Training lawyers to see justice as it is lived
The author argues that Indian legal education must move beyond traditional transmission models to include experiential and interdisciplinary learning. By integrating sociology and psychology, students can better understand how the law functions in real-world social contexts.
Why it matters
Reforming legal education is essential to bridge the gap between theoretical law and the practical realities faced by litigants in the justice system.
The Indian judiciary is continuously in the process of digitising itself, with Covid providing the necessary push. Along with this, new High Courts are being built, the latest design being that for a new Bombay High Court. The technology push has led to the possibility of e-filings, online case documentation, streaming of live proceedings and virtual hearings. While the court is updating its ways, the classrooms where future lawyers are trained remain largely unchanged - rows of students, a screen/board at the front, pages of cases and statutes to be absorbed and reproduced. If the reform of the justice system (in any form) is to be envisaged, we simultaneously must start by reforming how we teach the students who will occupy these spaces in the future.
The article presents a pedagogical argument regarding institutional reform without partisan political bias.
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