Government mulls major reforms in legal education

Government mulls major reforms in legal education

New Delhi: The Ministry of Law and Justice, in collaboration with the Bar Council of India (BCI) and National Law University, Delhi, is organising a 'National Consultation for Second Generation Reforms in Legal Education' on May 1 and 2, 2010 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi which will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India will deliver a special address.

The Union Minister for Law & Justice, Dr. M. Veerappa Moily, would present a vision statement for 'Second Generation Reforms in Legal Education.'

The purpose of the said National Consultation is to identify the major challenges the legal education is facing at present and to draw a roadmap for bringing radical institutional reforms in legal education to meet not only the requirements of the bar but the needs of trade, commerce and industry in view of growing internationalization of the legal profession.

The National Consultation would be attended by judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, Attorney General for India, Solicitor General of India and Additional Solicitors Generals, Chairman and other members of the BCI and State Bar Councils, leading lawyers, eminent professors of Law, faculty members of Law Universities/ Colleges and other institutions.

India currently faces the major challenges in the field of providing legal education to respond to global challenges.

"Although, India has emerged as a leading global hub for the knowledge based service industry for the past decade but it still needs a revolution to meet and respond to global challenges in providing services particularly by the lawyers whether in litigation or non-litigation side," said an official press release.

At present, professional legal education is being imparted by 913 colleges recognized by the BCI and 14 National Law Universities/ schools established under the State Acts.

The BCI under the Advocates Act, 1961 has made rules to regulate the legal education but the standard of legal education does not meet the present day requirements of the legal profession.

The matter relating to the legal education has been examined by the Law Commission of India in its 184th Report on Legal Education and Professional Training and Proposals for Amendments to the Advocates Act, 1961 and the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956 (2002).

In the recent past, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has made certain recommendations in its report particularly in the area of research inlegal education.

In this National Consultation, various issues relating to legal education will be discussed, e.g., the objects of legal education, the priorities in legal education reform, the roles and responsibilities in this regard of the government, BCI, universities and management of law colleges; what makes a system of legal education world class in competitive excellence and what is the agenda for educationists, jurists, judges and advocates for directing the system towards revival and rejuvenation; given the changes in the role of law-trained persons, it will also be examined how can legal pedagogy teaching methods respond to the changing demands.

It will assess how far they fulfill the demands of knowledge, skills, attitudes and ethics required for legally trained persons.

Due to unprecedented and fast changes in the society and economy, the law curriculum lags behind and is not sufficiently reflective of the knowledge and skills required of legally trained persons.

Curriculum development is a continuing process for which teachers have the primary responsibility. The issues as to how does the curriculum reflect itself in syllabi and teaching plans will be the highlight of this Consultation for improving standard of legal education in the country.

In order to be able to effectively implement the reforms in legal education in India, law teaching must focus on developing students’ critical and analytical abilities through classroom exercises and training designed for the said purpose.

In order to develop a framework to bring about these changes, it has been considered worth to examine the experiences of law teachers in other jurisdictions and to identify the scope for implementing effective teaching and training methods employed successfully elsewhere.

"One of the neglected areas of legal education in the country is post-graduate studies in law and research," feels an official.

This has resulted in poor quality research output and dearth of quality law teachers to serve the ever-expanding legal education sector.

"We are looking for the prospects for national and international collaboration in improving standards of post-graduate studies in law as also to strengthen law publications for quality development," mentioned the press release.

Professionalism demands learning at work or learning by doing under professional supervision and to keep abreast with professional developments.

Most of the Law Colleges/Law Schools at present are not adequately equipped for the tasks involved.

Recently, the Directorate of Legal Education, established by the BCI, has the challenge to organize, supervise and deliver continuing legal education to a million legal professionals, growing by ten per cent every year.

"Taking lessons from the Bar of other developed countries, we will consider the ways and means by which such partnership can be established, and can be made functional to the advantage of practicing professionals as well as of the Law Colleges/Law Schools," it further added.

The legal profession is not a business, rather a profession requiring certain standards and etiquette to be followed by its members.

The fundamental aim of legal ethics is to maintain the honour and dignity of the profession, to secure a spirit of friendly cooperation between the bench and the Bar in the promotion of the highest standards of administration of justice.

It includes standards of conduct both of the members of the profession and the judiciary.

The BCI has laid down certain standards of conduct and etiquette of the members of the Bar.

It will be discussed in this Consultation what it means to be a member of the legal profession and also re-evaluate the ethical standards with a view to enhancing the level of service provided by the legal profession to the community at large.

The role of law schools in social transformation, particularly, of the disadvantaged sections envisaged by the Indian Constitution will be another major highlight of this Consultation for purpose of inclusive growth.

It will be examined how can law schools contribute towards law reform for the marginalized and discriminated sections of society and what is the role of law schools in legal aid services and administration of justice and also to make law schools partners in social transformation, social justice and inclusive development.

Students in the National Law Schools, upon graduation prefer to opt a career in major corporate law firms in contrast to a career in litigation or the government.

At the same time, the demand for corporate lawyers in light of India's globalizing economy is increasing at a rapid pace.

The issues for consideration in this Consultation are why do students from National Law Schools seem to prefer careers in corporate law firms; how can the legal education system cater to the emerging needs of the new economy.

It will also examine how to organize training and education for alternate dispute resolution systems, especially arbitration.

A large number of legal education providers in India are privately administered law colleges.

While National Law Schools and government Law Colleges cater to the needs of a few in terms of legal education, the needs of the many are still met by the private sector.

If legal education is to be improved, it is essential to maintain, monitor and promote standards in education throughout the range of legal education institutions in various parts of the country, including private law colleges.

The quality of legal education provided in these institutions differs widely from institution to institution, and there is a need to ensure that certain minimum standards are maintained by all such law colleges, at the same time encouraging the best to compete with the State-funded institutions.

In the valedictory session, Union Minister for Law and Justice would present draft resolutions based on the discussion and deliberation to take place in ten technical sessions on May 1 and 2, 2010.

Justice S. H. Kapadia, Judge Supreme Court would give valedictory address while Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resources Development (HRD) would give special address.

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