Legal support for social entrepreneurship projects through service-learning

In addition to focusing on transmitting specialised knowledge relevant to professional practice and on providing students with the skills and competences required by the labour market, current teaching practices in Law seek to transcend conventional methods through service provision. With this perspective in mind, we designed a course under the service-learning methodology as part of the Trade Law Seminar taught in the ninth semester of the Bachelor of Law programme, aiming to develop in the students the skills and competencies required in their professional practice whilst providing a solidary service. We linked the competencies, attitudes and values of the course to the service-learning methodology and involved the students in three social projects originating from the Social Transformation Laboratory at the university itself. These projects involve social entrepreneurship and are also linked to the topics in the course syllabus, which are specifically aimed at the creation and operation of trading companies. Through this experience, the students not only acquired and reinforced relevant legal knowledge, but to a great extent they also developed the intended competences, attitudes and values. In addition to solving the legal problems they faced in each of the projects, students also collaborated in the foundation of several trading companies, which besides contributing to solving a current social problem, will also take active part in the country's economy, by generating jobs and competing in the market as socially-responsible companies.