Legal education and Globalization

 In a democratic country like India, where rule of law is the driving force of the Government, legal education assumes great significance. In Keshvanand Bharati VS. State of Kerala , Hon’ble Supreme court held that rule of law is the basic foundation of our democracy. Rule of law says that “Be you ever so high, the law is above you”. Education has wider implication. It stands for development. Education makes men perfect. In the words of Swami Vivekananda –“it is the manifestation of perfection already in man”. Again, legal education makes men law- abiding and socially conscious. Legal education helps in bringing and establishing socio-economic justice. Change is the law of nature and law is the regulator of social change. It is sine qua non for the development of rule of law and a sustainable democratic order. In other words, legal education is the heart and the very soul of the society for administering rule of law in a democratic country like ours. Therfore, quality legal education is to be imparted to the people taking into consideration the changing needs of the society and in the changing era of globalization. In Manubhai Vashi Vs. State of Maharashtra Hon’ble Supreme court held that ---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 different situations.

As per C.Rajkumar , legal education and its importance to establish a rule of law society did not receive any serious priority or attention in the traditional Universities, although due to the sheer motivation of students themselves the departments were successful in producing many of the brightest lawyers and some of the best academics in the country. According to him, various law schools in India, however, successfully challenged this institutionalized mediocrity and succeeded in attracting serious students to the study of law. But 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. The reforms of the higher education system are central to developing a knowledge based society in India. Within the paradigm of such reforms, drastic steps need to be taken to address the numerous challenges facing legal education in India .Because, law and legal education has an important role to play in protecting rule of law and the democracy as a whole. Lawyers are the backbones of the society and they are social engineers.

The legal education in India is regulated by multiple agencies including University Grants Commission (UGC), Bar Council of India (BCI), The Government and the respective University authorities. For numerous reasons the quality of legal education in the 1970’s was not satisfactory. Several attempts were made to reform curriculum and stricter controls were imposed by the Bar Councils Of India at various times but no substantial results were achieved in terms of quality, professionalism and competitiveness in legal education. To come out the problem the Bar Council of India itself decided to establish a model law school in the private sector or joint sector to bring reform in the legal education. As a result, the National Law School of India University was established in Bangalore in 1986. However at present, the number of national law schools has increased. At various times, curriculum of legal education was changed by the Bar Council of India. But these were not sufficient to meet the new challenges of globalization in the 21st century.

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) was, however, established by the Prime Minister of India in 2005 to recommend and undertake reforms in order to make India knowledge based economy and society. The National Knowledge Commission, while deliberating on issues related to knowledge concepts recognizes legal education as an important constituent of professional education. The working Group on legal education, inter alias, identified the problems and challenges relating to curriculum and recommended changes and reforms relating to curriculum .The report recommends the development of contemporary curriculum, which is integrated with other disciplines and also ensures regular feedback from stakeholders .The curricula and syllabi must be based in a multi disciplinary body of social science and scientific knowledge .Curriculum development should include expanding the domain of optional courses, providing deeper understanding of professional ethics, modernizing clinic courses, mainstreaming legal aid programs and developing innovative pedagogic methods . With the advent of globalization, it has become increasingly important to include international and comparative law perspectives . According to C. Rajkumar , in the era of globalization, we should pay attention in 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. Law is one of the most dynamic subjects of the world. Dynamism is the life blood of law .A law which is static cannot survive for long and will be rejected by people for whom the law will be implemented. So, to keep pace with the changing situation of the world we have also to change, by addition, subtraction, or cancellation, of the existing curriculum of the legal education in India. Otherwise, in future, it will loose its importance and will turn into a relic of the past.