“Education- is the manifestation of perfection already in man”- Swami Vivekananda

General Perspective:

As rightly said- “Legal Education is essentially a multi-disciplined, multi-purpose education which can develop the human resources and idealism needed to strengthen the legal system… A lawyer, a product of such education would be able to contribute to national development and social change in a more constructive manner.”

Legal education is the education gained by individuals to become legal professionals or practitioners. Legal studies are multi-disciplinary in character. Legal education should aim at promoting 'justice' rather than resolve disputes & improve relationship. The study of law in order to be meaningful has to be in the context of social realities.

Salmond defines law as “a body of principles recognized and applied by the state in the administration of justice”. Laws are made by man. Basically, law is the body of rules or principles, which regulate the external conduct of human behaviour in the society. The object of law, is twofold, viz., primarily, it seeks to protect and guarantee the interests and promote the welfare of the people and secondly, it seeks to administer justice according to the rule of law or procedure established by law. The celebrated legal statement - “People's good is the highest law” of the Roman lawyer Cicero best reflects the first objective.

Law, as a profession brings profound money, power and intelligence with it; things that eventually make individuals successful in their careers. Law and legal education has an important role to play in protecting the rule of law and democracy as a whole. Lawyers are the backbones of the society and they are social engineers.

Law as a career option compares well with other lucrative career options like Management, Medicine and Engineering and even excels them; depending upon individuals capabilities.

India being a common law country has an advantage of having a legal system which is similar to many other countries of the world. As such, firms from other countries visit the top law schools to handpick the talented.

Importance in General:

Law plays a significant role in the process of socio-economic progress of the country. It aims to provide all the citizens political, social and economic justice. Law has its base in legal education.

Legal education is regarded as the backbone of society, as it facilitates society to function peacefully without much conflict. It is essential for all the citizens to receive general legal education, as it would impart them the relevance and significance of basic democratic values. Legal education aims to cherish the aspiration and hopes of the masses by securing them fundamental human rights.

Legal education can be viewed as an investment, if sensibly made will generate valuable results for the development of the nation. Legal education has the potential to build an organized and civilized globe. Thinking about the changing era of globalization and the changing needs of the society, legal education is the heart and the soul of millions of people.

Improving Legal Education in India:

Dr. Radhakrishnan lamented, “Our colleges of law do not hold a place of high esteem either at home or abroad, nor has law become an area of profound scholarship and enlightened research”. But this trend is slowly changing colours with more and more bright and talented students being attracted to the legal profession.

Over the years, there has been a considerable degeneration of academic standards within these law departments with little scope for innovation in the design of courses, development of appropriate teaching modules, formulation of research agenda including undertaking of research projects, and also the promotion of advocacy in lawyering. The departments also suffered from lack of independence and institutional autonomy, asthey were within the university system whose priorities did not always match. As a result, the ability to attract talented students with a passionate commitment to study law in all its ramifications dramatically reduced culminating in institutionalized mediocrity in law faculties across the country. There is no doubt that the establishment of the national law schools starting with the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bangalore followed by some other places successfully challenged this institutionalised mediocrity and succeeded in attracting talented students to the study of law. In fact, the study of law has received better attention among high school leavers in the country with the introduction of five-year integrated programmes.

But where these schools face significant challenges is in attracting faculty members who are top researchers in the field of law and can combine sound teaching methods with established track records of research. The lack of researchers in law and absence of due emphasis on research and publications in the existing law schools have led to the absence of an intellectually vibrant environment.

Research can contribute significantly towards improvement in teaching and, more importantly, addressing numerous challenges relating to law and justice. If one were to look at the faculty profile of the world's top law schools, one will find that there is great emphasis on research and publications among academics. Besides teaching, they contribute in significant ways by initiating and developing research projects in cutting edge areas, by professional contributions to international organisations, law firms and corporations, and by playing an important role in government policy formulation and promoting civil society activism. Law schools and academics in India need to go a long way in developing an institutional culture that promotes and encourages research that has the capacity to foster many positive changes in society at large.

Change in Curriculum:

The emphasis from traditional laws to contemporary subjects has to be addressed and taught in legal education. In fact the conventional role of a lawyer is changing from resolving disputes within the Court room to that of a policy planner, business advisor, mediator, law reformer etc. The lawyer has to interact with other professions on an equal footing and must be able to relate to scientific and technical knowledge. The law curriculum for the future must provide an integrated knowledge of bio-diversity, bio-technology, information and technology, environmental sciences, ocean and marine sciences, public health and other related subjects. Then alone, the unmet legal needs of different sections of society and the impact of globalisation can be addressed to and the students will be equipped to contribute to the society when they leave the portals of their alma mater. In order to do so, the institutions must be given a free hand in choosing the subject so that the students are able to conduct research work I their respective fields. The Bar Council of India must perform only a supervisory role in equipping and funding the libraries.

Role of Teachers:

Teachers are most important in producing talented students. They must contribute a lot. Most of the law teachers join the law schools after completing their LLB, LLM, or Ph.D. and are rarely exposed to the practical aspect of law and the Courts. Such teachers impart theoretical knowledge, divorced from the practical aspects and the result is that a fresh Lawyer appears quite lost in the courtroom. Law is not static but is dynamic. Therefore, proper means must be devised so that the law teacher is required to go to law courts to gain the work experience, as this would not only enable him to have the work experience but will enable him to equip meaningfully the students who wish to join the profession.

The teacher is required to go beyond teaching traditional doctrines and rules and stimulate in the students the basic skills, such as, the skills of critical thinking, presentation skills, participation skills, and the skills to work as a team, the leadership quality, in addition to developing the scientific knowledge in law. Practical training should be devised to educate the students so that they will acquire the skills necessary to not only meet the requirements to deal with contemporary trends but also contribute meaningfully to the society. The training course should also contain lessons on mediation, negotiations and counselling, use of computer in legal work, legal research in support of Public Interest Litigation, writing of case comments, editing of Law Journals and Law Office management.

The teachers associated with the clinical education should preferably have some practical experience in law. Association of retired judicial persons, as visiting faculty would be instrumental in selecting suitable clinical experience for the students and enhance amongst the students the commitment to learn. The approach to legal education must thus change from traditional “lecture method' to one of research and analysis. Emphasis must shift to guiding the students to analyse the case law on the given topic through a personalized interaction. The need to cultivate in a student the psyche to do research will go a long way in promoting day to day preparation.

In the era of globalization, we should pay attention to four important factors to improve the standard of legal education. These are Global curriculum, Global faculty, Global degrees and Global interactions. We have to think globally, but act locally. Dynamism is the lifeblood of law. Legal education cannot be static and cannot survive for long. To keep pace with the changing situation of the world we should also change, by addition, subtraction or cancellation, of the existing curriculum of the legal education in India.

Effect of Globalization and Free Trade:

With multibillion-dollar investments in the growing economies, the business activities have grown manifold. This in turn has created more opportunities for lawyers in general. As every stakeholder becomes more demanding the legal frame work in general and lawyers in particular are held accountable. Globalization has changed the dynamics of the entire polity and society. Currently the whole world is acknowledging the importance of knowledge economy. Since the development of knowledge economy remains an important goal of the developed and developing countries, the establishment of educational institutions of global excellence along with changed new curriculum of global standard ought to become the priority of the developing country like India. Globalization of the legal profession is likely to introduce a sea change in the entire fabric of law teaching and legal profession in India.

Globalization and the changing dimensions of the Indian economy and polity have thrown up new challenges of governance. Rule of law in all its dimensions remains the single most important challenge the country is facing. The criminal and civil justice systems are under severe stress. The role of law schools in imparting legal education and developing lawyers who are rational thinkers and social engineers is central to the future of legal education and the development of a knowledge economy in India. This can be done only if the law schools are able to attract some of the best and the brightest lawyers to make a lifelong commitment to teaching, learning, and research so that they are able to inspire generations of students to work towards establishing a society in India which abides by the rule of law.

Today Cyber Crimes are a new class of crimes in India and it is rapidly expanding due to extensive use of Internet. Equally the significance of Intellectual Property cannot be undermined.

Conclusion:

Legal education is an investment, which, if wisely made, will produce most beneficial results for the nation and accelerate the pace of development. The role of a lawyer in a common social system is more than a skilled legal mechanic; he acts as a harmonizer and a reconciler. The legal education granted at the law schools should be streamlined from the conventional to the contemporary needs of the legal profession. The quality of Legal education has a direct impact on the prestige of the Legal Profession. We must, therefore, identify the areas of default and initiate corrective action to repair the damage. Unless pragmatic steps are undertaken without loss of time, Legal Education will suffer and consequently the country's justice delivery system will stand diluted. A concerted action on the part of bar, the Bench and the law teachers is called for to improve the deteriorating standard of Legal education. We have to equip ourselves better so that we will not only keep pace with the current developments but also meet the demands of the future. Consequently, we will be more accountable as a profession because we have become a more significant component of knowledge economy. Justice A.M.Ahmadi had said, “…. We have waited long enough to repair the cracks in the legal education system of this country and it is high time that we rise from arm-chairs and start the repair work in right earnest”.

I expect the framers of the syllabi of legal education to rise and act to update the legal education to meet the present day challenges and keep the same in order.