The Department of Public Law and Clinical Legal Education was created in 2021, as one result of the reformation of the University of Malawi. Unlike its predecessor, the Department of Foundational Law, this Department consists of two units: the Public Law Unit and the Clinical Legal Education Unit.

The main goal of this Department is the development of effective and responsible legal professionals who can skillfully use public law in diverse roles, including legal practice. This builds on the former Faculty of Law’s vision which was to make an outstanding contribution to greater justice, enjoyment and protection of human rights, welfare and development through responsive academic and practical legal education, quality research and covetable expertise.

The department places emphasis on a competence-based contextual and comparative approach that specifically focuses on knowledge, attitudes, and skills as competences necessary to work with the law. In addition, the Department mainstreams gender in content and methods. The legal education combines both vocational and academic aspects with a combined doctrinal and clinical delivery; and its aspirations to provide an internationalised curriculum.