LAW STUDENTS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

I’ve recently concluded the Basic Orientation and Skills Training Workshop of the Xavier University Center for Legal Assistance. This is the beginning of a radical journey. Radical in a sense that this experience will open a new world of legal learning where few consider and a journey that may not very well end when law school does.

My feelings are best encapsulated by the words of The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Hans Kolvenbach:

The promotion of justice is not a simple project, using available technology to effect change. It is rather an effort to change the heart of the civilization of sin responsible for the misery and injustice we see in our world. We must work at the conversion of hearts and mentalities.

This entire experience strikes at the very core reason why I took up Law. It touches the passions within me. I entered XUCLA with the very general and oftentimes cliché premise that I would like to work for the development of the nation. Development counters the growing poisonous fruits of injustice such as poverty and crime. Development, as a science, includes so many dimensions, paradigms, and approaches. Two crucial interconnected branches are the “rule of law” and “policy making”. It is in these two areas where I appropriate my mission as a student of the law.  

The BOS very well help me articulate the basic values and engagements that I have been desperately looking for in the rugged road of Law School. I keep on asking to myself, really, how does a law student make a difference? It is very easy for our medical student friends to paint a real picture of them making a concrete difference to the community in the form of health care services and the like. How about us? How can the words in a thick book bring about a concrete positive impact in the lives of others? The experience gave me some answers.

Affidavit Making. An affidavit is a written sworn statement of facts voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. It is fairly a simple document to write but it can spell a lot of help for a person seeking its aid. When a person from the marginalized community would seek support from an estranged spouse or report some marital violence, making an affidavit is the initial step in obtaining legal remedy.  

Legal Research. Legal research which may include researching the laws and gathering evidences is very important as a support action for formulating policies and building substance for a petition for some legal remedy. One good example is an initiative to file a Writ of Kalikasan which requires intensive research and evidence gathering in the very areas where the right of the people to healthy and balanced ecology is violated.

Policy Articulation. For certain reforms to really have impact in the community, it should be translated into policy implemented by government by virtue of its inherent police power. Reforms happen only when the holders of powers get involved  and reforms only make sense when it is articulated as policy. It is in this articulation that students of the law can contribute very well.  

Local Governance Engagement. Having the basic knowledge of Political Law, we can very well engage in a constructive and effective manner with local government and other agencies. I have sensed in my pervious experiences engaging with government agencies that when you declare to them that you are a law student, it creates a certain impression that this person means business. And it is oftentimes, this sense of “legitimacy” and “respect” where we can effectively carry our message across.

In sum, the whole experience made me realize that the study of law is more than just the textual appreciation of it. It calls us to see the law on what it is in its very essence which is the reflection of how we see ourselves and our worth as human beings and our concept of what is right and wrong. Having an elementary but respectable grasp of the basic principles of law can make us effective agents of change in our communities. As what the Superior General mentioned, the great project of the promotion of justice entails a conversion of the hearts and mentalities. Conversion presupposes influence and power. Our present standing as students of the law allows us to have this elementary by respectable grasp of the basic principles of law where I see our influence and power emanates from. Let us then use this powerful and influential knowledge of the law towards the building of a just, humane and sustainable society.