Capacity Building for Legal and Social Advancement in the Philippines (CALESA)

Capacity Building for Legal and Social Advancement in the Philippines (CALESA)

Reference

6096668-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

Start date

15/01/2020

End date

14/01/2023

Summary

The objective of CALESA is to help solve the following interdependent problems in Philippine legal education:
1. The dearth of academic research in law schools.
2. The inability of faculty and students to access source materials from their own civil law tradition, and the evolution of other civil law traditions due to poor interest and multilingual skills.
3. The inability of the legal profession to contribute significant academic (as opposed to professional) expertise to the modernisation of outdated legal codes, the protection of human rights and the rule of law, and the advancement of ASEAN integration, despite its critical and/or geostrategic importance.

At the root of these problems is a systemic defect in Philippine legal education – the lack of programmes in law schools that focus on academic knowledge development and research generation. Virtually all of the country’s 108 law schools are professional. This means that they are geared towards producing legal professionals. This creates a knowledge deficit that prevents the legal profession from combining law and policy more effectively to address some of society’s most pressing needs.

Following the completion of CALESA, the Philippines’ leading law schools are expected to adopt curricular innovations focusing on research, multilingualism, human rights and the rule of law, regional integration and comparative law in a manner 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 cascading effect whose benefits will reach other law schools, the judiciary, the legal profession, the legal system, and Philippine society in time.

Funding Details

Funded by: European Union – managed by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)
Total Funding Amount: 999,665 euros
Funding Period: 3 years
Operational Programme: Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education
Notice/Call: 2019 – EAC/A03/2018

Project Management Team at NOVA School of Law

Role of NOVA School of Law in the Project: Partner

Participating Entities: Universidad de Malaga (Coordenadora); Universidade NOVA de Lisboa – NOVA School of Law, Universidad de Deusto, University College of Dublin, University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, University of San Agustin, Philippine Judicial Association, Philja Ateneo de Zamboanga University AdZU.