By Noor UL Shahbaz
Education is the light which shuns the darkness of ignorance. It illuminates the inner self in the light of which the concept of right and wrong, just and unjust, equal and unequal, legal and illegal becomes crystal clear. Legal education being also a part, it generally is the education of individuals in the principles, practices and theory of law. It includes imparting legal education to public in general, but in strict sense its effect is to create a class of legally skilled apprentices including advocates, law students, judges etc. Through this education, an organized and civilized society comes into existence.
Law, legal education and development have become inter-related concepts in modern developing societies which are struggling to develop into social welfare states and are seeking to ameliorate the socio-economic condition of the people by peaceful means. The law being a tool for the social engineering, legal education can be regarded as an instrument for the social design. Legal education is the basis of an efficient legal profession that is in turn the basis of a well-organized and sound judicial system. Legal education is essentially a multi-disciplined, multipurpose education which can develop the human resources and idealism needed to strengthen the legal system. Legal education is a broad concept, it includes the profession which is practiced in courts, law teaching, law research, administration in different branches where law plays a role and commercial and industrial employments and all other activities which postulate and require the use of legal knowledge and skill.
Legal education stands for enhancement of human sensibility and injects a sense of protecting human liberty and equality before law. The quality and standard of legal education acquired at law schools, colleges and universities is reflected through the standard of justice delivered to needy and consequently affects the legal system, it’s integrity and impartiality. The overall changing circumstances in the state depends upon the appropriate legislative measures that are adopted to fulfill public interests, individual interests, and overall changing circumstances within it. Legislation must reflect the general demand of public and same is the case with legal education when it is imparted taking into account the environment around, the changing as well as developing situations. Law is an essential medium of change in any society which inculcates among human beings the concepts of human values and human rights. Law, legal education and development have become interrelated concepts in modern developing societies which are struggling to develop socio-economic conditions of the people by peaceful means. Law is an active agent of social engineering and is meant for social progress. The judiciary is one of the main pillars of the democracy and the law plays an important role in the administration of justice. The independence, efficiency and integrity of the judiciary can only be achieved by the best legal education. The legal profession at the highest level develops absorptive and analytic capacities of the human mind and offers great intellectual stimulus. It is no small service to be called upon to defend life, liberty and the other fundamental rights. The quality legal education is the most important factor for the protection and development of democracy and principle of social justice underlying the Constitution.
The quality legal education only can produce responsive and sensitive legal professionals. The success and healthy development of legal profession solely depends upon the effective legal education. The provision of high-quality legal education is a prerequisite to high-quality legal practitioners, judges and government law officers. The need for such education is felt not only in the developing and underdeveloped countries but also in the developed nations who have deemed it necessary to asses and revise curricula and methodologies of law courses with an objective to update them for meeting new challenges and needs of their societies. The law attempts to control the process of change to give it a desirable direction. Legal education focusses on developing good lawyers who are educated in human values and human rights, besides the law itself. After all, the law functions within a society and not in a vaccum, and society is often value-based which makes cold hard logic difficult to apply in all situations. According to the changes in development and the cultural milieu, new laws are framed.
The government lays down new policies and laws for certain issues like Gender equality, women empowerment, equal wage for equal work etc. in sync with the forever evolving consciousness of the society. Legal education is influenced by a multitude of factors and also affected by them to a greater extent. The government policy, Bar Council, University Grants Commission, affiliated universities, private governing body of law colleges, developments in legal profession, developments in legal system, the kind of students who enroll and ease of entry, motivation of students, the curricula and the syllabi, the caliber and commitment of the faculty, the medium of instruction, the infrastructure available, technological advancements, the developments in other fields of education, the changes in society are the factors that play an important part to make legal education a best mean for the sound society. As much as law is important, its knowledge is also important for the smooth functioning of institutions and our society at large. By knowledge I did not mean to say memorisation of Constitution, different enactments, articles, sections but the detailed study and application of the general principles of law at varying times and situations. To develop a reasoning so as to construct and elucidate concepts serving to render the complexities of law more manageable and more rational. Here I think the observation of Lord Radcliffe is appropriate when he writes: “You will not mistake my meaning or suppose that I deprecate one of the great humane studies if I say that we cannot learn law by learning law. If it is to be anything more than just a technique, it is to be so much more than itself: a part of history, a part of economics and sociology, a part of ethics and a part of philosophy of life”. The Indian legal profession and legal education has not developed a rationally functional approach to the problems of law and legal order. Need of the time is that a deeper consciousness is required not only among the law teachers, judges and the enlightened professional lawyers but also among others that legal education has to serve as a vehicle for economic and social change in a developing society. The product which comes out from the institutions which impart legal education must be fully equipped like an army soldier of the country to face the challenges in and aroud his state that has their resolvement within law. Neither these institutions are and must not be business establishments not must be the law student trained to be a materialistic being because it is never ever the purpose of law.
Noor UL Shahbaz is an M.A, LL.M (GOLD MEDALIST)Guest Lecturer and former Acting Principal at Sopore Law College, can be reached at im1415151819@gmail.com
