Legal Education

The modern day society is experiencing fundamental institutional changes due to ever changing global trends and transformations compelling the governance machinery to change its outdated practices, procedures and approaches. The legal education sector is no exception. No doubt, the system of legal education assumes a critical significance in ensuring a stable, orderly and just social order. To substantiate the need for reforms in legal education, many a Law Commission reports have emphasized, from time to time, that access to justice can not be improved without substantial improvements in the quality of legal education. When lawyers, judges, legal scholars, governmental legal official and other law trained personnel are not well-trained in performing their jobs professionally, they become a hindrance rather than supporter to the delivery of justice. Recently, the Supreme Court taking notice of the abysmally low quality of legal education imparted by the public and private law colleges issued directions for proper planning of syllabi and teaching of law subjects to raise the standard of legal education. 

The law students of today are the judges and lawyers of tomorrow. In fact, the performance of the justice sector is dependent on the quality of their professionalism, skills and knowledge. Thus there is a strong linkage between the quality of human resources available to judiciary and the functionality, integrity and legitimacy of the courts system. In Pakistan, the legal education system has not received the kind of attention it deserves. In the past, no serious effort has been made to reform the key areas of legal education particularly the underlying structural issues. A weak system of legal education has therefore continued to render deleterious impact on state of justice service delivery in the country. As a result, the economic development and overall performance of system of governance have been adversely affected.  

Moreover, the progress on the development and implementation of professional standards in legal education system has been abysmally slow. There is need to see what makes it difficult for us to introduce professional standards in legal education. Most law colleges are run without any independent charters with part time faculty.  Institutional arrangements for budgeting, accounting, and financial management are poor.  All these issues necessitate formulation of a uniform legal education policy. Innovative methods and activities will indeed help law students not only in enriching their knowledge but also enhance their learning capacity, make informed decisions and participate effectively in the justice system. These activities are expected to eventually contribute to ensuring that country has an accessible and responsive justice system that meets the needs of its citizens.

The conference will discuss the state of legal education in Pakistan in greater detail in view of the new and emerging trends in legal scholarship methodologies. Participants will hopefully engage in a constructive discussion about the growing realization to focus on promoting innovations in legal education.