Multidisciplinary activity encourages promotion of access to justice
Professors Daniela Gabbay, Camila de Jesus Mello Gonçalves, and Vivianne Mese have joined forces to offer a joint extra-curricular activity for freshman students. The initiative is part of the curriculum restructuring process carried out by FGV’s Sao Paulo Law School (Direito SP), which has reduced the number of mandatory courses in order to open up more space for interdisciplinary extra-class activities.
“We decided to develop an interdisciplinary activity that contributed to the development of students’ perception regarding the inner workings of the Justice system – based on a hands-on approach –, taking them out of the classroom so that they can take on the position of citizens in search of access to justice”, said Daniela Gabbay, professor of the “Justice and Process Organization” course.
The activity was divided into three stages. The first consisted in analyzing and solving a fictional case study. In the second part, students visited branches of the justice system and reported their opinions. Finally, they drafted a step-by-step plan for access to justice, based on their experience in the activity, in the form of a booklet, video, and infographic chart, with plain language suitable to the system’s users.
“One of the goals was to draw the students’ attention to the complexity of the legal language, which often serves as an obstacle preventing proper access to Justice. Therefore, they were encouraged to use technical but accessible language, as well as other means to communicate legal content, including visual media,” said professor Vivianne Mese.
One of the top-scoring projects presented by the class was a 10-minute video recounting all the possibilities of access to justice, in order for women to protect themselves against violence and ensure their rights. The video is available, in Portuguese, at http://bit.ly/2Bahcys.
“The activity’s success created the possibility of presenting these results to students joining FGV’s Direito SP next year”, said Camila Gonçalves, in charge of the ‘Family Law’ course alongside professor Mese.
