Legal EDUCATION

Since the establishment of national law schools, legal education in India has changed for the better. In some aspects, the quality could be compared to the education offered in Europe. But apart from a handful of national law schools and few others, there are 500 to 600 teaching shops that offer LLB. Till the time they improve their content and upgrade teaching methodology, we can’t say the quality of legal education is very good. There is a need for change if we want to compete in the global market.

How can we achieve Legal Education

We need to change the method of regulation. Today regulation of legal education is the responsibility of the Bar Council of India (BCI). There is a need to amend the advocates Act and we need to have a rigorous policy of certification of law schools. The general impression is that it is easy to offer legal education in India where lawyers can simply come and give lectures. And that the exam can be passed if you are good in English. There is no emphasis on analysis, research, legal writing. Bright people want to pursue legal education but unfortunately we are not able to offer them quality. You need to offer them experiential learning, put them in mediation or arbitration sessions. But, for that, it is important to curb the number of law institutes. Legal education in our country is offered both at the professional and liberal level. And many argue that everyone has the right to access liberal education. However there is a need to discriminate in the way we impart liberal legal education and professional legal education. Liberal legal education can be imparted through distant learning mode.

How can we impart quality to those who graduate from institutes other than law schools? Everyone cannot go to a law school.

The takes us to the need for continuing legal education in India, even though a law year learns every day, when he goes to court and argues a case or when a judge passes a judgment. But we need a continuing education system that is formalized and organized. About 30 years ago, BCI started offering courses in continuing education in the area of criminal advocacy, tax adjudication constitutional adjudication matrimonial. But that was short-lived.

Today, there is a great demand to offer continuing education to lawyers, subordinate judges and sometimes even to activists and journalists because there are areas where you need intimate knowledge of law.