With the start of the new academic year, Boston University School of Law officially launched its new African Parliamentary Knowledge Network (APKN) Law Clinics. The APKN Law Clinics are designed to assist African parliaments draft and enact more effective legislation through an evidence-based methodology. The APKN Law Clinics are the result of a growing partnership between BU Law and the African Parliamentary Knowledge Network with the support of Africa i-Parliament Action Plan (UNDESA).

This semester the APKN Workshop has 12 graduate level law student participants, including a citizen of Tanzania and a citizen of Nigeria. The students will research and analyze social problems on behalf of their client—either a national or regional African parliament—and propose legislative language to address these problems. Students will also research recently passed African statutes and governmental reform for publication on the APKN's Web site (www.apkn.org).  They 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.

This semester the APKN Workshop will work on projects intended to:

• Provide more effective and efficient delivery of electricity to the people of Nigeria;
• Harmonize information, communication and technology laws in collaboration with the Southern Africa Development Community’s Parliamentary Forum;
• Strengthen and expand the regional common markets within the East African Community;
• Efficiently and effectively manage natural resources within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); and
• Improve the collection of vital statistics within the East African Community. 

These Clinics will soon bring on board Members of Parliament from the different regions to become part of the discussions and learn from the process. As law makers it is critical for them to understand the process of gathering evidence that supports the drafting of Laws that are supported by evidence and that are likely to solve social problems and are indeed progressive.

This program will be a unique opportunity for African parliaments to be exposed to the ‘evidence based’ approach to legislative drafting. In addition to conducting fieldwork, students will take a weekly seminar regarding the nature of African government structures, the use of legislation to create social change and sound legislative drafting techniques. Seminar Professors Robert Seidman, Ann Seidman and Sean Kealy have extensive knowledge of legislative drafting and process. The Seidmans have taught at universities in Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa and are the editors of Africa’s Challenge: Using Law For Good Governance & Development (Africa World Press, 2007).  In March, Professor Kealy spoke on evidence-based legislation at an APKN conference held in Kigali, Rwanda.

Boston University School of Law has been preparing leaders in law for 137 years. Since its founding in 1872, the School has welcomed qualified men and women from across the United States and abroad, without regard to background or belief.  For more information, see http://www.bu.edu/law .

Based on the outcome of this process, more law clinics will be launched soon to cater for the other regions in Africa but also to ensure that this becomes a continuous capacity building initiative for APKN.