The objective of the Capacity Building for Legal and Social Advancement in the Philippines or “CALESA” is to help remedy the following interdependent problems in Philippine legal education:1. The dearth of academic research in law schools.2. The inability of professors and students to access the source materials of their own civil law tradition, and developments in other civil law traditions due to weak multilingual interest and skills.3. Inability of the legal profession to contribute significant academic (as opposed to professional) expertise to the modernization of outdated legal codes, the protection of human rights and the rule of law, and advancement of ASEAN integration, despite their critical and/or geo-strategic importance.At the root of these problems is a systemic defect in Philippine legal education – the lack of programs in law schools that are focused on developing academic expertise and generating research. Virtually all of the country’s 108 law schools are professional. This means that they are geared towards producing legal practitioners. This creates a knowledge deficit that prevents the legal profession from more effectively combining law and policy to deal with some of the most pressing needs of society.Upon CALESA’s completion, it is envisioned that the Philippines’ leading law schools will adopt curricular innovations that are focused on research, multilingualism, human rights and the rule of law, regional integration and comparative law in a manner that is consistent with the Bologna process in order to facilitate portability with EU universities. Because these institutions are among the thought leaders in the field of legal education, the expectation is to initiate a cascade effect whose benefits will in time reach the other law schools, the Judiciary, the legal profession, the legal system, and Philippine society.