1. Home
  2. Faculty & Research
  3. Centers & Institutes
  4. Bernstein Institute
  5. Programs
  6. Legal Empowerment

Legal Empowerment

Photo of women's profiles looking forward

Legal empowerment shifts the paradigm of justice. It unites the power of community organizing with the law to ensure communities have the tools to know, use, shape, and transform the laws and systems that impact their lives. Legal empowerment takes many forms, from community paralegal programs, to community-data collection projects, popular education, and community-driven litigation, among others.

This approach is rooted in global movements—from South Africa’s fight against apartheid to people’s tribunals in the Philippines. Legal empowerment recognizes that legal systems often privilege the voices of lawyers and “experts” while silencing those most harmed. The approach builds vibrant, inclusive legal ecosystems where community members have the legal organizing tools to effectively advocate for themselves and their communities.

The Bernstein Institute is the only U.S. legal academic center dedicated to advancing research, education, and advocacy on legal empowerment in the United States and globally. We teach law students to act as allies instead of “experts,” and partner with grassroots activists, lawyers, and scholars to think collectively about how to use the law to address structural injustice. A central tenet of the work is the redistribution of legal power–with communities in the lead in defining the justice they seek.
 

Programs

Through our US and global legal empowerment programs we support and learn from our community partners as they build power, dignity, and knowledge to actively challenge inequities impacting their communities. We organize trainings on legal empowerment, co-create legal education and empowerment resources, co-produce participatory action research on the power of community justice, and hold convenings to highlight the success and promise of legal empowerment.

US Programs
Global Programs