Diploma Program
Until the establishment of the Training Unit at the IoL, there was no Palestinian institution providing legal training for Palestinian lawyers and jurists on a systematic basis. The idea of offering a Professional Diploma in Legal Practice (PDLP) to training and practicing lawyers first appeared towards the end of 1999, in light of the IoL’s success in the fields of legal and judicial training, judicial studies, and legal encounters.
Currently, the Continuing Education Unit hosts the Professional Diploma program, which is self-financed. Under this program, many training courses are offered to Palestinian jurists that focus on developing legal skills such as legal writing, drafting, legal procedure, litigation, and professional ethics. Courses offered to date have included administrative contract drafting for legal advisors to various governmental ministries, real estate case administration for junior lawyers and an introduction to criminal procedures which could be preliminary to more specialized courses, such as technical and medical reports, forensic medicine, court procedures, and specialized issues such as bank related or insurance related cases, etc.
At the meantime 17 students are enrolled in this program. The duration of the program is one year divided into three semesters. Students meet three times a week and the duration of the session is three hours.
Regarding the future prospects of the program, some focus will be put on ways to duplicate the IoL program with the idea of expanding it to other parts of the Palestinian Territories. However, this proposal will involve intensive coordination with the Bar Association so the program can be officially adopted as part of the training required by the Bar. The Institute, and its efforts to enhance the partnership with the Bar Association, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bar, this Memorandum will hopefully add up and strengthen positive relation between the Bar and the Institute. Moreover, this cooperation may lead to the development of the Bar training regulations and preparation of a guide for training new lawyers. The IoL cooperation with the Bar Association will not exclude the possibility of cooperation between the Bar and other Palestinian law schools, which could also offer similar programs in different geographic areas. The IoL is happy to share its expertise.