The establishment of the Law Clinics Department dates back to 2003, when the first three clinical courses were set up at the Faculty of Law at UPJŠ in Košice as two-semester duration elective courses for law students titled Commercial Law Clinic, Civil Law Clinic and Street Law Clinic. In the same year, with the financial support from the project, a new specialized lecture room was built at the Faculty, the Law Clinic Office, which has been used for teaching practical lessons to the present day.
In the same year, the Faculty of Law UPJŠ organized its first legal clinic international conference on Clinical education at Law Faculties: Activities, developments and perspectives of Law Clinics. In the subsequent period, the fourth clinical course was opened, Asylum Law Clinic, and following that Labour Law Clinic and Tax Law Clinic. All clinical courses are provided as elective courses under the auspices of the Departments and Institutes of the Law Faculty where supervising teachers are affiliated.
As a next step, common coordination of clinical courses was required in order to maintain the high-quality of clinical legal education. For the sake of it, a new unit, the Law Clinics Department was founded, equipped with more personnel and located in new premises to serve as an integral part of the Law Faculty to the present day.
In the span of 2011 to 2015, the Department continued to grow with new clinical courses, Medical Law Clinic, Construction Law Clinic, Internship Clinic and as of the academic year 2021/2022, the latest Student legal assistance for the residents of Košice set up for the time being.
Since the establishment of the Law Clinics Department, two assistant professors, JUDr. Tomáš Illeš and JUDr. Daniela Lamačková, PhD., have been affiliated with the Law Clinics Department pursuing its activities, and occasionally conducting clinical courses. JUDr. Bc. Dominika Marčoková Becková, PhD., researcher at the Institute of International Law and European Law also closely cooperates with the Law Clinics Department as a clinical course tutor of Student legal assistance for the residents of Košice course. From the very beginning of the existence, active ongoing collaboration exists between the Law Clinics Department and the academic staff of other Departments and Institutes of the Faculty, who especially over the period of 2009-2022 trained law undergraduates in clinical courses. Several teachers were in charge of clinical courses, e.g.: assoc. prof. JUDr. Milan Sudzina, PhD., assoc. prof. JUDr. Renáta Bačárová, PhD., JUDr. Adrián Graban, PhD., assoc. prof. JUDr. Miroslav Štrkolec, PhD., assoc. prof. JUDr. Radomír Jakab, PhD., assoc. prof. JUDr. Marcel Dolobáč, PhD., assoc. prof. JUDr. Jaroslav Čollák, PhD, JUDr. Jozef Čorba, PhD., JUDr. Lukáš Michaľov, PhD., JUDr. Ľudmila Elbert, PhD., Mgr. Peter Koromház, PhD., moreover, teachers also participated in projects pursued by the Department, organized workshops, colloquia, joint communication seminars of Law Clinics and in other activities of the Law Clinics Department.
As things currently stand, the Law Clinics Department’s main responsibility is to implement and supervise clinical legal education, to monitor elective courses-law clinics and coordinate joint activities of clinical education of law students. As mentioned before, clinical law courses are taught in a tailor-made lecture room, the Law Clinics Office, fully equipped with computer technology, a multifunctional device, an interactive board and a small library for the students practicing in law clinics. The Office also serves as a contact point for the residents of the town of Košice seeking advice at the Law Clinic ‘Student legal assistance for the residents of Košice.
