scholarly journals LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. C. Nirmal
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Service Market ◽  
Education In India ◽  
Induced Changes

This article makes some observations about legal education in India by locating it within a wider context of legal education reform that is taking place in Law Schools across the world in the wake of globalizationled and globalization-induced changes in the nature and needs of legal profession. For being both intellectually challenging and professionally relevant, legal education should be more responsible than ever before to the legal needs of the community national as well as international , and the learning needs of students to become professionally competent to play their role in an increasingly transnationalized legal service market. Any effort to restructure and reorient legal education to attain these goals will be an uphill task for any school. This article begins with exploring the implications of globalization for legal education and then turns to nature, aims and objectives of legal education. The article then looks at the possible changes required to be made in the existing curriculum for undergraduate law students in order to make the legal education more relevant and meaningful for its consumers. The focus then shifts to issues concerning methods of teaching, clinical experience and assessment of students. This article then considers issues arising from the proposal of the Bar Council of India to reduce the period of Masters programme and then builds a strong case for strengthening a research tradition in Law Schools. The focus then shifts to measures that are necessary to attract and retain better faculty and also to the regulatory role of the Bar Council of India in the field of legal education. The article concludes with some reflections on the promise of a different vision of legal education.

scholarly journals Clinical legal education and Indigenous legal education: what’s the connection?

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Anna Cody ◽  
Sue Green
Keyword(s):  
Legal Education ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Education Courses

In this article we will examine some of the steps that UNSW law school has taken to address Indigenous disadvantage in, and exclusion from, legal education. The article focuses on the role of clinical legal education within Indigenous legal education. Two concrete examples will be discussed: a clinical subject specifically designed for 1st year Indigenous students and a class given by an Indigenous academic for later year law students within the general clinical legal education courses. The first is discussed to demonstrate how clinical legal education can improve the experience of Indigenous students within law schools. The second example highlights the challenges of attempting to “Aboriginalise” the curriculum of law courses.

scholarly journals Keeping up with change: no alternative to teaching ADR in clinic. An Australian perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Clinical Education ◽  
Alternative Dispute Resolution ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Client Needs

<p>Over the last 30 years alternative dispute resolution (ADR) has become more prominent in Australian legal practice due to the need to reduce the cost of access to justice and to provide more expedient and informal alternatives to litigation. As legal educators, we need to ask: how should we be preparing law students entering practice for these changes? How can we ensure that once they become lawyers, our students will not rely entirely on litigious methods to assist their clients but instead look at alternatives for dispute resolution?</p><p>In this paper, I argue that there is no alternative to teaching ADR in clinic in order to address client needs and to ensure that students engaged in clinical education are prepared for changes in legal practice today. I show that the increasing focus upon ADR in Australian legal practice represents a challenge for law schools, and that legal educators need to ensure they are educating students about ADR.</p><p>I argue that it is important to determine whether ADR is being taught to students undertaking clinical legal education in ways that will enhance their preparation for legal practice. I will show that there is a need to explore: whether ADR is being taught within clinical legal education, the strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches, and how the teaching of ADR within clinics can be improved.</p>

Problems of Legal Education Reform in Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 70-77
Author(s):  
Maria Bilak
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Education System ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
New Model ◽  
Main Ideas

The paper attempts to study the current situation of legal education reform in Ukraine. The main ideas of the new model of legal education in Ukraine were analyzed. The author made a comparison of Ukrainian legal education system with legal educations practices in United States, Poland and Germany. The main problems negatively influencing the quality of legal education such as corruption, disproportionally high number of law schools and outdated approaches to teaching were described.

How Much “Law” in Legal Studies? Approaches to Teaching Legal Research and Doctrinal Analysis in a Legal Studies Program

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (03) ◽  
pp. 297-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Kazmierski
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Professional Law

Abstract This article addresses the teaching of legal research methods and doctrinal analysis within a legal studies program. I argue that learning about legal research and doctrinal analysis is an important element of legal education outside professional law schools. I start by considering the ongoing debate concerning the role of legal education both inside and outside professional law schools. I then describe the way in which the research methods courses offered by the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University attempt to reconcile the tension between “law” and legal studies. In particular, I focus on how the second-year research methods course introduces students to “traditional” legal research and doctrinal analysis within a legal studies context by deploying a number of pedagogical strategies. In so doing, the course provides students with an important foundation that allows them to embrace the multiple roles of legal education outside professional law schools.

scholarly journals Lawyering in a Digital Age: A Practice Report on the Design of a Virtual Law Clinic at Cumbria

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Thanaraj ◽  
Michael Sales
Keyword(s):  
Core Competencies ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
New Type

<p>This practice paper offers a modest proposition that could make law graduates more capable of serving their clients in a modernised and efficient manner. We propose that in addition to law clinics and other forms of experiential activities, law schools could add a new type of clinical component to their curriculum that teaches students to use technology to assist in the delivery of legal services. Digital lawyering skills will help law students learn core competencies needed in an increasingly technological profession, and it may help close the gap between offering access to justice by making legal services available online in the most accessible and convenient way possible and in equipping law graduates with a modernised and digital legal education. </p>

scholarly journals Legal Education Reform and the Good Lawyer

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law School ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Cautionary Note ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Large Lecture ◽  
Essential Function

The critics agree: law schools do it wrong. Stuck in early twentieth century practices that emphasize instruction in legal doctrine in large lecture halls, law schools fail to provide their students with the skills necessary to be practicing lawyers and to be marketable to prospective employers. They fail to instill in their students the “professional identity” necessary to achieve ethical legal practice. This article sounds a cautionary note with respect to those proposals for reform that reject the traditional emphasis on doctrinal teaching. In particular, and in contrast to the critics who view doctrinal learning as inconsistent with, or unrelated to, the creation of ethical lawyers, this article suggests that the emphasis on law in law school serves an essential function in creating ethical legal practice.

scholarly journals Multi-disciplinary practice in a community law environment: new models for clinical legal education

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Foster
Keyword(s):  
Family Law ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Family Court ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Financial Difficulty ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
The Family

<p>The Monash-Oakleigh Legal Service (MOLS) is a community legal service auspiced by Monash University, Melbourne Australia, and partly funded by Victoria Legal Aid. MOLS was principally established to provide practical legal education to Monash law students over 30 years ago, but has since evolved to focus also on serving community legal needs. Incorporated within MOLS is the Family Law Assistance Program (FLAP) which, as the name suggests, deals exclusively with family law matters. FLAP students attend the Family Court each week with lawyers who provide assistance to clients in a duty lawyer capacity, as well as operating four clinical sessions each week within MOLS.</p><p>Like many community legal services, most MOLS clients experience a form of disadvantage and resultant financial difficulty. Consequently, MOLS deals with a range of legal matters including: criminal law, family law, tenancy and neighbourhood disputes, and a number of credit, debt, and<br />bankruptcy issues.</p><p>In July 2010, the Multi-Disciplinary Clinic (MDC) was established at MOLS to provide a holistic service to clients by involving students from three academic disciplines to deal with client issues. Later, in December 2010 (the commencement of the university’s summer semester), students from one other discipline were included in FLAP and a third discipline was also adopted in the following semester.</p>

Imperativos y alternatives de la reforma de la educación jurídica en America Latina

1978 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rogelio Pérez Perdomo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Active Member ◽  
List Type ◽  
Latin American Countries

SummaryRogelio Pérez Perdomo is a Professor of Law at the Central University of Venezuela and an active member of the Latin American Council of Law and Development. A longstanding student of the purposes and methods of legal education, he has also made a special point to acquire knowledge about legal education in Europe and the United States.In this article Professor Pérez Perdomo discusses the inadequacies and shortcomings of the existing legal education programs in Latin America. He recognizes the growing awareness of such inadequacies on the part of many Latin American law teachers, and their dissatisfaction with the traditional systems and methods of law teaching. This dissatisfaction has generated many studies and discussions in the different Latin American countries, and it has also produced some changes and improvements. Professor Pérez Perdomo believes, however, that such changes fall significantly short of modern needs of adequate legal education. Concentrating on the situation in Venezuela, he compares it with current legal education innovations and developments in other Latin American countries, as well as in the major European countries and the United States.Professor Pérez Perdomo clearly admits his preference for further reforms of the legal education methods and programs in Venezuela (and, presumably, in other countries of Latin America). He views, however, student unrests as an invalid reason for such reforms because improvements must emerge from substantive needs rather than the temporary considerations of political expediency. Reforms must proceed from an appreciation of the true role of law and the legal profession.In a brief survey of the traditional and modern role of the law, especially its use as a vehicle for social and economic development, Professor Pérez Perdomo demonstrates the significance of their impact on legal education. Equally important, in his opinion, is the influence of foreign financial aid, e.g., the Ford Foundation, the International Legal Center, etc., which must have had a considerable impact on the emergence of new legal education trends. The effect of such influences has not yet been evaluated, but it is an important topic in any study of the effectiveness and desirability of international transfers of educational methods from one country to another. Thus, the United States legal education model encountered many difficulties in Latin America when the attempt was made to apply it there, and it can be used there only in a limited sense and in a significantly modified form.Professor Pérez Perdomo notes the following trends of legal education reform in Latin America: 1)The reorganization and “semestization” of law courses.2)The use of new teaching methods–tutorials, class discussions, working groups, and legal clinics–by various law schools in their efforts to enrich the content of their educational programs.3)The identification of the purposes and responsibilities of legal education in coordination with the general aims of law and the legal system.Professor Pérez Perdomo recognizes that many of these aspirations for reform are seriously affected by such factual limitations as, for example, the unfavorable numerical ratio of students to law faculty, inadequate teaching abilities of the professors, poverty and the small size of libraries, and the encumbersome administrative organization and fiscal procedure of universities. Despite these difficulties, Professor Pérez Perdomo is confident that the reform efforts will prevail and that many salutory improvements will eventually become evident in Latin American legal education.

The Disastrous First Fund-Raising Campaign in Legal Education: The Harvard Law School Centennial, 1914–1920

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-578
Author(s):  
Bruce A. Kimball
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fund Raising ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
The Law ◽  
The University

Between 1915 and 1925, Harvard University conducted the first national public fund-raising campaign in higher education in the United States. At the same time, Harvard Law School attempted the first such effort in legal education. The law school organized its effort independently, in conjunction with its centennial in 1917. The university campaign succeeded magnificently by all accounts; the law school failed miserably. Though perfectly positioned for this new venture, Harvard Law School raised scarcely a quarter of its goal from merely 2 percent of its alumni. This essay presents the first account of this campaign and argues that its failure was rooted in longstanding cultural and professional objections that many of the school's alumni shared: law students and law schools neither need nor deserve benefactions, and such gifts worsen the overcrowding of the bar. Due to these objections, lethargy, apathy, and pessimism suffused the campaign. These factors weakened the leadership of the alumni association, the dean, and the president, leading to inept management, wasted time, and an unlikely strategy that was pursued ineffectively. All this doomed the campaign, particularly given the tragic interruptions of the dean's suicide and World War I, along with competition from the well-run campaigns for the University and for disaster relief due to the war.

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