LEGAL EDUCATION

Mr K.I. Pavan Kumar,
Faculty, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar College of Law

Education creates the social climate in which the laws can operate effectively. Education not only moulds human personality, it also creates a consciousness of our responsibility towards the other members of the society. Man has a composite personality, he has immense potentialities but good as well as evil will stop while education seeks to bring out the good in man, law prevents the emergence of the evil in him, so education is an indispensable unit of mankind. There is therefore, the need for a harmony between the law and Education. These two or have to work in close collaboration and marched ahead in unison. And Law, as Hans Girls and rightly maintains, is a system of norms that regulates the behaviour of men. So that Legal Education should on one hand regulate the human Conduct and on the other hand direct them towards the development of society at large. The burden on legal Education is increasing day-by-day to promote social order.

No Society is static. Society keeps changing with the behaviour of the people. Such change may occur slowly and rapidly. Law has to regulate the behaviour of the people. When the behaviour of the people has moved away from Law with a sufficient degree of permanence tensions arise with varying results. Savigny, the father of the Historical School of Law, maintained that "The Law is manifestation of the spirit of the people, so that, it alerts with the developments of the spirit". Although he did not oppose conscious efforts at Law reforms he preached that the reform should always follow the spirit of the people: else it was doomed. But this theory is applicable only while society evolves comfortably with its legal system. Today galvonic changes are taking place, each of which can radically alter the system itself. One of such changes is the instruments for disposing of the disputes between adverseries one of whom must be in the wrong. In the effect their function is to dispense corrective justice. But now courts have adapted the distributive Justice. i.e. In a problem all the parties involved are more or less in the right. Recently in A.P. with an agitation from the women the liquor was prohibited. When the gender discrimination in matrimonial Laws was protested the equal share to son and daughter was allotted. With these examples it is clear that Law has to adapt the changes if it has to survive. It is enough to keep adapting the Law; there has to be an adaption of Lawyer’s thinking.

Law will get adaptability only when the Law makers, Law teachers, promoters and the students are adaptable to changes. This adaptability can be achieved only through effective Legal Education.

As we know at present the representatives of the people failed in keeping themselves and executives in a prospective phase, the judiciary being a independent organ should equip itself with full potence to regulate the legislative and executive actions. For that, as Justice Jagannada Raju, Lokayukta, A.P., rightly maintained that "being the promoters of Justice Lawyers should be well versed in Law. As Law reflects the social ethos and play an important role in democratic and developing countries effective Legal education is an inevitable one.

Many Jurists and social thinkers emphasized the importance of effective legal education. Many opined that the harmonious blend of the mechanics of the profession and academic knowledge is needed.

Many warned that the Government policy of free Legal AID, and at present the efforts of judiciary to sweep out the corrupted politicians from the arena of Democratic Government, will be in vain if the legal education was not imparted effectively. In the present system of administration of Justice. It is an admitted fact that no scheme of Legal AID, administration of Equal Justice can function effectively without the active assistance and cooperation of the well trained members of the Legal Profession."

Many proposed globalization of legal profession. To compete with international level Law practitioners we should have enough substantial knowledge and procedural skill for that we need strong academic foundation.

Many argued that an effective legal educational system is itself an instrument of maintaining law and order in the society. It also helps in maintaining a balanced relation between the conflicting interests of the people. Indeed it is an essence of the ‘social engineering’. Law is a bed rock on which the entire edifice of society is built. So the longevity of the society depends on the strength of Law. As a river can’t rise higher than the source, the judiciary can’t attain the culminating stage, unless the advocates in the Bar are properly trained in the institutions. So the genetic defect in legal education is evitably reflected on the Bench and at the Bar and ultimately on judiciary. Therefore it is necessary to have sound legal educational system.

But unfortunately, as Law Commission (1959) headed by Satelved, reported that Legal education has been facing crisis for the past 40 years, Commission pointed out many factors for the slow deterioration in the Legal Standards: some of those are lack of adequate teaching staff, increasing student population who are not very much interested in learning Law, lack of buildings, lack of adequate and minimum standard books, more number of temporary affiliated colleges, and so on…..

To make legal education socially relevant, intellectually challenging and professionally competent, one can make a number of recommendations in respect of curriculum content teaching methods, admission policies and examination techniques. Chief Justice Ahmadi in his inaugural address at the All-Indian conference of Lawyers made many thought provoking suggestions. I would like to draw attention in regard to three important suggestions he made:-

  1. The Bar, Judiciary and U.G.C. must join hands to raise the standard of legal education in this country. As a first step in this direction it is suggested that a Legal education committee of the Bar council should be set up comprising representatives of all the three wings.
  2. Legal Education Committee so formed must direct the concerned University to withdraw the recognition or affiliation and that would once and for all put an end to those law schools which are suffering from the above mentioned disabilities.
  3. In every state some advisory committee should be set up with a sitting Judge of the High court being associated there with to inform and advise the legal education committee of the developments taking place in the state.

As the Justice points out in foregoing passages the Bar Associations and Universities play a dominant role in making legal education programmes successful. Now we will discuss the role of the Bar Association and University in Legal Education.

Role of Bar Association in Legal Education: -

As the second largest Bar in the world, Indian Bar Council has a dominant role to play this matter. In persuance of that Indian Bar Council created a Trust namely, Bar council of India Trust 1974, as an educational and research foundation with the objects of establishing one or more model Law schools, organising Legal Aid to the poor, publishing Law Books and Law reports and promoting welfare of the members of the profession. Bar Council of India trust organized many seminars on Legal Education, in 1977 at Bombay, Trust organised a seminar on "Implication of new pattern of Education (10+2+3) on Legal Education particularly with reference on entrance qualification, duration and curriculam", similarly, All Indian Law teachers Association organized a National Conference on "Legal Education" at Dharward in 1979. Many state Bar Councils [TamilNadu, Kerala, W.B., M.P., U.P.,Bihar] responded positively to the call of the Trust and expressed the need for reforming the system of Legal Education.

In 1961, Advocates Act was passed U/s 49 of the Act the Bar Council of India has been Empowered to make rules relating to the standards of Legal Education to be observed by Universities in India. Bar Council made many rules. It has made suggestions for better system but due to the lack of earnestness in teachers the effective execution of the rules failed. Many Law lectures were not qualified in JRF (or) NET exam. But still they are being appointed in law colleges because they do not and can’t demand a higher remuneration from the college, the college committees will appoint for nominal amount of remuneration, which will badly effect the Law Students. So the Bar Council has to look into the college matters and see that the lecturers have completed or passed JRF (or) NET, apart from Bar Universities should also take due regard of the matter.

Bar Councils from the beginning are very interested in implementing one year apprentice programme. Even in the beginning American Law Students served as apprentices under the practicing lawyers, where they copied, drafted legal papers, read the few books available in their office and observed their mentors in action. The impact of such a training was uneven, some fledging lawyers began their practice of law with a good back ground while most were inadequately prepared to assume the responsibilities of the profession. The practitioners lack time and interest to educate themselves, and the fact that most law practices embraced a narrow range of interest, also contributed to the poor quality of the training the most young lawyers received. Even in India the students at present undergoing appresticeship, as I have observed, are just imitating three seniors, they have lost their independent identity. The Natural Logical abilities with which they are endowed are being suppressed which is not warranted for the prosperity of the students and to the profession.

An immature LLB student in courts may understand the things going on and that will have a negative impact on the student. This is something like taking a boy to a horror film, who can’t make a distinction between the ‘fiction’ and ‘reality’, whatever is picturised in the film he believes them to be true and real because, he has not yet experienced the real life yet. In the same manner a student of law who has not yet seen the law in motion, can’t assimilate the substantial knowledge which he has acquired in the class room and procedural knowledge which he observes now will definitely have a negative impact on him.

In my view, instead of keeping the student in confusing state of mind in courts, better involve them in free legal AID programmes. These programmes are community oriented and problem solving practical training through legal services in the school setting will give them a chance to learn the techinques of interviewing, collection of facts, appreciation of evidence, examination, cross–examination, re examination of witness in a real life situation .…. like …… This will be a good academic exposure to the students. With this they will know their need to the society which is very essential at present. This will also create an optimistic view among the students.

It is the District Bar Association which is the competent and suitable body to implement this plan of action. It is my humble request to the district association to adopt this plan of action immediately. 

Role of Universities and Legal Education: -

It is needless to stress the role of Universities and affiliated colleges in imparting effective legal education. The students of Law are mentally and physically attached to the Universities and colleges for considerable period of time. So these institutions will have enough time to mould the character and personality of students and impart effective Legal Education to them. Here are some of my suggestions that I feel will help in imparting effective legal education.

  1. Autonomisation of Law departments in the Universities i.e. Law department should be given funds in the beginning of the Academic Year itself, so that the Head of the Department may spend the money according to the changing needs and to fulfill the demands of the time independent.
  2. Like in U.S.A., the Indian Universities also allot Law student to Governmental or private agencies like the Municipal Board, the consumer council, …etc and assign to them the tasks including field investigation, written work, participation in discussions regarding Legal matter….etc the chief purpose of such an internship is to discover how the various organization work and what enactments are mostly used in practice.
  3. Students should be given financial assistance and moral encouragement to participate in National and International Conferences, so that the student will have a chance to learn communication skills, and have an opportunity to interact with higher officials.
  4. Today’s LLM students are Tomorrow’s Law teachers so the concentration on LLM students should be greater. LLM students should not only have command on the subject but also cultivate teaching abilities. They should learn teaching techniques so should be given a chance to take classes for LLB students which will definitely give them a lot of confidence. And basing on the class room performance internal marks should also be given to them.
  5. Paper submissions should be made mandatory for the LLM students at the National and International Level conferences
  6. The subjects prescribed in the curriculam do not satisfy the needs of the society. New enactments should be introduced in the curriculam atleast at LLM level.
  7. At the state level Universities should offer four common specializations they should properly be utilized by U.G.C.
  8. A National professor should be appointed regularly by the U.G.C. This provision should properly be utilized by U.G.C.
  9. A National Common Entrance Test should be conducted and fully equipped aided institutions alone should be given the chance to admit successful students.
  10. Universities should initiate steps to conduct campus interviews for vacancies in the public (or) private sectors.
  11. Even recently passed LLM student are not aware of the recent developments in Law. When they are sent to the class rooms to teach they are not in a position to answer the questions from new generations.
  12. And no amount of professional ethics is going to change the present state of affairs and the only answer is to inculcate these ethics in the behaviour pattern of the students right from the stage their induction in the institute.
  13. Last but not least, we should start doing research on the Indian Jurisprudence. Indian philosophical thoughts should be given a room to play making the law susceptible, so that the students can feel at home with philosophy of Law. When a thorough philosophical knowledge is imparted , then the students can come up with high educational standards.

But the issue is not the factum of existence of these ideas in our present papers, but the question is its rigorous implementations and the extent to which it ought to be done.

Conclusion: -

I feel it is right gesture to remind you all once again the saying of Swami that "Education is not the amount of information which is put into your brain to remain there all through your life undigested. It is men making, character building and assimilation of ideas."

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