Abstract
<p>The 1960s and 1970s were an important time in the history of legal education in India, when the legal aid movement and various legal aid committees’ reports started to draw attention to the importance of experiential learning, or learning on the job, in legal education. The main aim of involving law students in the national legal aid movement was to make them feel more responsible for the considerable part of the Indian population who, because of their socio-economic status, couldn’t access justice. The history of how India’s clinical programs were introduced has a lot in common with the history of clinical programs in other parts of the world. There was a desire to create a pool of lawyers, who would serve as soldiers in the fight for social justice for underprivileged groups in the country.</p><p>While some prestigious universities started their clinical programs in the 1970s, most of the regulators of legal education took a long time to include clinical papers in the curriculum. In 1997 the Bar Council of India introduced four practical papers in the curriculum. The spirit of public service, and the widespread poverty in a country, has always been central to the push for clinical programs everywhere. But in India, the legal aid committees’ and other statutory bodies’ reports calling for clinical programs to support social justice, were always ignored. The National Knowledge Commission’s working group on legal education specifically mentioned the need to introduce students to issues relating to poverty, social change and social exclusion, through clinical legal education.</p><p>After the introductory section, the second section discusses the introduction of clinical programs with their roots in the search for social justice in the United States and India. The third section discusses the continuous deliberation by various bodies, commissions and committees about the need to introduce clinical programs with a social justice perspective in India. The fourth section discusses the social justice-based clinical programs in China and South Africa. This section tries to highlight some of the clinical models focused on serving underprivileged groups, that have been introduced and implemented in these two countries and which ~ after local modifications ~ could serve as a template for programs in Indian law schools. The fifth section tries to search for clinical models best suited to India with reference to clinical programs in China and South Africa. Several examples of clinical activities in a few Indian law schools have been highlighted in this chapter to explain these models’ effectiveness and suitability for Indian circumstances. The sixth section sets out some suggestions for law schools and stakeholders of legal education in India as to how to further the country’s social justice mission of clinical legal education.</p>
Highlights
The 1960s and 1970s were an important time in the history of legal education in India, when the legal aid movement and various legal aid committees’ reports started to draw attention to the importance of experiential learning, or learning on the job, in legal education
If we look at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) and the Institute of Rural Research and Development (IRRAD), we can broadly determine the nature and duties of a clinic for the empowerment of rural Indians
The two models put forwarded in this paper could be of great value, helping to empower the underprivileged and to ensure the goals and values of clinical legal education
Summary
- Growth in self reflection and wisdom and capacity to serve the underprivileged.”. In an interview about legal education reform, Prof. Upendra Baxi expressed his concern that there is no new generation of lawyers coming up in India who will work to help the underprivileged access justice The reason behind this fear might be the failure of the law school curriculum to put the values of public service and social justice at the centre of young law student’s education, instead encouraging the growth of a corporate culture.[3]. All three ways have some effect on the law student’s education about social justice values, because the unusual experience gained is different from, and complements, the student’s prior understanding of law and legal procedure.[19] The 1992 Report of the Committee on the Future of In-House Clinics of the American Association of Law Schools urges clinicians to assist the students in pro-bono works.[20] The benefits of instructions on social justice responsibility of legal profession by involving students to legal aid activities will help them to self identify themselves.[21]. The committee concentrated more on the promotion of legal literacy, the organization of legal aid camps to carry legal services to people’s doorsteps, training paralegals to support legal aid programs, establishing legal aid clinics in law schools and universities, and bringing class actions through public interest litigations.[28]
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