Importance of Legal Education In India

 

 

Importance of Legal Education In India

Education plays a vital role in bringing out social change. It equips an individual with ability to understand, reflect upon knowledge and to act in a responsible manner. Legal education is a main stream education involving the study of law. It inculcates the ability to make use of law , to analyse it and to criticize it as a member of the legal community . It focuses on the individual freedom, development of society, solidarity and strengthening of rule of law. Justice and liberty are protected and upheld by the law. The Bar Council of India, a statutory body established under Section 4 of the Advocates Act, 1961, regulates legal education in India.

From here we will study about the Importance of  Legal Education In India.

dharma

and Nyaya. Court system for civil and criminal matters were essential features of many ruling dynasties of ancient India. Excellent Vedic court  systems existed under Maurya dynasty . Some famous books like Arthashastra defining law and Manusmriti defining royal duties . Then the concept of legal representatives came into existence during Mughal period. Legal education was in existence even before Indian Independence as many of our freedom fighters were from legal background . However, it didn’t become significant until after independence.

  In India, universities have traditionally offered legal education as a three-year graduate degree. The eligibility requirement for the Bachelor of Law was that the applicant must have a Bachelor’s degree in any subject

from a recognised institution.

After the establishment of the first National Law University at Bangalore in 1987, educators started a multi-disciplinary and integrated

approach to legal education. For the first time, NLU offered a five-year integrated law course titled BA LLB (Honours) after students completed Class XII. Subsequently, other Law Universities set up similar programs, all offering five-year integrated law degrees under different names. The National Law University, Jodhpur, for the first time, offered the integrated law degree of BBA LLB (Honours), which the West Bengal National University of Judicial Sciences had preceded by offering BSc LLB (Honours).

 

However, despite these specialized law universities, other institutions in India continue to offer the traditional three-year degree and recognize it equally for practicing law in India. Apart from National Law Universities and government law colleges, Private Law Colleges also offer law courses. The University Grants Commission also approved one year master degree i.e. LLM after Completion of five years integrated Course or 03 years LLB Course. 

       Under the Advocates Act 1961, the Bar Council of India is the supreme regulatory body to regulate the legal education  and profession in the country. The minimal curriculum that must be taught for an institution to be eligible to provide a legal degree is set by the Bar Council of India. The Bar Council also carries on a periodic supervision of the institutions and evaluates their teaching methodology and curriculum.