WHAT IS
PLE?
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The terminology surrounding PLE
tends to be confusing. In some jurisdictions Public Legal Education is
referred to as Public Legal Education and Information (PLEI), in others
as Public Legal Information (PLI), and still others as Community Legal
Education (CLE) or Community Legal Information (CLI). The term Law-Related
Education (LRE) is used by some, but not everyone, to distinguish public
legal education that is carried on in the schools from that which is directed
to adult audiences. The reasons for these distinctions in terminology are
largely historical and often have to do with fitting programs within the
mandates of particular agencies, especially funders.
Efforts to define PLE with any
precision have largely failed. Each of the words that make up the term
public legal education are themselves concepts that elude definition.
- Public has
many meanings in PLE encompassing both the general public and specific
sectors of it,
including "intermediaries" who in turn serve their own "publics".
- Legal has
been no easier for public legal education proponents to define than "law" has
been for legal theorists. Suffice it to say that the focus of PLE tends
to be on "black letter law". But it is by no means limited
to either substantive or procedural law. PLE covers the broader terrain
of legal philosophy,
theory, history, law making, the administration of justice, social
policy-development, and reform. It also ventures into the domains of
dispute resolution, restorative
justice, and other means of achieving justice.
- Education signals
that PLE services are not limited to the provision of information. PLE
encompasses the development of knowledge and understanding about our justice
system and the examination of alternative justice processes, including
those of other cultures. PLE programs assist participants to develop skills
in engaging with the justice system whether as concerned citizens, professionals,
litigants, witnesses, or jurors. PLE programs also cultivate attitudes
that enable Canadians to interact effectively with their justice system.
- Public Legal Education - like
any concept, public legal education is often understood by looking at what
it is NOT - not legal advice, not legal representation, not continuing
legal education for lawyers. Since PLE is not easily defined, it has come
to be associated with the activities of the organizations that have expressly
taken on PLE mandates. Those activities range from one-page pamphlets to
online electronic services as those who practice PLE challenge themselves
to extend the limits of the field.
Lois Gander, The Changing Face
of Public Legal Education in Canada.
Citizenship, if it means anything, means making our desire for justice active.
- Mark Kingwell,
The World We Want: Virtue, Vice, and the Good Citizen
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