By K P C Rao.,
LLB., FCS., FICWA
kpcrao.india@gmail.com
The legal education should be able to meet the ever growing demands of the society and should be thoroughly equipped to cater to the complexities of the different situations”[1].
-Supreme Court of India
BACKGROUND
Since the Vedic times, dispensation of justice has been considered a sacred 'Dharma'. Such dispenser of Justice, the King or any of his nominee, used to be one considered infallible- the integrity personified. The Regulation Act, 1772 recognized for the first time the legal profession in India. Thereafter, it was codified in Bengal Regulation-Vll of 1793, prescribing the scales of fee to be charged by the Vakils. It was further modified by the Legal Practitioners Act, 1846 as a subject to regulate both the Vakils and Barristers. The Legal Practitioners Act, 1853 and 1879 made suitable amendments. The Bar Council Act, 1926 was passed to unify the Bar in India and to give legal profession measured autonomy in its affairs wherein the State Bar Councils and the High Courts were authorised to regulate the admission and the conduct of the Advocates practicing in the Courts. Rule of law became fundamental doctrine for governance of country with the adoption of the Constitution in the post independence era. Consequently, arose the need to streamline the legal education in the country and finally, the Advocates Act, 1961 replaced the pre-existing laws and gave autonomy to the Bar Council of India and the Bar Councils of the States. Under the Act, one of the many functions of the Bar Council of India is to promote legal education and lay down standards of such education in consultation with the Universities, imparting such education, and the Bar Councils of the States. It is also required to maintain high standards in legal profession and discipline the Advocates.
Section 7 (1) (h) requires the BCI to “consult the universities for the purpose of laying down these standards of legal education”. Section 7(1) (i) of the Act enables the BCI to grant recognition to universities whose law degrees shall be sufficient qualification for enrolment as an advocate. The BCI may, for this purpose, visit and inspect the universities concerned whose degrees in law may be recognized for the purpose of enrolment of law graduates as lawyers. Similar power is conferred by Section 6(1) (gg) of the Act on the State Bar Councils in regard to inspection. Section A of Part IV of the Rules made by the BCI deals with the five years’ course, Section B deals with the three years’ course and Section C deals with inspection. However, in practice, it may not be possible for the BCI to consult each and every University and there is no manner prescribed in the Advocates Act, 1961 for rendering effective consultation in this regard.
Today, legal education has to meet not only the requirements of the Bar and the new needs of trade, commerce and industry but also the requirements of globalization. New subjects with international dimensions have come into legal education. There is also an enormous need for non-Practicing law graduates in trade and commerce. It is also necessary to allow engineers, Company Secretaries, chartered Accountants, scientists and doctors to qualify in law for non-Practicing purposes. Indeed, it is gratifying that some Indian Institute of Technology (“IIT”) institutions have recently started several courses in law. The Open University system must also be allowed to cater to legal education. The Bar Council of India may, of course, still deal with the minimum standards of legal education for the purposes of entry into the Bar but there is a need to have a new regulatory mechanism that will cater to the aforementioned present and future needs of the country.
PARADIGM SHIFT IN CONCEPTUAL THINKING
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.
At present, professional legal education is being imparted by 913 colleges recognised by the Bar Council of India and 14 National Law Universities/Schools established under the State Acts. The Bar Council of India 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 UGC Act, 1956 (2002). Earlier Supreme Court of India has already made some observations in this regard in cases like Salem Advocates Bar Association v Union of India and V. Sudeer vs Bar Council of India. In the recent past, the National Knowledge Commission has made certain recommendations in its report particularly in the area of research in legal education. The suggestions / recommendations made by these bodies are briefly discussed hereunder.
a) The Law Commission’s Recommendations
The Law Commission in its 184th Report, (2002) (Para 5.16) has pointed out that there are revolutionary changes which have come into legal education by reason of developments in information, communication, transport technologies, intellectual property, corporate law, cyber law, human rights, ADR, international business, comparative taxation laws, space laws, environmental laws etc. and that “The very nature of law, legal institutions and law practice are in the midst of a paradigm shift”.
The aim of transnational legal education is not to create individuals who can ‘practice’ law in a number of jurisdictions. Although graduates of such a program may well wish to do so, such ability should not be seen as an objective in itself, but merely as an incidental result. The aim of any new program should be to create lawyers who are comfortable and skilled in ‘dealing’ with the differing legal systems and cultures that make up our global community while remaining strong in one’s own national legal system. Our lawyers must be trained to specialize in international trade practices, comparative law, conflict of laws, international human rights law, environmental law, gender justice, space law, biomedical law, bio-ethics, international advocacy etc. They must also acquire a general knowledge of American, French, German, Chinese and Japanese law. For example, in South Korea, in the last 10 years, the curriculum has been expanded to include not only the above subjects, but also International Business, International Contracts, International Civil Procedure and laws of England, America, France and Germany.
Globalization does not merely mean addition or inclusion of new subjects in the curriculum as stated above. While that is, no doubt, an important matter, the broader issue is to prepare the legal profession to handle the challenges of globalization and internationalization This obviously goes far beyond preparing graduates only for practice at the Bar or for the subordinate judiciary.
b) Observations made by Supreme Court
In Salem Advocates Bar Association v Union of India[2] The Supreme Court observed that training of ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution’ system should be given to law students, lawyers and judges, in view of the recent amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Sec.89).
In V. Sudeer vs Bar Council of India[3], the Apex court observed that a law graduate shall get training from an Advocates having 10 years experience in the Bar, and should also qualify Bar examination, before allowing him to be enrolled as an Advocate.
c) The National Knowledge Commission’s Recommendations (October,2007)
The National Knowledge Commission, while deliberating on issues related to knowledge concepts, not only recognizes legal education as an important constituent of professional education but also endorsed the view that the vision of legal education is to provide justice-oriented education essential to the realization of values enshrined in the Constitution of India. In keeping with this vision, legal education must aim at preparing legal professionals who will play decisive leadership roles, not only as advocates Practicing in courts, but also as academics, legislators, judges, policy makers, public officials, civil society activists as well as legal counsel in the private sector, maintaining the highest standards of professional ethics and a spirit of public service. Legal education should also prepare professionals equipped to meet the new challenges and dimensions of internationalization, where the nature and organization of law and legal practice are undergoing a paradigm shift. Further, there is need for original and path breaking legal research to create new legal knowledge and ideas that will help meet these challenges in a manner responsive to the needs of the country and the ideals and goals of our Constitution.
As part of a consultative process, the National Knowledge Commission constituted a working group of experts, including distinguished members of the Bar, the bench and academia under the chairmanship of Justice M. Jagannadha Rao to suggest necessary measures to improve the quality of legal education in India. After due consultations with stakeholders, the Commission has identified a few key reform proposals to bring about a qualitative transformation in legal education essential to meet present and future needs and made the following recommendations:
1. A New Standing Committee for Legal Education- Regulatory Reform
The National Knowledge Commission recommend the setting up of a new regulatory mechanism under the Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE), vested with powers to deal with all aspects of legal education and whose decisions are binding on the institutions teaching law and on the union and state governments
2. Prioritize Quality and Develop a Rating System
The development of an independent Rating System based on a set of agreed criteria to assess the standard of all institutions teaching law as a mechanism to ensure consistent academic quality throughout the country.
3. Curriculum Development
The development of contemporary curriculum, which is integrated with other disciplines and also ensures regular feedback from stakeholders. Autonomy may be granted to universities, national law schools (NLSUs) and other law schools to decide the core and optional courses to be offered.
4. Examination System
Revising the prevailing examination systems and suggest the development of evaluation methods that test critical reasoning by encouraging essential analytical, writing and communication skills. The end-semester examination should be problem-oriented, combining theoretical and problem oriented approaches rather than merely test memory. Project papers, project and subject viva, along with an end-semester examination to be considered as pedagogic methods imperative for improving quality.
5. Measures to attract and retain talented faculty
To attract and retain talented faculty, the Commission recommended better incentives, including improving remuneration and service conditions
6. Developing a Research Tradition in law schools and universities
The Commission, has emphasized that the need for creating a tradition of research in law schools and universities is imperative, if India has to transform itself from being only a consumer of available legal knowledge to being a leading producer in the world of new legal knowledge and ideas.
7. Centers for Advanced Legal Studies and Research (CALSAR)
The Commission also stated that there is need to set up four autonomous, well networked Centers for Advanced Legal Studies and Research (CALSAR), one in each region, to carry out cutting edge research on various aspects of law and also serve as a think-tank for advising the government in national and international fora.
8. Financing of legal education
It is for law schools and universities to decide the level of fees but as a norm, fees should meet at least 20% of the total expenditure in universities. This should be subject to two conditions: first, needy students should be provided with a fee waiver plus scholarships to meet their costs; second, universities should not be penalized by the UGC for the resources raised from higher fees through matching deductions from their grants-in aid.
9. Dimensions of Internationalization
Building world class law schools today will require creatively responding to the growing international dimensions of legal education and of the legal profession, where it is becoming increasingly necessary to incorporate international and comparative perspectives, along with necessary understanding of domestic law. Suggested initiatives to promote such international perspectives include building collaborations and partnerships with noted foreign universities for award of joint/dual degrees; finding ways of evolving transnational curricula to be taught jointly by a global faculty through video conferencing and internet modes; as well as creating international faculty, international courses and international exchange opportunities among students.
10. Technology for dissemination of Legal Knowledge
For maximum dissemination of legal knowledge, the commission recommended that all information available in the Indian Law Institute (“ILI”), Supreme Court Library, Indian Society for International Law (“ISIL”) as well as those of all law schools, universities and public institutions in the country, be networked and digitized. Such networking is in addition to the need for adequate infrastructure such as computers, law journals, legal databases and excellent libraries in the institutions teaching law.
d) The Vision Statement 2010-2012 of the Bar Council of India, (June , 2010)
The Vision Statement recognised the need to address various issues as well as the several different constituents of the legal profession in India and identified some areas such as
1) Inadequate quality of legal education and infrastructure, and
2) Lack of relevant skills training to meet with the ever-changing demands of the modern world, as two of the issues affecting the image of the legal profession in India.
One of the steps identified in the Vision Statement towards resolving these issues is creating clear quality standards for legal education and a common entry level standard for entering law schools across the country. In furtherance of the objective of improving the standards of legal education and the modernisation of the legal profession in the country stated in the Vision Statement, the Bar Council of India intends to implement a series of measures this year, which law schools across India must put in place by the Academic Year 2011-2012.
As the thinks stands now, the issue as to passing the All-India Bar Examination which is mandatory for commencement of practice as advocate in court, has been challenged in writ petitions in nine High Courts, including Madras, Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, and Gujarat and the matter came up before the apex court during 1st week of August, 2010. The BCI said that all these pending writ petitions involved the same/substantially the same question of law and were pending adjudication. It would be in the interest of justice that the petitions were transferred to the Supreme Court.
However, a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar told the BCI counsel that it would be desirable if the petitions were heard by one High Court. Accordingly, the counsel said it would be better if the matter was heard in the Delhi High Court.
While dismissing the case[4] the Apex Court observed that a six-month waiting period to attain the license to practice was not unreasonable and remarked "Let the legal reforms begin somewhere. The Bench issued a notice and directed the matter to be listed for further hearing.
SECOND GENERATION REFORMS- NATIONAL CONSULTATION
In the National Consultation, various issues relating to legal education was discussed, e.g., the objects of legal education, the priorities in legal education reform, the roles and responsibilities in this regard of the Government, Bar Council of India, 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 was also examined how can legal pedagogy teaching methods respond to the changing demands, assessed 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. This has resulted in poor quality research output and dearth of quality law teachers to serve the ever-expanding legal education sector.
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 Bar Council of India, 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.
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 Bar Council of India 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. We 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.
After the consultations at 'National Consultation for Second Generation Reforms in Legal Education' on May 1 and 2, 2010 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi Dr . M. Veerappa Moily presented Vision statement for second Generation Reform in Legal Education. The vision statement highlighted the following.
The first generation of reforms established the National Law Schools and demonstrated that India too can have institutions that impart an affordable and world class legal education. The second generation of reforms shall focus on the three pillars of Expansion, Inclusion & Excellence. These reforms shall be an investment in the Indian lawyer and in the Indian student of law.
Expansion
Expansion will focus on a multi disciplinary approach encouraged across the board to enable more students to access affordable and quality legal education. An efficient justice system plays a vital role in our economic development. Reducing pendencies alone can add about 2% to our GDP and it is our legal education system that will provide the manpower to fuel this required efficiency.
1) Establish four national level institutions at the regional level as Centres of Excellence focussed on research and upgradation of faculty skills - these may be called Institutes of Advanced Legal Studies & Research
2) There will be a National Law University established in every state as a school of excellence
3) Each of the 913 existing law schools to be evaluated by an empowered committee and classified as per standards and needs for the purpose of upgrading such colleges and creating and providing opportunities to the students
4) PPP model for law schools with specialised focus to be encouraged
5) Autonomous colleges that will meet demanding accreditation standards to be encouraged
6) Continuing learning centres to be established in collaboration with the Bar Council's Directorate of Legal Education
Inclusion
Inclusion will focus on creating a system by which a first generation lawyer from a backward and poverty stricken class can rub shoulders with the best of the best at the national level:
1) Establish a National Law Library that can also be accessed by all citizens online. Law libraries will also be established in every district of the country. The Ministry will establish an online legal e-learning network where citizens can access lectures and classes on legal subjects in real-time
2) To create an overall framework of inclusive participation in opportunities, including internships in courts and like bodies for students and legal professionals, so that there is upward mobility for every legal professional to be able to access professional opportunities at the High Courts and Supreme Court
3) Scholarships and fellowships to be made available for women and students from economically and socially weaker sections in order for them to access various opportunities for a legal education and a professional career
Excellence
Excellence will focus on identifying and nurturing talent by providing every opportunity to every individual wishing to be a student of law:
1) An opportunity for students to specialize in various aspects of the law during their education itself in order to create a pool of talent based on domain expertise and core competence
2) A continuous focus on social responsibility and a strong professional ethic during every step of the educational process. Every practitioner should have an unfailing commitment to the integrity and working of the legal system and reinvigorate the oversight mechanism for professional misconduct in order for it to take swift action, including debarring those that violate professional ethics and standards
3) An online continuous career development and monitoring program to be established founded on a national database of all legal practitioners in the country. This will be a robust tracking system by which talent can be identified and lauded. The database will track domain expertise and professional development for lawyers and will publicly recognize excellence as well as detect inefficiencies. This system will be the basis for identifying lawyers for various roles and appointments including law officers and judges
4) The Indian Law Institute to refocus on its core mission to promote research in law as well as conduct post graduate specialist courses in various fields of law by recruiting faculty of global standard
5) The Delivery of Justice and Law Reform Trust of India in collaboration with the bar, the bench and leading business schools in India will develop courses for court administrators and managers
6) We will develop a system to create a cadre of paralegals in various sectors of legal practise who may then serve as legal secretaries and strengthen legal aid and literacy programs
A comprehensive strategy that encapsulates both "Top to Bottom" and "Bottom to Top" approaches will see lawyers at all levels participating in continuing legal education programs. We will demonstrate that the Indian legal and justice system is efficient, responsive, globally competitive, quick and orderly with judges and lawyers who can rise up to global challenges and the future needs of the country.
The way forward
As early as 1917, when serious initiatives were taken to reform legal education at the Yale Law School, it was noted that the purpose of the law school should be “the study of law and its evolution—historically, comparatively, analytically, and critically—with the purpose of directing its development in the future, improving its administration and on perfecting its methods of legislation”.
The central question we need to ask ourselves in India is whether our law schools are fulfilling this responsibility adequately, and if not, what we need to do, so that we are able to address the fundamental issues concerning legal education that were raised nearly 90 years ago in the United States. Legal education reforms in India should go along with the encouragement of global philanthropic initiatives, so that resources are available to maintain international standards to impart quality education and conduct impact-oriented research.
Barring Foreign Law Firms from practsing in India as was held in Lawyers collective v Bar council of India and others[5] by the Bombay High Court is not a solution, as the judgment will be having its own ramifications in the global sphere for the legal practitioners from India who want to take up legal practice outside India. It is now imminent for the Central Government/ Bar Council to legislate and frame appropriate rules in consultation with all the stake holders, with regard to entry of foreign law firms in India and to arrive at a Judicious decision to put to rest the threat being posed by the foreign law firms.
Instead of wasting of time and energies whether legal education in India is to be liberated from the dominant control of the Bar Councils or over superseding of regulatory bodies (It is immaterial whether it is Law Ministry’s domain or HRD Ministry’s) under a proposed super-regulatory authority as suggested by the National Knowledge Commission and the Yashpal Committee, let us concentrate our focus and energies to convert the new challenges in to opportunities in the global arena.
Issues to be addressed to meet the Global challenges
1) Curriculum and teaching
The new and emerging law schools cannot afford to limit their focus to teaching and research on issues relating to Indian law. In fact, the appetite of Indian law students for understanding international and comparative law has significantly increased over the years, given their participation in international moot competitions that range from issues such as maritime law to humanitarian law to dispute resolution. The most challenging task is to strike a proper balance to ensure that students are taught a fair mix of courses that give them knowledge and training in Indian law, but at the same time prepare them for facing the challenges of globalisation, whereby domestic legal mechanisms interact with both international and foreign legal systems. This interaction is going to deepen in the years to come and our law schools must prepare themselves to face this challenge posed by globalisation.
2) Knowledge and faculty research
Hiring of good faculty has been a challenge in law schools in India and abroad. There is a need to have a global focus in hiring faculty for Indian law schools. Of course, success will depend on the school’s ability to provide the right kind of intellectual environment and financial and other incentives for Indian or foreign scholars to teach and pursue research in India and to contribute to its growth story.
Globalisation of legal research has become a universal trend. Legal scholars working in a particular country or researching on the law and legal systems of that country do not limit their research to that country or its neighbours. With the development of web-based research and other online research tools and databases, there has been a remarkable transformation in the development of comparative and international law research. It is important for global law schools to have or provide access to legal material from jurisdictions all over the world. These need to be constantly updated to keep up with the changing dimensions of law in all societies. There is also a need to promote global exchanges, including bilateral and multilateral exchange of faculty and students, with a view to aid global knowledge relating to law and legal institutions. All this needs huge resources. It is not possible for the governments of developing countries, such as India, to support them through public funding. Concrete steps need to be taken to encourage global philanthropic initiatives.
3) Programmes and international experience
Indian law schools need to consider innovation when it comes to the degree programmes offered by them. Introduction of uniform syllabi coupled with practical aspects such as moot courts etc. on par with the international standards to meet the challenge of providing the highest quality legal education in the demanding and competitive international environment of the 21st century”.
4) Interaction and collaborations
The law schools of the future ought to provide academic space for engaging in teaching and cutting edge research on issues of global significance. The institutions ought to constantly reinvent themselves for facing the challenges of globalisation through exchange and collaboration programmes. This has different implications for faculty, students, and for the development of teaching and research programmes. In this regard, it is important to note that token arrangements of collaboration may not be helpful to the institutions involved. There is a need to develop a shared understanding of the nature of exchange and collaborative programmes being established for them to be effective and beneficial for all the parties concerned.
5) Philanthropy and non-profit initiatives
Legal education in India needs reforms that would support the establishment of global law schools combining the best traditions of public educational institutions with the needed flexibility, freedom, and autonomy enjoyed by private initiatives—all within the public good framework of a non-profit endeavour. In this context, there is a need to actively seek and encourage philanthropic initiatives in the field of legal education. The system of creating endowments—both individual and corporate—has to be significantly promoted. For this, the initiatives ought to come from private individuals and institutions ready and willing to support the establishment of global educational institutions with the highest standards in teaching and research for the purpose of creating and disseminating knowledge.
Reform of legal education in India requires global philanthropic initiatives that can help the country build the educational institutions of the future. Such law schools in India will be able to attract the best of faculty from India and the world. They will also be able to create world class infrastructure to attract the best students from everywhere, create internationally reputed research centres and promote research activities that are beneficial to the country and the international community, and enhance the ability to bring together brilliant minds to solve the problems of humanity. The future of legal education in India should be linked to the promotion of global philanthropic initiatives for it to be sustainable. The deterioration in standards in the quality of faculty in law schools in India and the paucity of research output have to be addressed with sincerity. There is a need to create endowments of the kind that reputed law schools of the world have managed to do with a view to involve public-spirited private individuals and corporations to support the development of law schools.
6) Infrastructure and resources in law schools
If Indian law schools have to meet the demands of the changing global society, the training we impart to our law students ought to be thoroughly re-examined. Our law schools need infrastructure and resources comparable to global universities, particularly when access to such universities is available to both our faculty and students. Our law schools have to seek a dramatic transformation in providing infrastructure and resources to our faculty and students.
Library facilities in our law schools need to be substantially upgraded, for which huge resources have to be mobilised. The annual budget (including for library staff) for the law library at the Harvard Law School is $14 million (around Rs. 70 crore) and that of the Yale Law School is over $6 million (around ` 30 crore). Inevitably, the resources that are needed to reach international standards for providing global infrastructure for our law schools have to be raised through library endowments and private donations.
Though it may not be possible for us to improve the situation and give overnight solutions in this regard, let us take the clue from the statement of Dr. Radhakrishnan, the then President of India observed over a half a century ago that “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 ” and introspect our selves whether there is any change in our legal education system till then and put our collective wisdom and efforts to bring in the required corrections in the existing system, so that Indian legal education can face the global challenges and will achieve the uphill task in re-writing this statement of Dr. RadhaKrishnan.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ Published in The 'Management Accountant' (Monthly Journal) of ICWAI ,September 2011]
No comments:
Post a Comment