LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA
ACCREDITATION OF COLLEGES
Accreditation with LES is not a one time process and we are not simply a policing organization. Instead, LES is committed to supporting the on-going development and quality enhancement of all our institutions. We understand that quality assurance is a continuous activity, and we are here to help our school, college and university partners in their constant pursuit of excellence.
Accreditation by ASIC will also boost the profile of your institution and confirm that it meets high standards of education, welfare and good practice. It will reassure students, parents and agents that your institution is a good choice and that you will provide them with professional teaching, valuable qualifications, and a positive learning experience.
AIMS OF LEGAL EDUCATION
Legal education should not only produce lawyers but should be regarded as a legal instrument for social design. The main aims of legal education are as follows:
To train students for legal profession;
To educate the students to solve the individual client’s problems as well as to solve the society’s problems in which he lives;
To provide a centre where scholars might contribute to understanding of law and participate in their growth and improvement;
To inculcate students with operative legal rules and to provide them adequate experience to apply these rules;
To point the right road for future development.
Thus, legal education should aim at furnishing skills and competence, for creation and maintenance of just society.
OBJECTIVES OF LEGAL EDUCATION
The objectives of legal education may be multi-fold in a developing democratic country like India. They are,
To develop perceptions and to understand the problems of one’s society and to influence values and attitudes.
To generate different kinds of skills and knowledge needed for tasks in society.
To broaden opportunity and mobility in society- notably among groups who may have been deprived.
To develop research of value to education and society with use of educational facilities.
IMPORTANCE OF LEGAL EDUCATION
Legal education is a broad concept. It includes the profession which is practiced in court of law, law teaching, law research and administration in different branches where law plays a pivotal role. It injects a sense of equality before law. The standard of bar and bench is the reflection of the quality and standard of the legal education acquired at the law school. Knowledge of law increases, if one understands the affairs of the state. The importance of legal education cannot be over- emphasized in a democratic society. It is necessary duty of everyone to know the law. Ignorance of law cannot be excused. Thus, legal education not only produces efficient lawyers but also creates law abiding citizens with human values and rights.
LEGAL EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Private universities have played a significant role in exploring the changes in legal education over the last decade. They engage in field of legal education and strive to improve the quality of legal education in India. On the other hand National Law Schools laid emphasis on specialized learning. Many institutions have conferred altogether with the lecture method of teaching and have instead opted more interactive and innovative methods of learning. Law schools in India have a proliferating culture of moot courts which has made legal education for more practical and behavioral than simply learning the letter of law. The significance on co-curricular activities like Seminars, Workshops etc. have now become indivisible part of the course. Internships during the period of study are now a mandatory requirement. On campus recruitments become a common feature of most of law schools.