Conceptualizing Legal Education in India: Refocusing on Forgotten Stakeholders

Abstract

Legal education in India is at crossroads. It has over the years played a formative role in the development of Indian society. However it seems to have run out of steam, lagging behind to the extent it is accused of being stagnant in the face of fast changing milieu. Such allegations of stagnancy have raised questions of relevance. Does legal education as it exists able to fulfill its core objectives? There is broad consensus among all the relevant stakeholders that it does not and there is an urgent need for reforms. It is also pertinent to ask whether such well intentioned and timely initiatives address concerns and reach out to all recipients of legal education. This article argues that the present reforms are deficient in as much as they fail to account for concerns of two of the most important stakeholders, namely the law school faculty and post graduate students.

Keywords: NKC, National Knowledge Commission, Post Graduate students of law, global readiness, legal education reform, new technologies, clinical legal education, Bar Council of India, Law Commission of India, University Grants Commission, Indian law teachers

JEL Classification: I21, I28, I29, K19, K39