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Legislative Clinics

BU Law's Legislative Clinics, which include the Policy & Drafting Clinic, Legislative Counsel Clinic and Africa i-Parliaments Clinic, offer students a variety of opportunities to examine the legislative process.

Legislative Policy & Drafting Clinics The Legislative Policy & Drafting Clinics offer four areas of focus: General Legislation Intellectual Property (counts towards concentration) Health and Environment Legislation (counts towards concentration) African Issues

In the Policy & Drafting Clinics, you'll work with state senators and representatives, mayors, city councils, administrative agencies and public interest groups to create legislative solutions to problems. Weekly seminars and small critique groups help you hone your legislative drafting skills. Faculty advisors and student editors also provide individualized guidance in drafting bills and supporting memoranda.

Legislative Counsel Clinic

In the Legislative Counsel Clinic, you'll develop and apply a variety of legal skills to the legislative process. In the classroom, students examine the theoretical and practical aspects of the legislative process. Outside of class, students apply what they’ve learned by working with clients, including legislators, state executive offices, nonprofit organizations and advocacy groups, to advance a bill or project. This allows you to relate—and test—the theories discussed in class to real-life situations.

A sampling of assignments:

• Drafting and revising legislation
• Formulating a strategy to guide bills through the legislative process
• Working to build a coalition to support or defeat a bill
• Advocating for or against a bill or issue with legislators
• Testifying at committee hearings

Africa i-Parliaments Clinic

The Africa i-Parliaments Clinic is designed to assist African parliaments draft and enact more effective legislation. From the classroom, you will research and analyze social problems on behalf of your client—either a national or regional African parliament—and propose legislative language to address these problems. You will also research recently passed African statutes and governmental reform for publication on the African Parliamentary Knowledge Network's (APKN) Web-based Africa Parliamentary Information Exchange. Students then have the opportunity to discuss their ideas and findings to other members of the APKN and post their work on the APKN Web site to better stimulate debate on specific issues and to promote the use of evidence-based legislative drafting. >>View i-Parliament Clinic feature