Social justice lawyers who stand at the cusp of law and social transformation are confronted with some crucial challenges. While on the one hand they are faced with the task of fighting structural inequality using the law in a deeply unequal society as India; on the other hand this very inequality becomes a source of limitation by restricting knowledge and information crucial for a social justice lawyer. However, the rise of digital and social media have now democratized the space for sharing knowledge and information. It has opened several opportunities to create learning systems which respond to the practical challenges and requirements faced by social justice lawyers working in difficult and limiting conditions.
Lawyers for Change, an initiative of Centre for Social Justice, is a learning platform that seeks to build a resource and support base for social justice lawyers across the country. Its objective is to strengthen the social justice lawyering movement by creating a virtual community of social justice lawyers, responding to their knowledge needs by providingopen access to legalresources and democratising discourses on issues related to social justice lawyering. The platform reaches out to social justice lawyers across the country through its Virtual Academywith the following objectives.
Building a Community of Social Justice Lawyers
As a virtual community, Lawyers for Change seeks to create a fraternity of lawyers across the country which can lead a movement for social justice lawyering. It is a virtual space where lawyers can freely interact with each other, and create their own networks which can assist them in their practice or to support others’ practices. Lawyers can do so by sharing information and resources, providing legal solutions for queries and sharing new ideas.
Knowledge Creation and Sharing
Lawyers for Change is designed as a free and easily accessible web-based resource and learning platform which contributes to building capacities and skills of social justice lawyers by facilitating the free exchange of practical and theoretical legal knowledge, perspectives, information, and resources on socio-legalissues. The resources on this website are curated from the perspective of social justice lawyering, a mode of activism which uses legal processes to transform power relations and facilitate the assertion of rights and entitlements of vulnerable communities.
Influencing Discourse on Social Justice Lawyering
In order to challenge existing power relations in society, it is crucial that social justice lawyers are exposed to different perspectives and discourses on issues where these power relations are present. Lawyers for Change as a platform seeks to influence the discourse on social justice lawyering by initiating discussions, publishing opinions and sharing perspectives on socio-legal issues.