The objective of the Capacity Building for Legal and Social Advancement in the Philippines or “CALESA” is to help remedy the following interdependent problems in Philippine legal education:1. The dearth of academic research in law schools.2. The inability of professors and students to access the source materials of their own civil law tradition, and developments in other civil law traditions due to weak multilingual interest and skills.3. Inability of the legal profession to contribute significant academic (as opposed to professional) expertise to the modernization of outdated legal codes, the protection of human rights and the rule of law, and advancement of ASEAN integration, despite their critical and/or geo-strategic importance.At the root of these problems is a systemic defect in Philippine legal education – the lack of programs in law schools that are focused on developing academic expertise and generating research. Virtually all of the country’s 108 law schools are professional. This means that they are geared towards producing legal practitioners. This creates a knowledge deficit that prevents the legal profession from more effectively combining law and policy to deal with some of the most pressing needs of society.Upon CALESA’s completion, it is envisioned that the Philippines’ leading law schools will adopt curricular innovations that are focused on research, multilingualism, human rights and the rule of law, regional integration and comparative law in a manner that is consistent with the Bologna process in order to facilitate portability with EU universities. Because these institutions are among the thought leaders in the field of legal education, the expectation is to initiate a cascade effect whose benefits will in time reach the other law schools, the Judiciary, the legal profession, the legal system, and Philippine society.
The general objectives of the Project Erasmus+ CBHE CALESA are (1) to promote research and (2) to introduce a culture of values in line with European standards in the Philippine partner institutions. The specific objectives are: Enhance their curricular offerings of Law degrees/postgraduate courses in: (1) research elements consistent with the Bologna process, (2) human rights and rule of law, comparative law and regional integration, (4) promotion of multilingualism.
This Project CBHE aims to remedy a systemic defect in Philippine legal education – the lack of programs in Law Schools that are geared towards developing academic expertise and generating research. This creates a knowledge deficit that prevents the legal profession in general from more effectively combining law and policy to deal with some of the most pressing needs of Philippine society, such as the protection of human rights and the rule of law, legal modernization and regional integration.
<< Background >> This Project CBHE aims to remedy a systemic defect in Philippine legal education – the lack of programs in Law Schools that are geared towards developing academic expertise and generating research. This creates a knowledge deficit that prevents the legal profession in general from more effectively combining law and policy to deal with some of the most pressing needs of Philippine society, such as the protection of human rights and the rule of law, legal modernization and regional integration. << Objectives >> The general objectives of the Project Erasmus+ CBHE CALESA are (1) to promote research and (2) to introduce a culture of values in line with European standards in the Philippine partner institutions. The specific objectives are: Enhance their curricular offerings of Law degrees/postgraduate courses in: (1) research elements consistent with the Bologna process, (2) human rights and rule of law, comparative law and regional integration, (4) promotion of multilingualism. << Implementation >> The Project has been distributed in 5 Workpackages:Preparation/ Development/ Quality Plan/ Dissemination-Exploitation/Management with 4, 37, 16, 8 and 27 activities respectively. The Covid pandemic prevented the implementation of mobilities in the project's first years . Nevertheless, all the programmed activities were out satisfactorily, concentrating the face-to-face activities in the last 18 months. Likewise, all its objectives have been met satisfactorily. << Results >> CALESA Results can be summarised as follows: Delivery of 15 on-site seminars, 4 online seminars, 5 gender-related seminars and 2 conferences. Improvement of the academic programs: new and updated subjects = 178 units/362 ECTS, in Bachelor's (JD) and Master's Degrees in Law of the partner universities. 5 books and 2 journal articles published, 7 legal texts translated. 304 trained professors, 1660 trained students and 80 trained staff members from partner universities and 527 non-HEI.