The best way to teach students how the European Union works is to get them involved in the policymaking process. That is the thinking behind an initiative being developed at management school HEC in Paris to create an EU policy and regulatory affairs clinic. Students will participate in EU consultations on proposed legislation and other policy initiatives. They will draft real submissions on behalf of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society groups.

Law clinics are an established teaching tool in the United States. Usually these work in areas of human rights, social justice and criminal law, although channels for public participation have also involved students in public policy and regulatory cases. Public consultation works differently in Europe, but Alberto Alemanno, professor of EU law and risk regulation at HEC, thinks he has come up with a way in.

Working with NGOs and civil society groups that might not have the time or expertise to put together submissions for themselves gives students a legitimate reason to get involved in consultations. It also fits with a public interest ethos that the school hopes to instil. “The idea is to provide pro bono support to NGOs or civil society organisations, in Brussels or elsewhere, in order to give them a chance to be part of the process.”

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He and his students have already made contributions to public and stakeholder consultations on legislative proposals, for example on the tobacco products directive, and he has been able to get informal feedback on their contributions from European Commission desk officers. This gives Alemanno a way into policy process. Now the aim is build this experience into a regular semester-long clinic that will complement the advanced European law programme that Alemanno teaches at HEC.

Knowledge tests

Some of Alemanno’s students are from New York University, visiting Paris during the third year of their law degrees, others are from HEC, building on a law background with studies in subjects such as business, public administration and finance. The goal is to test and extend the knowledge that they have accumulated in their legal studies. “They will get first-hand experience of the Brussels world that they often hear about but don’t necessarily know,” Alemanno says.

If all goes to plan, the first clinic will begin in January 2014. The idea is that the 20-25 students involved will be divided up into groups of four or five and each given a live case to work on.

Most cases will be drawn from the areas of risk regulation. “That represents 50%-60% of European legislative activity,” Alemanno says. “From chemicals to pharmaceuticals, from food to the environment, it is quite a broad area.”

He argues that engaging with the real policy process is more valuable than classroom exercises, such as that standard set-piece for law students, a moot court. “Usually when we run a moot court we just focus on one specific step or we have to reduce the number of variables to reproduce it in a classroom. If they go to the real world, then they see the real thing,” he says. “It’s very different. It’s certainly more complex.”

Alemanno hopes to convince sceptical groups that it is worth being part of the process. “Our argument is to say that instead of demonising those tools they should learn about them and try to have a say.”

Students are expected to be pro-active, meeting civil servants, lobbyists and members of the European Parliament in order to build their cases. This will also be a networking opportunity, allowing them to think about future career options.

Alemanno is also keen to explore the options for engaging with other actors, such as European agencies, which also carry out consultation and peer review processes, or the European Ombudsman. “We might also imagine one day submitting observations to the European Court of Justice and getting into the judicial process as well, but this may require some more resources and to team up with law firms, which is more complicated.”