2025 Asia CLE Mock Sentencing Hearing Workshop and Event
As a means to support and strengthen the value of the rule of law, fair trial and access to justice in the region, BABSEACLE, along with many of its justice sector partners, will be organizing the “2025 Asia CLE Mock Sentencing Hearing Workshops and Event“.
This training will provide a platform for future legal practitioners from many countries throughout Asia, to improve their legal skills, to expand their substantive legal knowledge, and strengthen their appreciation of fair trial, access to justice and Rule of Law principles. The event will take place on 26-27 May 2025.
History of the Event
This event builds on similar in-person events that BABSEACLE has organized in the Asia region for many years, as part of BABSEACLE’s Access to Justice Week in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In 2020, due to COVID-19, the event was changed to a virtual format, and it was an overwhelming success. What has followed since has been annual, successive, national and regional training workshops and events, which have grown in depth and substance yearly throughout Asia.
Event Details
Building on the success of these above events, the 2025 Asia CLE Mock Sentencing Hearing is a collaborative, practical learning experience with subject matter that focuses on relevant legal issues and social justice outcomes. It is an abbreviated form of the Standard/Traditional Mock Trial. Participants are involved in the sentencing hearing which focuses on what should be the appropriate penalty for a person who has already been found guilty, or pled guilty, during a criminal trial.
These types of hearings provide students with an insight into court sentencing procedures and potential penalties of crimes that breach the criminal code. They further develop students’ knowledge, values and skills in relation to court procedure and sentencing hearings, in-line with both local and international court procedure standards and practice.
The training and case scenarios will focus on the core principles of fair trial, access to justice and Rule of Law. Participants will have the first-hand opportunity to practice legal, analytical, and advocacy skills in a simulated courtroom, learn about courtroom procedure in a hearing and to gain an appreciation of the importance of court etiquette, legal ethics and the Rule of Law in actual law practice. Of equal importance, Participants are shown clear examples of what a fair trial should and can be.
Objectives:
The focus of the CLE Mock Sentencing Hearing is to:
- Develop an understanding of the importance of fair trial and the rule of law;
- Provide a comprehensive experiential learning process that will enable participants to develop vital practical lawyering skills;
- Develop legal, analytical, and advocacy skills;
- Understand the challenges of legal ethics and access to justice;
- Increase the participants understanding of courtroom procedure;
- Foster relationships between universities and university CLE programs throughout the region; and;
- Increase participants’ English for law and overall fluency in English.
Justification for Program
BABSESCLE aims to empower law students and enable them to create and disseminate social justice information, education, and orientation in their home countries. The 2024 Asia CLE Mock Sentencing Hearing helps train future persons who will be engaged in the justice sector, to promote fair trial, rule of law, and access to justice principles in their regions. It is essential to train potential law practitioners to understand and effectively address the complexities of social justice agendas. It is equally essential to understand the rule of law, within a functional level of legal skills, in a legal setting in order to address access-to-justice and public interest issues that globally affect people. Empowering law participants, within a CLE framework, makes them more effective and ethically responsible, as they broaden their knowledge and networks, in order to address the access–to–justice issues and needs of their communities.