<![CDATA[Achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 on Life Below Water requires not only effective environmental governance but also legal education that equips future lawyers to address complex transboundary environmental disputes. Although clinical legal education has increasingly been recognized as an experiential learning approach, limited attention has been given to its application in international environmental disputes involving marine pollution. This study aims to examine the limitations of conventional legal mechanisms in resolving the Montara oil spill dispute between Indonesia and Australia through the perspective of Lawrence M. Friedman’s legal system theory and to formulate a clinical legal education model based on environmental dispute analysis. The research employs a normative legal method using a case-based approach, with the Montara oil spill dispute serving as the primary case study. Data were analyzed through interactive qualitative techniques consisting of data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings reveal that conventional legal mechanisms remain constrained by weaknesses in the three elements of the legal system, namely legal structure, legal substance, and legal culture, which collectively hinder the effective resolution of transboundary environmental disputes. Building upon these findings, this study develops a conceptual model of environmental clinical legal education that integrates case-based learning with Friedman's legal system analysis to strengthen students' analytical and problem-solving capacities. This research contributes to the development of clinical legal education by demonstrating how international environmental disputes can serve as practical learning instruments for advancing environmental justice and supporting the achievement of SDG 14. As the proposed model is based on a single case study, further research involving comparative environmental disputes is recommended to evaluate its broader applicability across different legal and institutional contexts.]]>
