Legal Education at the Crossroads
Date
2009
Authors
Routh, Supriya
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Indian Law and Society
Abstract
Unlike the prevalent discussion in the established scholarship associated with legal education, this article presents an alternative to the prevailing notion of the ‘Legal Education’ on the whole. The present discussion reviews different aspects of legal education for example pedagogy, curriculum design and institutional framework. It further argues that since its inception, legal education in India has been catering to the needs
of a particular classification of lawyers and not the legal profession in general. In order to substantiate its position, this article further traces the evolution of legal education in India through various stages while analyzing the approach adopted by the different Government appointed committees has been very much limited due to the political considerations and lack of vision. Also there have been problems associated with the institutional framework of legal education as autonomy and conservative regulation
has been major hindrances in the evolution of “Legal Education” to its desired levels. This article suggests that a way forward after the initiation of National law Schools needs to happen otherwise the vision and all the endeavours behind the setting up of the National Law Schools, for example the introduction of multi disciplinary approach towards studying law with the introduction of social sciences and case-discussion
model in law subjects might all remain a futile exercises without achieving its purposes. This discussion apart from upgradation of infrastructure and revision of curriculum design further urges the policy makers, academicians and the members of the legal profession to address the issues raised through this article and to broaden the horizon of legal education.
Description
Permission granted by The W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.
Keywords
Citation
Routh, S., (2009). Legal Education at the CrossRoads. Journal of Indian Law and Society, 1, 58-85. http://jils.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/supriyo-routh.pdf