From Domestic to Global : Recent Trends and Dilemmas in U.S. Public Interest Law

Law practitioners and scholars have usually discussed U.S. public interest law in a purely domestic context, including but not limited to legal aid, pro bono, and legal education. Recently, academic scholarship has begun to focus on the global dimension of U.S. public interest law and how some of its attributes are being exported abroad. While public interest law in the United States has been promoted as an ideal, it has also been criticized for its shortcomings. The problems inherent in U.S. public interest law continue: shortage of funding for legal aid programs,pro bono apathy in the legal profession, and the marginalization of the public service ethicin legal education. These factors call into question the export/import value of the U.S. public interest law model. The practical question is whether there can be local sustainability of an externally -derived model with its own deficiencies? This article first reviews the concept of public interest law as it has evolved in the United States. It then provides an overview of various areas of U.S. public interest law today(e.g., legal aid, pro bono, legal education) before moving on to analyze U.S. public interest law as it is represented globally. This article concludes that if U.S.-style public interest law is being exported abroad as a universal model for achieving social justice, then a more critical look at its “grassroots” level is necessary to prepare local actors for the problems that accompany U.S.-style public interest law.