in order to identify and share best practice - an attempt to promote and support a better understanding of rights and responsibilities under the law.　 The untimely death of the Street Law co-founder, Ed O'Brien, in July 2015　gave the event even greater poignancy. The conference was not only a global sharing of experience but also an important reminder of how this movement began and of Ed's (and others') role in that process.


Conference Report
programmes and was attended by law teachers, law clinicians, law educators, law school staff and NGO co-ordinators and representatives.

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME/THEME
The main theme of the conference was best practice lessons.The conference timetable was structured to incorporate a number of strands, based on this theme.They were: The first 9 introduced the juvenile justice programme in the USA which has expanded from 94 youth courts in 1994 to more than 16,000 by 2015.These are voluntary process courts which involve young people, working with adults, to sentence their peers for a range of youth misconduct or juvenile offences.Sentences can include, inter alia, community service, jury duties in future youth courts and writing apologies to victims.The session highlighted how the widely accepted benefits of many Street Law programmes -active learning experiences that allow young people to: explore rights and responsibilities under the law; appreciate the legal system; confront and resolve disputes, and discuss and analyse public issues -are also acquired through youth court in a very real setting.
exists that has been developed by Street Law Inc. also of Washington DC and the Street Law approach or adaptations of it is now being used in over 50 countries of the world to promote a better understanding of law, democracy and human rights. 8Ed's widow, May Gwynne O'Brien; Margaret Fisher, Seattle University School of Law (USA); Commissioner Mahomed Ameermia, South African Human Rights Commission (South Africa) and David McQuoid-Mason were amongst those who provided addresses and tributes. 9M. Fisher, Seattle University School of Law, Youth delivering justice through restorative justice peer courts, Street Law Conference, Durban 2016.
Overall, the sessions/workshops highlighted the range of ever-expanding31 programmes and approaches and the power of public legal education in general and Street Law in particular in reaching many communities and groups in developing and developed countries who are unaware of their legal rights and responsibilities.
As well as the public benefit, it was also clearly shown that law students can be closely involved in preparing and delivering presentations/workshops and in doing so can gain considerably in terms of their own education, appreciating both substance and context.Knowledge, skills and wider ethical considerations can all be effectively studied through involvement in PLE in general and Street Law in particular.For all (the law student and the wider public) to realise that law involves not just individual rights and responsibilities but choices and values is, it is suggested, an important lesson.PLE can, as demonstrated in South Africa, also see greater community involvement and empowerment in daily life, in the democratic process and in the shaping of law and policy.

CONCLUSION & OUTCOMES
Apart from the informative value of the 3-day conference it is anticipated that the event is likely to have longer term impact.A book is to be published setting out models for public legal education and practical guidance on the development of Street Law and other legal literacy programmes including best practice lessons32 .A Street Law Global Network group has been set up for individuals involved in supporting Street Law or public/community The conference took place from 1 to 3 April 2016 hosted by the School of Law University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and Street Law South Africa in Durban, South Africa and was preceded by a three-day Ed O'Brien memorial safari (29-31 March) at the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve.Those who attended will recall the tranquil surroundings, the many and varied game sightings (including the once near-extinct white rhinoceros) and, of course, the impromptu monkeys' picnic!This was a conference to honour Ed O'Brien and celebrate the 30 th anniversary of the first international Street Law programme established at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (formerly the University of Natal), South Africa.The conference intended to provide a platform for the sharing of best practices in public legal education through Street Law and other legal literacy and community outreach IJCLE -vol 23 no 3

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Building capacity for Street Law programmes • Youth-based Street Law programmes • Using Street Law as a pathway to Law School • Street Law and democracy education • Street Law and human rights education o general human rights education o the protection of the rights of vulnerable groups • Using Street Law to teach about commercial and labour law The conference consisted of a series of sessions/workshops in which best practice approaches addressing these themes were presented.Delegates from over 25 countries were represented and interactive papers (many incorporating the interactive Street Law methodology 7 ) were given looking at the design, delivery and evaluation of Street Law programmes worldwide.Day one The start of the conference set the scene for the origins of Street Law and Ed O'Brien's unique contribution 8 , the development and key contribution of Street Law in South Africa and subsequently the range of Street law programmes and PLE initiatives world-wide.Presentations under 'curriculum development' provided delegates with an insight into a number of innovative established and proposed PLE initiatives spread across four continents.