Changing Public Interest Law

Public interest law is being practised every day in Australia in community legal centres ('CLCs'), legal aid offices and specialist public interest law organisations such as the Public Interest Advocacy Centre ('PIAC') and the Public Interest Law Clearing Houses ('PILCHs'). At least some of the staff in these organisations would probably not see themselves as 'doing public interest law'. However, the work of these organisations in assisting disadvantaged individuals or groups to access the legal system, in order to solve some immediate legal problem, or secure a benefit for a wider group of similarly-placed people, or defend a progressive social value (such as environmental protection or religious tolerance), comes within my definition of 'public interest law'.