TRANSFORMING THE NATION
Written by Steven Castan, Special Counsel and Educator of National Justice Project.
Steven Castan, Educator of National Justice Project with students.
The National Justice Project is a cutting-edge human rights law firm fearlessly fighting to end discrimination. We work with First Nations people, people with disabilities, refugees and asylum seekers – anyone facing discrimination.
We want to achieve a fair, just and equitable society that protects the rights of all people. We can achieve this by securing systemic change to eliminate all forms of discrimination.
We work to create a wave of change that has an impact across our society. We achieve this by taking strategic legal action to drive systemic change, and we fearlessly advocate for reform to eradicate discrimination. We educate the next generation of social justice lawyers, and we collaborate with our partners to deliver projects that achieve greater impact.
One of our strengths is working closely with partners to create change for our clients and the nation. The partnership with Monash Law Clinics has been running since 2020. Every year we offer a dozen clinics, usually with nine students per clinic. That’s over
400 students who have been engaged in practical legal work, working directly on our strategic cases, or providing essential research that’s utilised by our solicitors and barristers.
Many of the students have stated that working in the National Justice Project clinical program has been a transformative experience. Students have had their
eyes and ears opened to legal and social issues facing First Nations peoples in Australia such as structural and institutional racism, health bias and disgraceful high incarceration rates.
Ashton Sly, a 2023 student remarked in her reflection:
The twelve weeks I have spent with the National Justice Project have been the most formative and practically significant weeks of my degree. I began as a student focussed on a ‘black-and- white’ application of the law, yet I emerge ready for a social justice legal career. I now understand the role of strategic litigation as a tool to achieve large-scale justice, how to think creatively to develop innovative law reform solutions, and how crucial preparation is for the future success of a case.
The partnership with Monash Law Clinics has provided the lawyers at the National Justice Project and, as a consequence, our clients, with vital legal assistance that forms part of the legal and advocacy work that transforms their lives. Some of the work includes students providing witness summaries and medical chronologies which have been utilised by barristers in court during Aboriginal Death in Custody Inquests and claims against the government. Students have also provided submissions to Parliamentary Enquiries advocating for vital law reform, as well as vital research into new areas of law that will change the lives of our clients in the future.
The work at Monash Law Clinics is essential to the National Justice Project’s vision to transform the lives of our clients and move the nation forward to a future which is fair and just for all people. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Monash Law Clinics and training up the next generation of social justice advocates with the skills and experience they need to pursue human rights throughout their careers.