This year, the Migration law Clinic (MLC) will be celebrating its tenth anniversary. To this aim, the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law (ACMRL) organises a symposium at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

The objective of the symposium is to reflect on the experience we have built with the MLC. The Symposium will help us identify strengths and opportunities for improvement; and will help other clinics to reflect on, and optimise, their own work.

The Migration Law Clinic is an initiative of the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The Clinic initially started in October 2013 with four students. Now 10-15 students from a wide variety of nationalities participate in the Clinic.

The goal of the Clinic is twofold. Firstly, the Clinic offers talented students the opportunity to develop their legal skills. Under the supervision of researchers of the Migration Law Section, the students conduct research and write legal advice on a professional level. In this manner, we train new generation of practitioners in the field. Secondly, the Clinic seeks to provide high-quality and independent legal advice on complex issues in the field of European migration law which are pending before, in particular, the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights.

Since 2013, the Migration Law Clinic has worked on a number of ‘famous’ cases before the CJEU, such as E.K. (Non-temporary nature of Chavez-Vilchez Right of Residence), Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark (Legality of Reintroduction of Internal Border Controls); E. (Evidence in Eritrean Family Reunification Cases); and K. and A (Proportionality of Integration Requirements).

This symposium will be the opportunity to present and reflect on our work during the last ten years and take an outlook to the future of the role of clinics both in terms of teaching and strategic litigation. To this aim, we invite various speakers including students, lawyers, judges, other clinics and staff of the MLC.

Date: 28 September 2023

Venue: VU Amsterdam, NU-building, Theater 5

Please register until 23 September via the following link!

Programme:

9.30: Registration/coffee

10.00-11.00: Keynote by Marcelle Reneman, Director of Legal Skills (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

11.00: Coffee break

11.15-12.30: panel discussion with the participation of:

• Agnes van Steijn, Former Senior Lawyer at European Court of Human Rights
• Ulrich Stege, Executive Secretary of the European Network for Clinical Legal Education and Co-President of the Global Alliance for Justice Education
• Eva Bezem, Prakken d’Oliveira Lawyers
• Bram van Melle, Everaert Advocaten Immigration Lawyers
• Behn Salemcondory, master student, VU Migration Law Clinic
• Luca Scheid, master student, VU Migration Law Clinic

12.30: Lunch

13.30-15.00: Sarah van Walsum lecture by Juan M. Amaya-Castro (Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá)