Legal education in India

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Legal education in the India generally refers to the education of lawyers before entry into practice. Legal education in India is offered at different levels by the traditional universities and the specialised law universities and schools only after completion of an undergraduate degree or as an integrated degree.
Contents
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1 History 2 Academic degrees 3 Admission 4 References 5 See also

History[edit]
During the shift from Mughal legal system, the advocates under that regimen, vakils, too followed suit, though they mostly continued their earlier role as client representatives. The doors of the newly created Supreme Courts were barred to Indian practitioners as right of audience was limited to members of English, Irish and Scottish professional bodies. Subsequent rules and statutes culminating in the Legal Practitioners Act of 1846 which opened up the profession regardless of nationality or religion.[1]

In India, legal education has been traditionally offered as a three years graduate degree. However the structure has been changed since 1987. Law degrees in India are granted and conferred in terms of the Advocates Act, 1961, which is a law passed by the Parliament both on the aspect of legal education and also regulation of conduct of legal profession.[2] Under the Act, the Bar Council of India is the supreme regulatory body to regulate the legal profession in India and also to ensure the compliance of the laws and maintenance of professional standards by the legal profession in the country.

To this regard, the Bar Council of India prescribes the minimum curriculum required to be taught in order for an institution to be eligible for the grant of a law degree. The Bar Council also carries on a period supervision of the institutions conferring the degree and evaluates their teaching methodology and curriculum and having determined that the institution meets the required standards, recognizes the institution and the degree conferred by it.

Traditionally the degrees that were conferred carried the title of LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) or B.L. (Bachelor of Law). The eligibility requirement for these degrees was that the applicant already have a Bachelor's degree in any subject from a recognized institution. Thereafter the LL.B. / B.L. course was for three years, upon the successful completion of which the applicant was granted either degree.

However upon the suggestion by the Law Commission of India and also given the prevailing cry for reform the Bar Council of India instituted upon an experiment in terms of establishing specialized law universities solely devoted to legal education and thus to raise the academic standards of legal profession in India. This decision was taken somewhere in 1985 and thereafter the first law University in India was set up in Bangalore which was named as the National Law School of India University (popularly 'NLS'). These law universities were meant to offer a multi-disciplinary and integrated

approach to legal education. It was therefore for the first time that a law degree other than LL.B. or B.L. was granted in India. NLS offered a five years law course upon the successful completion of which an integrated degree with the title of "B.A.,LL.B. (Honours)" would be granted.

Thereafter other law universities were set up, all offering five years integrated law degree with different nomenclature. The next in line wasNational Law Institute University set up in Bhopal in 1997. It was followed by NALSAR university of law set up in 1998. The National Law University, Jodhpur offered for the first time in 2001 the integrated law degree of "B.B.A, LL.B. (Honours)" which was preceded by theWest Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences offering the "B.Sc., LL.B. (Honours)" degree. KIIT Law School, Bhubaneswarbecame the first law school in India in 2007 to start integrated law in three different streams and honours specialisation; i.e. BA/BBA/B.Sc. LLB (Honours).

However despite these specialized law universities, the traditional three year degree continues to be offered in India by other institutions and are equally recognized as eligible qualifications for practicing law in India. Another essential difference that remains is that while the eligibility qualification for the three year law degree is that the applicant must already be a holder of a Bachelor's degree, for being eligible for the five years integrated law degree, the applicant must have successfully completed Class XII from a recognized Boards of Education in India.

Both the holders of the three year degree and of the five year integrated degree are eligible for enrollment with the Bar Council of Indiaupon the fulfillment of eligibility conditions and upon enrollment, may appear before any court in India.

The University Grants Commission approved one-year LLM courses in India on 6 September 2012 and the guideline for the same was notified in January, 2013.[3]

Academic degrees[edit]
In India, a student can pursue a legal course only after completing an undergraduate course in any discipline. However, following the national law school model, one can study law as an integrated course of five years after passing the senior secondary examination.

Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) - The LL.B. is the most common law degree offered and conferred by Indian universities which has a duration of three years. Almost all law universities follow a standard LL.B. curriculum, wherein students are exposed to the required bar subjects.

Integrated undergraduate degrees - B.A. LL.B., B.Sc. LL.B., BBA. LLB., B.Com. LL.B. These degrees are mostly offered in the autonomous law schools having a duration of five years.

Master of Laws (LL.M.) - The LL.M. is most common postgraduate law degree which has a duration of one/two years.

Master of Business Law Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Integrated MBL-LLM/ MBA-LLM. -Generally a three years double degree integrated course with specialisation in business law.

Admission[edit]
See also: Common Law Admission Test

As of 2012, admission to LLB and LLM in most of the autonomous law schools in India is based on performance in Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). However, the National Law University, Delhi and the private autonomous law schools conduct their own admission tests. Admission to Jindal Global Law School is done through the LSAT examination conducted by Law School Admission Council, USA conducted by Pearson VUE, through its affiliate in India.

In most of the traditional universities, the admission is done on the basis of an admission test to the constituent law college or a common admission test for its affiliated colleges (Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University). Some traditional universities and affiliated colleges

BCI Chairman Gopal Subramanium unveils Legal Education Reforms Only 5 year law courses revised curriculum English as the only medium of instruction changes in accreditation of law schools
also admits student on the basis of merit in the preceding examination.

B&B News Network On July 21, 2010 - 3:35pm

Gopal Subramanium, Solicitor General and Chairman of Bar Council of India has released a note on legal education reforms. The 7-page reform note details 10 action items that have been stipulated with deadlines to complete the reform process.
Gopal Subramanium, Solicitor General and Chairman of Bar Council of India (BCI) has released a note on legal education reforms. The 7-page reform note details 10 action items that have been stipulated with deadlines to complete the reform process. Here is the list of action items and timelines for reform.

The proposed measures for reform are divided into Institutional Reforms, Reforms in Content and Structure, and Measures to Improve Pedagogy and Methods of Teaching. Institutional Reforms:

1. Uniform admission procedures for all the recognised law schools in the country. 2. Establishment of the National Academy for Law Teaching and Continuing Legal Education. 3. Revised list of requirements for accreditation of law schools. 4. Benchmarking and quality evaluation of law schools. 5. Standardisation of the academic calendar. Reforms in Content and Structure
1. Five-year dual-degree LL.B. programmes to be made the norm; three- year LL.B. programmes to focus on specialised areas of law. Moving forward, only five-year, dual-degree LL.B. programmes would be recognised by the Bar Council. BCI will continue to encourage three-year LL.B courses for specialised areas such as Intellectual Property Rights, which are undertaken by post-graduates. Along with the LL.B. Programmes, it is also important to strengthen the current LL.M. degree that is awarded by various law schools across the country, especially in light of the fact that the LL.M. degree is often a stepping-stone to legal academia. BCI is also exploring the option of a nine- to twelve-month LLM degree programme that can be undertaken immediately post graduating an LL.B. programme.

2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Balance between doctrinal and vocational education. A revised curriculum.

Measures to improve Pedagogy and Methods of Teaching

New technologies to be used in legal education. Measures to attract and retain better faculty. Mix of small and large class sizes for teaching. Medium of instruction - The medium of instruction at all law schools would be English, and this would be a mandatory and strict requirement for accreditation of the law school.

5. Use of contemporary teaching techniques, and adoption of the Outcomes Model. 6. Continuous education and skill upgrades for faculty. Bar & Bench will do a detailed analysis of these reforms and seek expert opinions on legal education. The BCI, which has been a passive spectator in the past, is now aggressively pushing for reforms. The Chairman has been very serious about pushing path-breaking reforms ever since his first day in office. First, a new website for information on the BCI, a vision statement for legal profession, All India Bar Exam and now a detailed vision statement for legal education reforms, these are some of the reforms that the Chairman has initiated. The Chairman, in his first vision statement had mentioned some statistics of the Indian legal community. He said Indian legal profession today consists of approximately 11 lakh (1.1 million) registered advocates, around 1,000 law schools and approximately 5 lakh (0.5 million) law students across the country. Every year, approximately 60,000 law graduates join the legal profession in India. This legal education reform envisages to monitor the large pool of 1000 law colleges and 60,000 law graduates who join the legal profession every year.

If each of these changes are implemented then the legal education space will drastically change, which is much needed in this country. Detailed note by the BCI Chairman, Gopal Subramanium
Category:

News
Comments
GUEST
July 21, 2010 - 3:44pm

What will the students of 3 year programme do? Is there some clarity on that.

3

reply
GUEST
July 25, 2010 - 6:40pm

Some of the recommendations are hauntingly similar tohttp://theunwillinglawyer.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

3

reply
RISHABH
August 18, 2010 - 8:18am

@9 completely agree with you

1

reply
GUEST
July 21, 2010 - 3:46pm

I agree with that the Chairman is doing a lot of stuff. i think what he should have done as far as the bar exam is considered, had it from next year and then nobody would have raised an alarm instead of having 10 pils against BCI. He needs some good strategists who will advise him on these issues. YOu cannot implement such drastic changes without a debate or sufficient timelines.

3

reply
GUEST
July 21, 2010 - 5:22pm

Go GS! Way to go. excellent stuff. High time something is done about this law school management-state bar council-mafia nexus. Just close down 500 law colleges!

References[edit]

1. 2. 3.

^ "Brief History of law in India". Bar Council of India. Retrieved 22 April 2013. ^ "Advocates Act, 1961". Bar Council of India. Retrieved 2009-06-10. ^ "UGC releases guidelines and course structure for One Year LL.M degree; May be introduced from academic year 2013-14". Bar and Bench. Retrieved 9 February 2013.

See also[edit]

Categories:

Autonomous law schools in India List of law schools in India Common Law Admission Test

Legal education in India Legal education by country

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This page was last modified on 22 April 2013 at 19:38.

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