Mock trial at Law Faculty Student Courtroom

April 2008

Dukagjin Abdyli is one of 60 law students at the University of Pristina who participated in and completed the ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s (ABA ROLI) Simulation Legal Clinic this semester.

“I feel more comfortable in being part of a real trial now. Mock trials in which we have been practicing during the semester gave us a glimpse of a real trial and how they develop,” Adbyli says.

The Simulation Legal Clinic program is a course developed by ABA ROLI for the law school in Pristina, and has been sponsored by USAID since 2004. The clinic is now officially included in the curriculum of the Law Faculty for credits under the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)—a standard for comparing the learning attainment and performance of students of higher education across the European Union and other collaborating European countries.

The clinic is designed to help students gain practical skills needed upon becoming practicing lawyers. Under expert supervision students get trained in client interviewing, problem solving, legal analysis and research, client counseling and communication, legal theory and strategy.

The latest set of students to complete the clinic—Abdyli and his classmates—performed a criminal mock trial at the end of their semester course work. To date, approximately 300 law students have taken this clinical course, and the number continues to grow.