Legal Education- Some Thoughts

In the last two blogs, I have be iterating the problems that are being faced by Legal Education in Kerala. The same can be summarised as follows:
1. Lack of long term planning
2. Lack of motivation amongst a large majority of students
3. Improper utilisation of available resources
4. Absence of motivating factors for teachers
5. Lack of political will in government to change things.

Recently I had an occassion to interact with the eminent members of the committee appointed by Government of Kerala to study the legal education reform in Kerala. While discussing with them, I had a feeling that the discussions of committee was mostly moving towards an idea of abolishing the existing law colleges and come up with a set of premier law colleges in the model of National Law school.

I had been watching the growth of National Law Schools into prominance for quiet some time. Since I had been in the industry, I was also able to observe the performance of many National Law School products from close quarters and compare the same with students who pass out from other institutes. Keeping aside the euphoria with which many employers approach National Law school products, from the work parameters, I have felt that many other law school products have greater capabilities than National Law school products, but the National Law School products have a refinement which makes them instantly acceptable in the industry. Going deeper, the reasons for these students achieving refinement is mutifold and it has roots in the fact that most of the national law school prodigy come from well to do families, which themselves give a sort of refinement to these students. In addition the high level of motivation, the academic atmosphere prevailing in national law schools and the instant adaptablilty of National Law school prodigies to the office politics- all could be factors which make them successful. On the other hand, the students from other institutes lack the academic atmosphere and upbringing, which put them at least a year back of national law school products in competition to survive.

So the first and foremost problem to be addressed is to bring in a proper academic atmosphere in law colleges, and other institutes. Proper academic atmosphere is a very vague concept and is suseptible to interpretation. My idea of a "Proper" academic atmosphere are as follows:
1. Research facilites: a.Libraries that work 24X7, with little restriction to students to access books.
b. Computer facilities and internet access
c. Regular teachers, with research motivation and capabilites
d. Proper academic workload for students and ensuring a strict regime of classroom lectures there by taking away spare time from students in colleges.
e. Academic freedom enabling individual teachers to frame and conduct their courses, of course with the approval of college and university
2. Motivated Academics: High level of motivation amongst students and teachers, characterised by increased preparation for classes, increased class room participation in discussions, a free atmosphere where every student can freely express their ideas and feelings, proper career advancement map for teachers, and refresher courses and workshops for teachers in regular intervels, proper feed back mechanism for students to assess the teaching performance etc.

Once these two basic and simple things can be achieved, my personal feeling is that every law college can become much greater than national law schools. For this what is required is abundant political will to control the forces that deny these to the law colleges. But who will bell the cat!!!

My Idea about Law Library

A library is the heart of a law school. More than lectures, what a law student needs is how to find the relevant law, where to find it fast and how to apply it to a practical situation. Guidebook exams, like what we see in Indian legal education scenario today cannot create good lawyers- just poor academics and legal apprentices. Law library is not just a storehouse of old books, it is a research lab for a law student, a place for meditation and reflection and reference and a touch stone to check the accuracy of classroom blah blahs. A good law library is one which would attract the students and researchers to it and not one which would turn away everyone who approaches it by its dusty atmosphere. It should have a calm and soothing atmosphere, where one can relax, read and reflect upon the theoretical expositions in the class room discussions. An ideal law library is a place where you can develop a liking to law, which does not restrict discussion except where it disturbs others and where there are facilities to enjoy and enhance your reading experience. My concept for a good law library for the future is a combination of online and offline legal resources available. We cannot expect law students of tomorrow to go to a library and take time to browse books to find the relevant law. There is too much of legal information already available online including legal databases and what is required is to train them not to find law, but to analyse it. Offline Law Library: A good offline library would have a mix of the following resources: a. Staff: Committed staff, with passion and understanding about law and its divisions is an unavoidable must for a good law library. Some one who does not know the difference between intellectual property law and property law would only create a havoc in a law library. b. Space: Library make one feel nauseated upon entering. A clustered library would do more harm than good- it will turn away even those students who are willing to read. A good library should have adequate stacking space, a well lit and cozy reading space and discussion space. If necessary, cameras should be used to check on the behaviour of users rather than the penetrating eyes of a nosy staff. A good reprographic facility with printing, scanning and copying facility is a must for a library. A stationery store, from where students can buy essential stationery items for immediate use in the library would be a good addition to a library. Though many libraries add internet and printing facilities to a library, it is better to separate internet facility from library many a times traditional library timings my clash with internet accessibility requirements. c. Resources: There should be a good mix of law books and general books for a good law library. To assume that a law student requires only law books is a fallacy; law derives its source from literature, politics, sociology, science and any subject that can be found on earth. A good law library would have a not less than 70:30 proportion of law and non law subjects. d. Timing: A good law library should be open 24*7 because God only knows when a person has mood to read, and when he/she gets into that mood, he should be able to find the book and a place! If 24*7 is not possible due to staff constrains, at least an 8 to 8 schedule during week days is a must if library should do any good. Online Law Library: Online law library of tomorrow is not going to have a locus: which means that it will not be located at some fixed place like an offline law library. Yes, it will be located in servers inside the college campus, but the way users access it would be much different from how people access an offline library: it would be accessible anywhere and everywhere to those who have the secure credentials to log in to the online law library. People can access it from their tabs, laptops and even mobiles, so that information is disseminated without constraints of time, location and space. The only constraint would be your internet or 3G speed and accessibility. While and offline library is a place where you relax and reflect, an online database is a repository of all knowledge you have in the world. It just needs a click of your finger to get what you need before your eyes. The thrust of an online law library is the availability of knowledge and its accuracy in your finger tips rather than its display. Currently available legal resources for an online law library in India: Online legal resources can be divided into free and paid: Paid Resources: Paid legal resources like manupatra.com, westlawindia.com,lexisnexis.com, http://www.indlaw.com/, http://www.scconline.com/,etc. would cost you somewhere between Rs 30000/- to 3.5 lakh per user. You can also try JUSTOR, which is a comprehensive resource of around 20-30 thousand journals, but it is known to cost somewhere between 9-12 lakhs per annum. (The rate of most databases are subject to negotiation and if you are a good negotiator, you could get a good offer). Free Resources: Free resources can be divided into databases and journals: Databases: 1. Indian Database Resources: Indian Kanoon (www.indiankanoon.org) is a good site of Indian judgments and statutes. It gives a good search facility, though occasionally you come across judgements which is incomplete. Its search facility helps you to search through the text of judgement, so that you can find the exact word or phrase you are searching for. It is one of the best resource currently available in India and gives better features than may paid legal databases for free! Mr Sushant Sinha, the brain behind Indian Kanoon deserves full credit and support for this marvelous free database. If you are looking for judgement from horses mouth you have judis.nic.in, which is the official Indian judgement information system It gives link to most High Courts and Supreme Court websites. 2. Indian Journal Resources: The e-library link of Bombay High Court website (http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/libweb/judlibwebindex.html) is a good resource for online legal research and has been maintained excellently.I have not come across any other High Court as so well maintained as Bombay High Court and I hope if other High Courts follow suit, it is not far that Indian law enthusiasts would have a hey day. All cudos to Mrs Uma Narayan, Chief Librarian & Mr Anant Pawar, Section Officer, Bombay High Court Judges' Library, who developed such an excellent website and providing links to many interesting legal websites. If someone is interested in historical cases from India, don't look any where else but to the Bombay High Court website. Indian Legal Information Institute(http://www.indlii.org/index.aspx) has also tried to set up a free legal database in the model of balii.org and commonlii.org but compared to search facility and presentation of indiankanoon.com it is just a kid that has potential to grow. As of now it is just a link repository, with no additional features. 3. UK Legal Resources: Current UK Supreme Court cases can be found from http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/decided-cases/index.html . Historical and older UK cases can be found from: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldjudgmt.htm &http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/. While British and Irish Legal Information Institute's www.Bailii.org is a good resource for British and Irish cases, the official website for UK statutes is http://www.legislation.gov.uk/.http://www.parliament.uk/ is also another good resource for UK statutes. 4. Commonwealth Legal Resources: http://www.commonlii.org/ is a good resource for common wealth cases and statutory material. 5. US Legal Resources: Legal databases in United States, with is stringent copyrights laws is almost monopolised by a few paid database providers, which is recently brought to light by the tragic suicide of internet hackivist Aron Swartz. However, legal databases are available free of cost in US too. Free US cases can be found in http://www.supremecourt.gov/ while http://uscode.house.gov/ provides a consolidation of federal laws in US free of cost. Legal Information Institute(http://www.law.cornell.edu/statutes.html &http://www.law.cornell.edu/), an endevour of Cornell University Law School also gives links to US Code and state statutes including bills in the offing. 6. Other Legal Resources: Legislate online is a good site for statutes across the world. (Legislate Online-Criminal law for Eastern European Countries: http://www.legislationline.org/documents/section/criminal-codes). Chinese law can be found from http://www.lawinfochina.com/ & (http://www.chinalawinfo.com/). While China Law Info website is in chinese and you would need a google translation service to read the contents if you do not understand Chinese much, Law of China website has pretty much english contents as well. http://goov.org/ is a good resource for French legal system. While Europa(http://europa.eu/eu-law/index_en.htm)gives a fair idea about EU law and legislation. Journals: Social Science Research Network's Legal Scholarship Network (www.ssrn.com) is one of the best research site where we can get almost 100 odd online research journals free of cost. The articles are downloadable free of cost from SSRN. It contains an ever growing database of quality legal articles in every branch of law and other social sciences, and is the future of legal & social science research of the future. law.com, findlaw.com, www.lawgazette.co.uk, http://lawyerist.com, http://abovethelaw.com etc are some good legal journals. Other legal materials available online are: Washburn Univeristy School of Law's A-Z list of online law journals: http://www.washlaw.edu/lawjournal/ Hg.Org: http://www.hg.org/journals.html Directory of Open Access Law Journals:http://www.doaj.org/ University of the West of England Website: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/resources/law/freejournals.htm Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal:http://www3.law.harvard.edu/journals/hjrej/ Harvard Civil rights and Civil Liberties law journal:http://harvardcrcl.org/ Harvard Human Rights Law Review:http://harvardhrj.com/ Harvard International Law Journal:http://www.harvardilj.org/ Harvard Journal of Law & Technology: http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/ Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy:http://www.harvard-jlpp.com/ Harvard Journal of Law and Gender:http://harvardjlg.com/ Harvard Journal on Legislation:http://www.harvardjol.com/ Harvard Latino Law Review:http://harvardllr.com/ Harvard Law review:http://www.harvardlawreview.org/index.php European Journal of Law and Technology:http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/ Law and Contemporary Problems: http://lcp.law.duke.edu/ University Law Review Project: http://www.lawreview.org/ World Legal Information Institute Website: http://www.worldlii.org/ Yale Law Journal: http://www.yalelawjournal.org/index.php