The emergence of quality law schools and two decades of their functioning might have done a lot of good for the profession and the legal fraternity superficially. They have, however, weakened the roots of legal education. Law schools have successfully commercialized or marketed the legal intelligentsia, but they have miserably failed to familiarize the budding lawyers with the real social conditions of the country. No wonder, it is often said that the legal education is at crossroads. Although, it is not a negative impact of globalisation on legal education in India, it is, however, the failure to fully adapt with what globalisation demanded from the Indian education system. Following is a review explaining the reasons for globalisation and the Indian legal education system being at loggerheads, along with some recommendations:
INTEGRATION OF LAW COURSES WITH OTHER FIELDS When we talk of the failure of the Indian law schools in adaptating, a very important point to be borne in mind is that the globalisation initiated a demand for specificity. Times have gone when generality could prevail with little or no consideration for expertise amongst scholars. These are the times when legal education has branched to several others academic spheres. Thus, the law education in India cannot afford to be general in its approach. Thus, a mere law degree would not help in gaining expertise in specific areas. New courses should, therefore, be initiated which focus upon collaborations between law and other spheres. Intellectual Property Rights, Business Administration are some of the areas which have already been integrated into law degrees. To name a few more, legal-medico issues, core technological areas, geographical dimensions are such components of today’s world where law is frequently taken into consideration. Hence, initiating specific courses of law integrated with these academic areas will create an expertise for specific dispute resolution and policy making.
Though National Law Universities (NLUs) were mooted in India on the pattern of IITs, which are the centres of excellence in the field of science and technology under the aegis of Union Government, they have not been treated at par with IITs. Let us look at some issues which support this argument and a few suggestions which could solve the impasse. IITs are established under a central legislation, whereas NLUs are established under the state legislations of their respective states. This largely affects the funding of institutions. IITs get a large chunk of funding from the Central Government, whereas there remains a paucity of funds in the NLUs. In order to remove this barrier, all the NLUs need to be brought under a Central legislation with a common name rather than separate names. Giving them a separate name does not create a pan-law school brand in the nation and thus negatively affects the reputation. This does not make the youth enthusiastic about getting into such institutions thereby defeating the very purpose of their establishment. Furthermore, integration and cooperation between IITs and NLUs is also advisable. Both the institutions are best in their respective areas, but there is no cooperation in terms of exchange programs, cooperative teaching etc. For instance, IITs teach their engineering students Intellectual Property Rights, who else but the law school fraternity can be a better expert in this area? Similarly, law students study information technology laws, here it is the IITs who are adept at IT related applications. A co-operation in these and other such related areas can be initiated for the benefit of all concerned.
One of the main objectives of establishing NLUs was to enhance the research output and quality from the legal fraternity which could assist the social policy making in the country. This was again necessitated by the globalisation as the quantitative analysis gave way to qualitative analysis which in turn was based upon the levels of research. Unfortunately, NLUs have failed to live up to those expectations. With the exception of National Law School of India University (Bangalore), all other institutions have not been able to give expected quality research output. Even if any of themcontributes towards the socio-legal research, it gets marred by isolation and non-integration with the mainstream research activity. One prime cause for this is that there is no coordination among all the NLUs to focus upon some core areas and assist and integrate for research projects. Each NLU functions individually with intent to usurp the other’s reputation. Sadly, this attitude acts to the detriment of the legal education and profession. There is a dire need for increased focussed cooperation and integration among various NLUs. It is integration and not negative competition which will take the legal research levels in these reputed institutions to new levels. It is, therefore, suggested that there should be a single apex Research Governing Council for all the NLUs which should comprise all the Vice-Chancellors, eminent members of Bar and Bench, representatives from civil society and student representatives. This council can formulate the research policies for all the NLUs and distribute the tasks to each university. Additionally, the Council can also evaluate the research output from the individual universities and take corrective measures.
While the issue being discussed is wastage of legal intelligentsia to corporate honchos due to globalisation which impairs the objective of social engineering, another dimension to this discussion is the role of law students in the civil administration. How many law school graduates opt for Indian Administrative Services? The answer is, very few. There are several reasons behind this. First, the entry to the administrative services is a difficult task for a student who has to put in a lot of time and hard work for his university curriculum, thereby leaving a lesser chance to prepare for the Civil Services Examination. Secondly, inspite of pursuing a strenuous degree course in the legal studies, students of law gets no privilege in the Civil Services Examination. It is, therefore, recommended that the law students entry in civil services be encouraged. This would help in channelizing the best legal brains of the country towards nation building and policy making. This can only be done if the students of law are lured by giving special privileges for the Civil Services Examination.
As with the IITs, other institutions of excellence should also cooperate in overlapping areas of study, where each of them can contribute towards the other’s skill enhancement. Institutes like Tata Institute of Social Research (for socio-legal research), ISRO (for space law), Indian Institutes of Management (for corporate laws and human resources) to name a few, can associate themselves with the law schools of repute, thereby contributing to create world class institutional infrastructure. All policy issues and decisions in this connection can be taken under the aegis of Research Governing Council as suggested above. In fact the representatives of collaborating institutions can also be inducted as members of the Council. This innovative initiative would serve the demands of globalization.
In the race of making legal education in India more globalized, more and more NLUs are being established when even the established ones are not able give the expected results. Such proliferation will only weaken the NLU brand and lessen the quality. It is not being suggested that the number of such excellent institutions should never be increased. Rather, once the existing ones cement their existence by fulfilling all the objectives for they were established, the brand reach should be expanded. Moreover, the new NLUs should be planned in such areas where there is no advent of legal education as yet. This will help heralding a new era in the Indian legal education.
Another gap which has been left in the aftermath of globalization is the sensitivity of law school curriculum towards the society. Globalization has made the study curriculum more commercialized while completely ignoring the societal needs of the country. This is again a very important reason of law school graduates not becoming active social engineers since they are not sensitive enough towards the social objectives of country. The curriculum in the law schools should be more inclusive of social problems of India with the students being made to solve real time typical social problems. Another important part of the curriculum should be compulsory rural research. It serves no purpose to the nation with students aiming for corporate internships only. They should be made to intern with rural bodies compulsorily. This will make them more inclined towards the local needs and aspirations of the society.
Dr. S Radhakrishnan once remarked very poignantly that the country’s law colleges did not hold a place of high esteem either at home or abroad. In the light of his remarks, one can conclude that globalization has lured Indian educationists to ape the law school concept of the West. This has created a gap between what globalization demands and what is being done within the educational setup. However, the debate is not about globalization being beneficial or harmful for the Indian legal education, rather it is about having a vision and a holistic approach in whichever methodology we follow. A mixed approach will leave various voids and loopholes. And the same has happened with the Indian system of education. With some amount of introspection and analysis of the issues and the suggested recommendations, the Indian legal education can be rejuvenated. We do not lack the intellect and commitment; it is simply a matter of choosing the right direction and following it!
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