clinical legal education jha

7/30/2019 Clinical Legal Education Jha

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An assignment of Clinical

educationTopic:-History of Clinical Education: An Indianand International perspective

Under the guidance of Dr. Eqbal Hussain

Ayush Jha, BALLB (H.), Roll no. 09BALLB 10, 7th Semester, 4th year


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History of Clinical education: An Indian and International perspective

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PREFACE

The legal education is the basis of an efficient legal profession which is the basis of a

well-organized and sound judicial system .Unfortunately the legal education was not paid

due attention during the British period and even after independence it has been the most

neglected branch of the education.

It is a matter of pleasure that the Bar Council of India has taken the legal education very

seriously and has made commendable efforts for its improvement .One of the pitfalls of

the legal education is that it has put less emphasis on the practical training of the subject.

This assignment makes an effort to make the readers aware of the historical development

of the system if clinical legal education in India and its very importance.

The material has been collected from various sources. This assignment contains material

on the Historical Approach towards Clinical Legal Education and its development in

India and abroad.

I hope it serves as a good and helpful read to all the readers.


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METHODOLOGY

This assignment has been prepared on the doctrinal type of methodology. The material

has been collected from various sources that of articles, books various law journals,

newspapers and internet. It contains viewpoint of many jurists and advocates.

The material was collected and arranged in order. This assignment emphasizes on the

Historical Approach towards Clinical Legal Education in India. In order to make it easily

understandable,

In the last section, a conclusion is given that concludes the topic and gives a quick gist of

the whole subject.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I extend my heartfelt gratitude and sincere thanks to my clinical law teacher Dr.

Eqbal Hussain for his encouragement and full cooperation throughout the

completion of this assignment. Without his guidance and support this

assignment would never have been possible.

THANK YOU SIR


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SYNOPSIS

Introduction Defining Clinical Legal Education Why clinical legal education in India? Clinical Legal Education in India and the United States: A Comparative

Overview

Benefits of clinical education What is a Legal Clinic Types of Legal Clinics History of Clinical Legal Education Development of Clinical legal Education In India Global Development Of Clinical Legal Education

Legal Education Reform and Law School-based Legal Aid Clinics inIndia: Laying the groundwork for Social Justice based Clinical Legal

Education

Efforts to link legal aid and legal education reform Reviewing Clinical Legal Education Clinical Legal education and practical training papers

Conclusion


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INTRODUCTION

As we enter the new millennium, the movement beyond the casebook method to the widerintegration of clinical methodology throughout the curriculum stands on a solid intellectual

foundation. Yet, although clinical legal education is a permanent feature in legal education,

too often clinical teaching and clinical programs remain at the periphery of law school

curricula. Doctrine, theory, and skills cannot be appreciated if they are introduced without

engaging the pathos of the human issues that the lawyer encounters when representing

clients. So little attempt has been made to reflect this relationship that the goals of the legal

academy have been called into question. Professor Richard Neumann puts it this way:

Because it does not expect itself to produce practitioners, legal education is in some ways

closer to graduate liberal arts education than it is to professional education as other

professions define it. . . . It would be unthinkable to graduate physicians with no clinical

clerkships or architects with no experience in a design studio .1

The term, "clinical legal education" was first used by Jerome Frank, in 1933 in United States

in his article, "Why not a Clinical Lawyer School" 2 and has since then been the focus of

attention for improvement of legal education and for creating a synthesis between the law

schools and the legal profession. The legal clinic concept was first discussed at the turn of

the twentieth century by two professors as a variant of the medical clinic model. Russian

professor Alexander I. Lyublinsky in 1901, quoting an article in a German journal, and

American professor William Rowe, in a 1917 article, each wrote about the concept of a legal

clinic. Both profe ssors associated it with the medical professions tradition of requiring

medical students to train in functioning clinics ministering to real patients under the

supervision of experienced physicians.

Clinical legal education is essential to preparing law students to practice law effectively.

Clinics are important because they prepare students to practice law by teaching them valuable

skills such as fact-finding, investigation, interviewing, and legal research and writing. In the

1

Richard K. Neumann, Jr., Donald Schon, The Reflective Practitioner, and the Comparative Failures of Legal Education , 6 Clin. L. Rev. 401, 404 (2000).2 81 UPA. L. Rev. 907 (1933)


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United States, law students learn these skills by undertaking projects or cases on behalf of

individuals, always under faculty supervision and guidance. Students also develop a sense of

social justice and empathy through their work with disenfranchised groups.Clinical Legal

Education (CLE) has been a significant part of legal education since 1960. The first clinic

started in U. K. in 1970 and in Australia in 1990s. The concept is fast expanding across the

globe also.

The clinical method allows students to confront the uncertainties and challenges of problem

solving for clients in fora that often challenge precepts regarding the rule of law and justice.

To say that the process of learning law in such a textured manner should be relegated to

a certain course or set of courses ignores what educational theorists have been saying for

years: that the best learning takes place when the broad range of abilities we possess is

engaged. According to Professor Barbara Woodhouse, "perhaps one of the most serious

failings in contemporary legal education is that all too many students graduate with a vast

doctrinal base of knowledge sealed within a context that is not translatable into practice." 3

The Clinical Legal Education is necessary to bridge a gap between theory and practice. The

aim of this article is to know the various types of Clinical legal Education, its necessity in

curriculum and current initiatives and practices in Indian Clinical Legal Education.

DEFINING CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION

The Clinical Legal Education can be defined in various ways

Clinical Legal Education is essentially a multi -disciplined, multipurpose education which

can develop the human resources and idealism needed to strengthen the legal system a

lawyer, a product of such education would be able to contribute to national development and

social change in a much more constructive manner. 4

3 John B. Mitchell, Betsy R. Hollingsworth, Patricia Clark & Raven Lidman, And Then Suddenly SeattleUniversity Was on its Way to a Parallel, Integrative Curriculum , 2 Clin. L. Rev. 1, 21 (1995).4

KuljitKaur , Legal Education and Social Transformation [available at:http://alsonline.amity.edu/Docs/alwjlegkk.pdf] [viewed on: 25/06/2009]


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A learning environment where students identify, research and apply knowledge in a setting

which replicates, at least in part, the world where it is practiced. It almost inevitably means

that the student takes on some aspect of a case and conducts this as it would be conducted in

the real world. 5

a learning environment where students identify, research and apply knowledge in a setting

which replicates, at least in part, the world where it is practised.... It almost inevitably means

that the student takes on some aspect of a case and conducts this as it would ... be conducted

in the real world. 6

Prof. Sathe asked the pertinent question, "Is legal education all about imparting skills

of lawyering or does it also have to create a commitment to certain values?" 7

He opined :

A lawyer is not only a seller of services but he is a professional who renders services

for maintaining the rule of law. He is supposed to be an officer of the court. He has to have

commitment to certain values such as democracy, individual liberty, social and economic

equality including gender equality and concern for the disadvantaged sections of society

which will include the poor, women, the physically handicapped, children, the minorities and

the dalits. Legal education has to create such a commitment.

The Clinical Legal Education is a term which encompasses learning which is focused on

enabling students to understand how the law works in action. This can be done by

undertaking real or realistic simulated case work. In early days law is thought as one of the

curriculum available to the students. Even though the casebook method was growing in

earlier days, there were critics of this method from the beginning. However the first-hand

experience method will really educate the law students. The legal education clinics if

5 Richard Lewis, Clinical Legal Education Revisited Professor of Law, Cardiff University, Wales, United

Kingdom, Pg. 5 , [available at: http://www.law.cf.ac.uk/research/pubs/repository/21] [viewed on: 25/06/2009]6 R. Grimes, The Theory And Practice Of Clinical Legal Education in J. Webb and C. Maugham (eds.)Teaching Lawyers Skills (1996) at p 138.7 S.P. Sathe- Keynote Address in roundtable discussion on community responsive legal education: trends in

South Asia, November 27-28, 2001, organised by the United States Educational Foundation in India incollaboration with Pune Law College


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properly channeled may help the students to gain their knowledge. The use of the word

clinic prompts the analogy of trainee doctors meeting real patients in their medical clinics.

Clinical Legal Education is only one way in which theory and practice can be brought

together.

Now every nation is giving importance on the clinical legal education in order to groom their

future lawyers, the law makers, the executors, law officers, judges and law teachers to acquire

knowledge through a scientific method keeping pace with the ethics and philosophy of the

society. The objective of the clinical education is radical, reformative and dynamic.

The following are the basic features of the clinical legal education-

The students are to experience the impact of law on the life of the people. The students are to be exposed to the actual milieu in which dispute arise and to

enable them to develop a sense of social responsibility in professional work.

The students are to be acquainted with the lawyering process in general and the skills

of advocacy in particular.

(iv)The students are to critically consume knowledge from outside the traditional

legal arena for better delivery of legal services.

The students are to develop research aptitude, analytical pursuits and communicating

skills.

They are to understand the limit and limitations of the formal legal system and to

appreciate the relevance and the use of alternate modes of lawyering.

They are to imbibe social and humanistic values in relation to law and legal process

while following the norms of professional ethics

A legal clinic (also law clinic or law school clinic) is a law school program providing hands-on-legal experience to law school students and services to various clients. Clinics are usually

directed by clinical professors. 8 Legal clinics typically do pro bono work in a particular area,

providing free legal services to clients.

Students typically provide assistance with research, drafting legal arguments, and meeting

with clients. In many cases, one of the clinic's professors will show up for oral argument

8 Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, "clinical legal studies," (St. Paul, Minn: West Publishing Co., 1990), 254


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before the Court. However, many jurisdictions have "student practice" rules that allow law-

clinic students to appear and argue in court. 910

Clinical legal education may be simply described as learning through application, practice

and reflection. It is quite different from the traditional legal education. The lecture- seminar

method so common in the education of the law students does not meet the clinical demands,

however they are vital as they render vital information being predominantly content and

assessment led. Clinical legal education is directed towards developing the perceptions,

attitudes, skills and sense of responsibilities which the lawyers are expected to assume when

they complete their professional education. It can, therefore, be as broad and varied as the law

school curriculum would accommodate; certainly it is not limited to the mere training in

certain skills of advocacy. Clinical legal education has wider goals of enabling law studentsto understand and assimilate responsibilities as a member of a public service in the

administration of law, in the reform of the law, in the equitable distribution of the legal

services in society, in the protection of individual rights and public.

Clinical teaching methods

Although clinical legal education learning methods are traditionally used to teach such

lawyering skills as interviewing and counseling, legal writing and drafting, fact finding, caseanalysis, trial preparation and trial advocacy, they can also be used to teach substantive and

procedural law courses.

Depending on the nature of the law school's academic programme it may not always be

possible to replace lectures entirely with clinical teaching methods. However, where there is

scope for small group work, such as tutorials or practical sessions, it is possible to introduce awide variety of interactive clinical legal education teaching methods in order to illuminate the

substantive and procedural law curriculum for law students.

Some of the more common interactive learning methods include the following:

role plays

9Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XXhttp://www.lasc.org/rules/supreme/RuleXX.asp10

Uniform Local Rules Of The United States District Courts For The Eastern, Middle, And Western Districts Of Louisiana, LR83.2.13, http://www.laed.uscourts.gov/LocalRules/Civil_83.htm


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simulations

moots

mock trials

case studies

small group discussions

debates

'taking a stand'

'thinking on your feet' the PRES formula

games

triads

'fishbowls' 11

This concept of justice education that is clinical education in the field of legal education

means that the law school curriculum should entail certain programs like Lok Adalats, Legal

Aid & Legal Literacy and para-legal training. The complementary teaching methodology of

learning by doing and the conventional classroom teaching, through the law school clinics,

help in developing the advocacy skills in the law students. 'Mock' trials and Moot court

competitions, structured as court trial; client interviewing and counseling sessions; legal

research; editing of law journals; legal drafting and conveyancing; court visits etc. in the

curriculum is one of the ideal ways to facilitate performance based education. It is a means of

improving in students the basic skills such as the skills of critical thinking, presentation skills,

participation skills, the skills to work as a team, the leadership quality, in addition to the

boost in students knowledge of law

11

DOMINICK R. VETRI , EDUCATING THE LAWYER: CLINICAL EXPERIENCE AS AN INTEGRALPART OF LEGAL EDUCATION


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Why Clinical Legal Education in India?

Clinics expose students to the impact that the practice of law has on people. No one should

pretend that they are prepared to practice without a sense of this impact and a constructive

way to think about it. This perspective has significant implications for the way legal

education is approached in India. It is law schools that must foster a contextual understanding

of what lawyers should do to meet the needs of the country. This means connecting students

with communities and involving them in creative solutions that focus on the common good.

The new model for law schools the law university grew out of a perceived need to

enhance the quality of legal education in India. The universities represent a bold move to

reinvent legal education practices. The practices that were found lacking in law schools wereovercrowded classrooms, lack of rigor in teaching, lack of attention to socio-economic

problems, and a general lack of preparation for professional practice. As with other law

schools in India, students come to the national law universities straight out of 10+2.

Arguably, these students are too young and their education too narrow to take full advantage

of professional training. In the United States, law is a post-graduate study; university

graduates enter law schools to obtain a doctorate in law. However, many other countries

follow a pattern similar to Indias, for economic if no other reasons.12

The expense of attending college prior to preparing for professional practice can be prohibitive, particularly

when undergraduate study is imposed as a condition precedent. The universities offer a five-

year program, the first two years of which include social science and economics courses

along with law courses. Economics and an expansive view of access to education have led to

overcrowding in the professional institutions. The number of students attending law schools

in India does not necessarily represent vocation or an expectation of entering the profession;

students also enter law school as a matter of opportunity or indecision. The national law

universities narrowed this pool by raising admissions standards and charging students to

attend, setting aside scholarships to assure access to some of the qualified students who could

not otherwise matriculate.

Reflecting some attention to the Bar Councils Practical Paper requirements, students are

required at NALSAR Law University to spend time in practice settings in four of their five

years. The placements have the potential to allow students to interact with the legal

12 See, e.g ., Frans J. Vanistendael, Quality Control of Students and Barriers to Access in West-European Legal Education , 43 S. Tex. L. Rev. 691, 692 (2002)


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community and experience the law in context. However, the placements are apparently

student-run projects rather than the product of faculty supervision and educational rigor.

Students organize the placements, interact with the relevant offices and appear for work. The

school is not involved in this exchange in any meaningful way other than to register the fact

that each placement occurred.

Beyond these placements, experiential learning is limited at NALSAR to moot court and a

few classroom simulations. How did clinical legal education remain largely undeveloped in

this new institution given the goals that supported development of the law universities? In

part, the necessary emphasis placed on building physical facilities and attracting highly

qualified faculties and students provides insight. Establishing new institutions in which

traditional teachers organize the curriculum and teach the courses is not a prescription for

significant curricular change, even though the framework of fewer students and greater

resources suggest some opportunity for improvement. Lack of experience in clinical teaching,

the demand on teaching resources that clinics make and th e Bar Councils failure to provide

institutional support for the clinical legal education espoused contribute to the difficulty

realizing desired change. Indeed, the Bar Council sends the message that law teachers are to

be disengaged from the practice of law by denying the license to practice it. Thus, the

substantive curricular changes articulated by Dr. Menon and urged in the many reports appearto be eluding the new institutions, though, paradoxically, there is some evidence of progress

towards the articulated goals in other law schools. V. M. Salgaocar College of Law Legal Aid

Society, which began in 1998, is an example of what can be achieved in India, and is an

example of Indias potential as a leader the international clinical legal education movemen t. It

operates thirty-five permanent free legal aid cells throughout the state of Goa. Each cell

consists of a team of two students. The cells are set up and housed in government buildings,

schools, and church or temple premises. Students carry out awareness campaigns, providelegal advice and pursue remedies such as meeting with the other party, meeting with

government officials and providing legal referral services. The students also perform

paralegal aid services, such as visiting jails, registering marriages, births, and deaths,

obtaining ration cards, and preparing affidavits. They also prepare and file documents that are

required for obtaining benefits under various welfare schemes. Students also work with

faculty members to petition relevant authorities who are obliged under law to remedy the

injustice. If relief is not provided, the students work with lawyers to file a petition before the

High Court. Students can argue these cases under special rules that allow any member of the


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public to present such cases Since interest in clinical legal education in India was nourished

by developments in the United States, to what extent is what has been happening in the

United States instructive?

Legal Education Reform in the United States

Legal education in the United States has been repeatedly criticized for its failure to

adequately prepare students for the practice of law. The critique has come in the form of

high-level reports, judicial commentary 13 and numerous law review articles that call for more

relevant training.

When Professor Langdell championed the casebook method and the use of Socratic dialogue

in the early 1900s, his goal was to establish legal education as an academic discipline. That

concern still casts a shadow that arguably dissociates legal education from significant aspects

of its obligation to develop professional competency. This is not to say that Langdells

method, particularly as it has evolved to include problem solving and critical studies, is not

important or relevant. It is recognize that more is needed. The concern that too much is asked

of law schools if they are expected to expose students to the law both in theory and practice

must not be the end of the analysis. Theory and practice are intertwined in law, as they should

be in any profession. This connection is not fully acknowledged by law schools, and the

educational programs have suffered as a result.

The Carnegie Foundation report, EDUCATING LAWYERS: PREPARATION FOR THE

PROFESSION OF LAW (2007) , underscores the need for change in the approach to legal

education. The report cites the newly published BEST PRACTICES FOR LEGAL

EDUCATION: A VISION AND A ROADMAP , a project of the Clinical Legal Education

Association that takes an in depth look at all aspects of legal education in the United Statesand recommends methods for improvement. Both books discuss the importance of clinical

programs and the use of clinical methodology across the curriculum to achieve the necessary

integration of substantive law and professional skills and values. All accredited law school in

the United States have clinical programs. Given the growth of clinical programs in law

schools in the United States, one might wonder why the statements continue to be made that

link their importance to needed improvement. A fundamental problem with the approach to

13

See Warren E. Burger, The Special Skills of Advocacy: Are Specialized Training and Certification of Advocates Essential to Our System of Justice? , 42 Fordham L. Rev. 227 (1973); Harry T. Edwards, TheGrowing Disjunction Between Legal Education and the Legal Profession , 91 Mich. L. Rev. 34 (1992)


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clinical programs, and this is also true of skills courses in most U.S. law schools, is that

they are viewed as nonessential and/or unrelated to the substantive law courses offered. The

hard work of integrating experiential education into the curricula has not happened in this

profession, raising serious concerns about the quality of professional preparation.

What do clinical courses offer that these analyses and critiques of legal education find so

important? First of all, the emphasis on clinical programs addressing skills and values that

substantive law classes do not reach may suggest that clinical programs fully prepare students

to enter the profession as competent practitioners. No such argument is intended. Clinical

programs do well if they introduce students to the competencies they will need, strategies for

building expertise and critical assessment of the lawyers role. While the traditional

American classroom uses casebooks and the Socratic method to expose students to a body of

substantive material and develop their ability to analyze the material, 14 the range of

competencies that a clinical course seeks to develop is broader. They include interviewing,

fact investigation, an extensive application of problem solving skills, attorney-client relations,

negotiation and other alternative dispute resolution methods, ethical considerations, pre-trial

and trial skills. They are taught using methods that include role-playing, simulations,

brainstorming, highly interactive discussions, regular in-depth feedback, and direct client

representation. Significantly, they instruct by helping students to build on their experiences.

Second, clinical courses expose students to opportunities to use legal expertise to address

issues of social concern, particularly the needs of the poor. Regardless of whether students

intend to work in public interest law, they need to be aware of their obligations to contribute

to their communities and of the special role they are becoming equipped to play in addressing

a range of social problems. While the classroom can raise theoretical issues about social

justice, access to legal interventions and reform, understanding the problems in terms of

access, application, and sufficiency comes from well-supervised work with poor people.

Thus, these issues are best raised through direct service to disadvantaged clients, either

through representation or some other opportunity to work closely with them in order to

understand the problems and the attorne ys special ability to provide effective assistance.

Clinical programs in law schools across the United States have addressed one or both of these

goals through experiences that are discussed below. The discussion considers these

14 See e.g. Robert J. Rhee, The Socratic Method and the Mathematical Heuristic of George Polya , 81 St. John'sL. Rev. 881 (2007)


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approaches in relation to what might make sense for the law universities, not as a prescription

for what should be the ultimate or ideal approach but rather as a way to begin to think about

moving along the path to implementing some of the reforms that have been advocated for so

long.

Clinical Legal Education in India and the United States: A Comparative Overview

Clinical legal education involves teaching students to be lawyers by learning through

experience or learning by doing. In the United States, clinics are typically organiz ed as law

school classes where students, under faculty supervision, represent clients in a variety of

litigation and non-litigation matters. In addition to learning lawyering skills, clinical

education furthers social justice by providing legal representation to poor people and bysensitizing law students to the concerns of marginalized groups in society. As such, law

school clinics have the potential to play an important role in making access to justice a reality

for many low-income people.

Clinical programs in American law schools burgeoned in the 1960s alongside the civil rights

movement and the national focus on eliminating poverty. Most clinics at the time engaged

students in providing routine legal services to local community members who could not

otherwise afford them. Today most law schools in the United States offer clinics as part of

their curricular offerings, in many different subject areas of law.

In India, there have been waves of national-level reform efforts concentrating on the

development of a skills-based curriculum.4 The Bar Council of India issued a directive in

1997 that requires law schools to include certain classes focused on practical training.5 Even

where schools have introduced these classes, however, it is common for more than eighty

students to be enrolled in one class. This makes it virtually impossible for instructors toprovide supervision to students in undertaking legal work. In a 2002 report, the Law

Commission of India suggested that clinical legal education be mandatory.6 Today there are a

number of legal aid cells in Indian law schools where students, largely without faculty

guidance or supervision, provide direct legal services to individuals.7 Despite these national

calls for reform, most law schools in India lack robust clinical education programs where

faculty directly supervise students in experiential learning. A recent UNDP report surveying

39 law schools with legal aid cells found that although 82% of those schools had faculty

designated to supervise legal aid cells, 63% of those schools gave no academic credit to


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students.8 Where law schools do undertake legal aid activities, most involve legal literacy

camps.9 According to this UNDP study, the key problems in developing clinical legal

education in India are that:

(1) no credit is given to students who undertake these activities, which is a disincentive to

students to conduct them and discourages them to follow through on their commitments;

(2) there is no workload reduction given to faculty who are designated to supervise legal aid

cells;

(3) communities are not aware that the law schools provide free legal services; and

(4) under the Advocates Act, full-time law teachers and students are not allowed to represent

clients before courts.10

Following the summary of these and additional challenges to developing law school clinics in

India found by this UNDP study 15:

Lack of trained faculty

Lack of financial support

Restriction on faculty to practice in court of law

Restriction on students to represent clients in court

Lack of involvement of the Indian Bar

Lack of involvement of the Judiciary

Lack of specific directions from Bar Council of India

No academic credit to students for legal aid work

Legal aid not counted as faculty workload

Lack of infrastructural facilities

15 United Nations Development Programme India, A Study of Law School Based Legal Service Clinics 2(2011), available at

http://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/a_study_of_law_school_based_legal_services _clinics.pdf (covering seven major states: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and UttarPradesh)
http://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/a_study_of_law_school_based_legal_serviceshttp://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/a_study_of_law_school_based_legal_serviceshttp://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/a_study_of_law_school_based_legal_services


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BENEFITS OF CLINICAL EDUCATION

There are many benefits which have been claimed to follow from clinical legal education

programmes. Only the main ones can be summarised here:-

(a) Learning by experience

The main advantage of clinical education is that, compared to traditional teaching methods, it

involves a different approach to the learning of law: it encompasses experiential learning, or

learning by doing. Instead of learning by means of traditional lectures where students are

often expected to be sponges reactively soaking up information students are much more

proactive participants in the learning process. It is their initiative which determines the scope

of the clients problem; and they plan and work for its solution. Such students are much more

likely to learn if they recognise that their success is determined by their own efforts rather

than external factors e.g. how good is the lecturer is, or what questions have previously been

asked on the exam paper.

In addition, if there is a clear purpose to what is being learned it is more likely to have an

effect. It is not so much what has been learned, but what can be done with what has been

learned. That is, it is applying the knowledge that is the key, not the learning of it. Clinical

education clearly gives opportunities for the knowledge to be applied, but it also goes beyond

this and calls for reflection and self examination. It gives students the opportunity to explain

why they are taking certain actions and they are able to discuss and reconsider their actions.

Legal practitioners themselves rarely have the time or opportunity to do this. Students, by

contrast, can examine the legal and social issues in some depth, and they can form the basis

for looking at the lawyers role and at legal ethics within a practical context. The result is thatwhat is learned is far more likely to remain with the student than the knowledge crammed for

an extremely artificial examination paper.

The contrast between experiential learning and the traditional information transmission model

of legal education can be stark. Treating students as merely empty vessels into which legal

information can be poured apparently without end - provides them with only a small part of

what they need in order to understand the nature and processes of law, and to operate

effectively as a practitioner. As a result the teaching of legal skills is now widely recognised


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as a legitimate, even critical part of an effe ctive legal education.

We now have a great deal of knowledge about how students learn. There is a considerable

literature on educational theory. It is important for law schools to understand and make

effective use of this information when considering how they achieve the educational goals

that either are set for them or they set for themselves. All too often in the past law schools

have operated as if they alone knew best how to teach and how students learn. That position

can no longer be maintained. Reformers of legal education, whether in Japan or elsewhere,

must look to the wider developments which have taken place in education generally if they

are to set up an effective and modern system for instructing students.

(b) Acquisition of skills

Experiential learning means moving away from an information-based syllabus caricatured by

rote or memory-based learning accompanied by condensed summary examinations. Instead

clinical education embraces a skills-based approach. This means paying as much attention to

the processes associated with legal practice e.g. the structure a letter, the interview with

the client, face to face negotiation as to the legal content of the rules forming the

background to the work done.

Their importance is specifically examined in the UK government report on legal education.

The skills include:-

Research skill especially where the relevant area of law is completely new. Communication skills e.g. advocacy before differing tribunals or bodies.

Interviewing e.g. clients and witnesses. The law students traditional indoctrination

into a cross examiners style is revealed in clinical practice as inadequate and often

leading to obscuring the facts rather than discovering them. Instead students must

learn to relate to clients and e.g. develop active listening skills in order to obtain the

full facts.

Counselling e.g. helping sometimes bewildered clients to understand and deal with

events.


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Drafting with the supervision of Law teachers and professionals, the students are

able to understand the procedure of drafting various instruments required in court.

Negotiating the art of settlement for something instead of litigating for all reflects

much more the realities of legal practice and the use made of the law than does studyof formal accounts of those untypical disputes which are adjudicated by a court.

Problem solving seeing the full context of a clients problem and bringing together

what otherwise might be seen as distinct areas of legal study - e.g. contract, debt,

housing and land law, together with social security and civil procedure commonly

arise together in a landlord-tenant dispute.

Interpersonal and organisational skills including e.g. communicating and working

as a member of a team, helping to organise and maintain office procedures.

(c) Student motivation and development

Students who work in a legal clinic are enthusiastic about their experience. They are self-

motivated and often highly committed to the work. They are more responsible for what they

do and how the y do it. In theory, the teachers role becomes more facilitative - helping

students discover solutions for themselves. My own disenchantment with law school when a

student is a feeling still shared by all too many students. To an extent involvement in clinical

work can help reduce such feelings, and can invigorate future study. It can cause students to

think again about what law school offers and what direction their future career could take.

Clinical experience puts colour in the empty outlines of the legal comic book. Questions

which were dull and meaningless become important and exciting. Answers which seemed

black and white become grey, red and green. Dull legal rules become memorable elements of

unforgettable events.

(d) Professional ethics and responsibility

The study of ethics and the professional responsibility and conduct of lawyers has been

markedly absent from law schools in contrast to medical schools. However, there has been a

growth of interest in this area in recent years, and it is a subject which arguably is better dealt

with in a clinical context where the often abstract notions can be given a practical context.


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Whether educators can actually affect the development of students moral conscio usness is

much open to debate. But at least the crucible of the clinic allows moral issues to be debated

more openly than within the confines of the traditional curriculum.

(e) Involvement with the local community

The image of the university as an ivory tower is often all too real in that it can be very

divorced from the environment in which it operates. Not only its students but also its staff can

be cut off from the local community. A law clinic can help reduce this isolation by making

the law school more relevant to that community. It can, for example, offer advice and

assistance to local people who might not otherwise obtain any help at all. The benefits of this

can operate in more than one direction. Most obviously, the most disadvantaged members of

society may gain some means of redress. But in addition the young student may be faced with

the problems of those from a different generation and background. This experience can add to

their understanding of the position of others in society, and can increase their maturity and

sense of responsibility. They have to deal with problems without becoming so emotionally

involved with clients as to have their judgement clouded.

WHAT IS A LEGAL CLINIC ?

A legal clinic (also law clinic or law school clinic) is a law school program

providing hands-on-legal experience to law school students and services to

various clients. 16

Clinics are usually directed by clinical professors. Legal clinics typically do pro

bono work in a particular area, providing free legal services to clients. Students

typically provide assistance with research, drafting legal arguments, and

meeting with clients. In many cases, one of the clinic's professors will show up

for oral argument before the Court. However, many jurisdictions have "student

practice" rules that allow law-clinic students to appear and argue in court.

16

Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, " clinical legal studies ," (St. Paul, Minn: West Publishing Co.,1990),254
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_schoolhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bonohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bonohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_argumenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_argumenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_argumenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bonohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bonohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_school


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.Clinical legal studies exist in diverse areas such as immigration law,

environmental law, intellectual property, housing, criminal defense, criminal

prosecution, and American Indian law. Clinical education presents an

interesting intersection between the academic and professional environments.

Clinical experiences are designed to maximize the student's abilities to perform

newly acquired didactic and psychomotor skills in real patient care situations. A

college depends upon clinical education centres to provide supervised learning

experiences in which the student has the opportunity to apply the principles

learned in the classroom. A fully operational clinic is made up of five key

components:

1.The clinic is part of the law school curriculum, and it offers academic credit

for student participation in handling cases or projects as well as in a seminar

that is taught either before or during the handling of cases or projects;

2.The students work on actual cases or projects, to the extent that local rules for

those rules to permit the widest practical scope of the practice of law permit,and with the goal to expand student practice that local conditions permit;

3.The clients of the clinic are generally those who cannot otherwise gain access

to legal representation, either due to their poverty, their social marginalization,

or the unique or complex nature of their claims;

4.Representation by students is closely supervised by an experienced attorneyadmitted to practice in the relevant jurisdiction where they appear, preferably a

teacher with full or part time status in the law school;

5.Work on real cases is accompanied by a course in the law school, taught with

experiential methods such as simulation, role-plays and games, which trains

students in the skills, values and ethics of law practice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_law


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TYPES OF LEGAL CLINICS

The aims and objective of each type of clinic are in principle the same. The legal clinics may

be divided into three types:

1. Simulation clinic: Students can learn from variety of simulations of what happens in

legal practice. Ex moot Court commonplace etc. Cases can be acted out in their entirety,

from the taking of initial instructions to a negotiated settlements or Court hearing. Such

sessions can be run as intensive courses or spread through all or part of the academic year in

weekly slots. Other simulations can range from negotiation exercises, client interviewing

exercises, transaction exercises etc.

2. The In-house real client clinics: In this model the clinic is based in the law school. It is

offered, monitored and controlled in law school. In this type of clinic the clients require

actual solutions to their actual problems hence it is called as real client clinic. The client may

be selected from a section of the public. The service is given in the form of advice only or

advice and assistance. In this type of Clinics, Clients are interviewed and advised orally or in

writing and also helped with the preparation of their cases. The clinic may operate as a

paralegal services or a fully- fledged solicitors practice.

3. The out-house clinic: It is a clinic that involves students in exercising legal work

outside the college or university. These types of clinics may operate on the basis of advice

giving only. Such agencies are run by trade union councils and other non-statutory bodies.

The clinic might take the form of p lacement also in solicitors office or barristers chambers.

Simulation clinic has several advantages than other clinics. In this type of clinic risk and

unpredictability of the real-client work are removed, the same materials are used for many

times and hence cost is substantially less than real clinic. The administration of the simulation

is very difficult. But all the clinics play active part in Clinical Legal Education and also their

objectives and aims are same.


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HISTORY OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION

Clinical Legal Education includes not only the clinical courses but also practice-oriented

courses and activities included in or offered outside the curriculum. Clinical Legal Education

is more than a vehicle for the study of lawyering and the legal profession. Clinical Legal

Education should be devised and implemented; this will give law students a deeper and more

meaningful understanding of law. Clinical Legal Education in India has its roots in both the

Legal Aid and Legal Education Reform Movements. Formal Legal Education started in 1855,

in India. Many commissions and Committees were set up for the development of Clinical

Legal Education in India. Legal Education has gone through many stages of development.

Some of these stages are The Bombay Legal Education Committee concluded in 1949,

recommended that practical courses should be made compulsory only for students who

choose to enter the profession of law and the teaching method should include seminars or

group discussions, moot court competitions etc. The 14 th report of the Law Commission of

India recognized the importance of professional training and for a balance of both academic

and vocational training. It recommended that University training must be followed by a

professional course concentrating on practical knowledge but it suggested that the

professional course be made compulsory only for those who chose to practice law in the

courts.

The Commissions 1958 Report concentrated on institutionalizing and improving the overall

standards of legal education. In that regard, the Report also discussed teaching methods and

suggested that seminars, discussions, monk trials, and simulation exercises should be

introduced--- in addition to lectures. Thus, although the Commissions Report didnt deal

directly with improving skills, it did so indirectly by supporting the use of teaching methods

that could be more helpful in developing various skills. A link between expressed Legal Aid

and Legal Education Reform was published in 1970s by the Expert Committee on Legal Aid

of the Ministry of Law and Justice.

After 5 years of debate over a 3-year v/s 5-year L.L.B. course, which began during a 1977

National Seminar on Legal Education at Bombay, the Bar Council of India (BCI)

unanimously agreed to introduce the new 5-year course from July 1982, open to students

after 10+2. The BCI recommended practical training in the curriculum. Reports of University

Grants Commission (UGC) also played important roles in the history of Clinical Legal


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Education and report emphasized the role of legal education in developing law as a

hermeneutical profession, explaining that lawyers must be taught a variety of skills and

sensibilities. It outlined the objectives of reformed teaching as making students more

responsive to learning and making them demonstrate their understanding of law.

The next important step in the evolution of Clinical Legal Education began at the conference

of Chief Justice of India in 1993, which resolved the Chief Justice shall constitute a

committee to suggest appropriate steps that should be taken to assure that law graduates

acquire sufficient experience before they become entitled to practice in the courts. It found

that the general standard of law colleges in country was deteriorating and that the syllabus

should be revised to include practical subjects so that the students could get professional

training.

Bar Council of India (BCI) report 1996 on NLSIU (The National Law School of India) The

Bar Council of India issued a circular in1997 using its authority unde r the Advocates Act

1961 directing all universities and law schools to revise their curriculums. It included 21

compulsory courses and 2 optional courses, leaving Universities free to add more courses.

The circular also mandated the inclusion of 4 practical papers. Law schools have been

required to introduce these 4 practical papers since academic year 1998-99, which was

viewed as a big step toward introducing Clinical Legal Education formally into the

curriculum. In order to achieve the objects of the clinical programme, NLSIU offers a wide

range of opportunities in clinical programmes, compulsory as well as optional, to the

students. At present the compulsory clinical courses are (a) Client Interviewing, counseling,

And Alternate Dispute Resolution methods; (b) Litigation Clinic; (c) special Clinic integrated

with compulsory placements of two months from III year to V year of the 5 year LL.B.

course. The optional component of the scheme includes: a) Moot Court (b) Legal services

Clinics; (c) community-based Law Reforms Competition. In addition to the above, NLSIU

curriculum carries a full course of 100 marks taught outside the declared clinical courses.

This is a compulsory course on Professional Ethics and Law Office management taught with

assistance of legal practitioners. The 2 nd UGC report of particular interest to Clinical Legal

Education was prepared by a Curriculum Development Committee, which was asked to

upgrade the syllabi of the LL.B. course. The proposed curriculum also includes several

subjects which have a potential to be taught clinically in order to offer instruction in various

values and skills required for a new lawyer. Also it introduced a clinical aspect in the LL.M.


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program. Report of the Law Commission of India - 2002 stated that the C ommission

considers that Clinical Legal Education may be made mandatory subject. Current

Assessment: One can trace the development of Clinical Legal education in India to the

efforts of a few law schools in the late 1960s. For example, faculty and students at Delhi

University established a legal service clinic in 1969 on a voluntary basis. Banaras Hindu

University was the first to introduce a clinical course, in the early 1970s. This was an optional

course offered to a limited group of 30 students with academic credit for 200 marks. The

course included courts visits, participation in a legal aid clinic in the school, and an internship

in chambers of lawyers. While each of these early efforts was significant, no steps were taken

during those years to institutionalize Clinical Legal Education.

A national movement to do so was begun with the opening of the National Law School of

India University in Bangalore, established by the Bar Council in 1987 as a model for legal

education reform. The National Law School s curriculum includes several clinical courses,

including more recently course that cover the subjects included in the practical papers

mandated by the Bar Council of India in 1997. Over the past 10 years, seven other national

law schools have been established.


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DEVELOPMENT OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

Clinical Legal Education took off in the 1960s as a response to the social and political

movements of the time and the perceived irrelevance of traditional legal education. 17 It

featured service to poor clients and lay advocates interested in attacking poverty and racism.

It represented first and foremost a commitment to social justice and the law. But learning

legal skills has also been an important dimension of clinics, defi ned clinical education as a

lawyer- client experience under law school supervision for credit.

Clinical legal education is in the midst of an exciting period of growth and development,

prompting clinicians around the world to reflect on what clinical educ ations remarkablesuccesses over the past forty years mean for its future. 18 One important item on this agenda

that has been on the minds of law teachers in India and the United States, among other

countries, is the status of clinical legal educations tra ditional social justice mission. 19 There

has been a link between social justice and clinical legal education in India and the United

States since the late 1960s and early 1970s, when modern clinical legal education was first

coming into its own and law schools in both countries introduced the new clinical teaching

methodology through the establishment of legal aid clinics. Clinical education has always hada broader goal to teach law students about what lawyers do and to understand lawyers

professional role in the legal system but it carried out that goal in its early years almost

exclusively in the context of having students provide various forms of legal aid services. 20

Over time, the legal aid dimension of clinical education has been replaced to some extent by

a more professional skills-oriented focus as the clinical movement has made important and

17 AM. BAR ASS N SECTION OF LEGAL EDUC. AND ADMISSIONS TO THE BAR, AM. BAR ASS N, LEGAL

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AN EDUCATIONAL CONTINUUM, REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON LAW SCHOOLS AND THE PROFESSION: NARROWING THE GAP 133-41 (1992).[hereinafter MACCRATE REPORT].18For example, the 6th International Clinical Conference co-sponsored by UCLA and the University of Londonin 2005 carried the theme Enriching Clinical Education and included among its purposes reflection on theremarkable growth of the clinical movement worldwide. See conference brochure (on file with authors). Seealso Margaret Martin Barry, Jon C. Dubin, & Peter A. Joy, Clinical Education for the Millennium: The Third Wave , 7 CLIN. L. REV. 1, 57- 60 (2000) (discussing the global aspects of clinical legal educations fu ture).19Preserving and supporting a social justice focus for clinical legal education around the world is the keymission of the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE). The GAJE website is at http://www.gaje.org.20See generally Frank S. Bloch &IqbalIshar, Legal Aid, Public Service and Clinical Legal Education: Future

Directions From India and the United States , 12 MICH. J. INTL L.96 (1990). See also CLINICAL LEGALEDUCATION: CONCEPT AND CONCERNS, A HANDBOOK ON CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION 17

(N.R. Madhava Menon ed., 1998) [hereinafter HANDBOOK ON CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION]. Thislinkage existed also in earlier efforts to introduce clinical legal education in the United States, but it foundspecial strength at this time. See infra text accompanying notes 8-11.


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necessary gains in the legal academy, especially in the United States. 21 Although social

justice remains at the heart of many clinical programs, the effort to obtain broad acceptance

of clinical legal education by the legal academy and the bar realized already to a substantial

degree in a number of countries around the world seems often to undercut its traditional

social justice mission.

Clinical Legal Education includes not only the clinical courses but also practice-oriented

courses and activities included in or offered outside the curriculum.

Clinical Legal Education is more than a vehicle for the study of lawyering and the legal

profession. Clinical Legal Education should be devised and implemented; this will give law

students a deeper and more meaningful understanding of law.

The subject-matter or content of Clinical Legal Education and the Clinical method of law

teaching can be separated; the subjects sought to be taught in a clinical course or program can

be presented in traditional classes, and the clinical teaching method can be utilized in courses

outside the usual clinical subject areas. 22

Clinical Legal Education in India has its roots in both the Legal Aid and Legal Education

Reform Movements.

Formal Legal Education started in 1855, in India. Many commissions and Committees were

set up for the development of Clinical Legal Education in India. Legal Education has gone

through many stages of development. Some of these stages are

The Bombay Legal Education Committee concluded in 1949, recommended that practical

courses should be made compulsory only for students who choose to enter the profession of

law and the teaching method should include seminars or group discussions, moot court

competitions etc.

21See Stephen Wizner , Beyond Skills Training , 7 CLIN. L. REV. 327, 332 (2001) (clinical legal education hastended to emphasize skills training and professional development over social objectives ). But see Peter A. Joy,Political Interference with Clinical Legal Education: Denying Access to Justice , 74 TULANE L. REV. 235, 268(1999) (describing clinical educations twin goals of teaching lawyering skills and professional values andproviding legal services to low- income clients as inextricably intertwined ). 22 Richard Lewis, Clinical Legal Education Revisited Professor of Law, Cardiff university, Wales, United

Kingdom, Pg. 11 [available at: http://www.law.cf.ac.uk/research/pubs/repository/212] [viewed on: 25/06/2009]


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29

The 14 th Report of the Law Commission of India recognized the importance of professional

training and for a balance of both academic and vocational training. It recommended that

University training must be followed by a professional course concentrating on practical

knowledge but it suggested that the professional course be made compulsory only for those

who chose to practice law in the courts. The Commissions 1958 Report concentrated on

institutionalizing and improving the overall standards of legal education. In that regard, the

Report also discussed teaching methods and suggested that seminars, discussions, monk

trials, and simulation exercises should be introduced--- in addition to lectures. Thus, although

the Commissions Report didnt deal directly with improving skills, it did so indirectly by

supporting the use of teaching methods that could be more helpful in developing various

skills.

A link between expressed Legal Aid and Legal Education Reform was published in 1970s by

the Expert Committee on Legal Aid of the Ministry of Law and Justice.

After 5 years of debate over a 3-year v/s 5-year L.L.B. course, which began during a 1977

National Seminar on Legal Education at Bombay, the Bar Council of India (BCI)

unanimously agreed to introduce the new 5-year course from July 1982, open to students

after 10+2. The BCI recommended practical training in the curriculum.

Reports of University Grants Commission (UGC) also played important roles in the history

of Clinical Legal Education and report emphasized the role of legal education in developing

law as a hermeneutical profession, explaining that lawyers must be taught a variety of skills

and sensibilities. It outlined the objectives of reformed teaching as making students more

responsive to learning and making them demonstrate their understanding of law.

The next important step in the evolution of Clinical Legal Education began at the conference

of Chief Justice of India in 1993, which resolved the Chief Justice shall constitute a

committee to suggest appropriate steps that should be taken to assure that law graduates

acquire sufficient experience before they become entitled to practice in the courts. It found

that the general standard of law colleges in country was deteriorating and that the syllabus

should be revised to include practical subjects so that the students could get professional

training.

Bar Council of India (BCI) report 1996 on NLSIU (The National Law School of India) TheBar Council of India is sued a circular in1997 using its authority under the Advocates Act


30/54


30

1961 directing all universities and law schools to revise their curriculums. It included 21

compulsory courses and 2 optional courses, leaving Universities free to add more courses.

The circular also mandated the inclusion of 4 practical papers. Law schools have been

required to introduce these 4 practical papers since academic year 1998-99, which was

viewed as a big step toward introducing Clinical Legal Education formally into the

curriculum.

In order to achieve the objects of the clinical programme, NLSIU offers a wide range of

opportunities in clinical programmes, compulsory as well as optional, to the students. At

present the compulsory clinical courses are (a) Client Interviewing, counseling, And

Alternate Dispute Resolution methods; (b) Litigation Clinic; (c) special Clinic integrated with

compulsory placements of two months from III year to V year of the 5 year LL.B. course.The optional component of the scheme includes: a) Moot Court (b) Legal services Clinics; (c)

community-based Law Reforms Competition. In addition to the above, NLSIU curriculum

carries a full course of 100 marks taught outside the declared clinical courses. This is a

compulsory course on Professional Ethics and Law Office management taught with

assistance of legal practitioners.

The 2 nd UGC report of particular interest to Clinical Legal Education was prepared by a

Curriculum Development Committee, which was asked to upgrade the syllabi of the LL.B.

course. The proposed curriculum also includes several subjects which have a potential to be

taught clinically in order to offer instruction in various values and skills required for a new

lawyer. Also it introduced a clinical aspect in the LL.M. program.

Report of the Law Commission of India - 2002 stated that the Commission considers that

Clinical Legal Education may be made mandatory subject.

Current Assessment: One can trace the development of Clinical Legal education in India to

the efforts of a few law schools in the late 1960s. For example, faculty and students at Delhi

University established a legal service clinic in 1969 on a voluntary basis. Banaras Hindu

University was the first to introduce a clinical course, in the early 1970s. This was an optional

course offered to a limited group of 30 students with academic credit for 200 marks. The

course included courts visits, participation in a legal aid clinic in the school, and an internship

in chambers of lawyers. While each of these early efforts was significant, no steps were taken

during those years to institutionalize Clinical Legal Education. A national movement to do so


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31

was begun with the opening of the National Law School of India University in Bangalore,

established by the Bar Council in 1987 as a model for legal education reform. The National

Law Schools curriculum includes several clinical courses, including more recently course

that cover the subjects included in the practical papers mandated by the Bar Council of India

in 1997. Over the past 10 years, seven other national law schools have been established.

Delhi University

In the mid 1960s, Delhi University introduced the case method of teaching followed by a

few other universities. In 1969, a legal services clinic was set up by some teachers and

students of Delhi law Faculty as a purely voluntary activity mainly to provide legal services

to inmates of prisons and custodial institutions. The programmes were developed on an ad

hoc basis and faculty supervision was marginal. The clinic acted more as an investigating and

referral agency rather than as a centre for delivery of services. Student participation was

neither consistent nor was the programme supported by the prescribed curriculum for the

LL.B. degree. There was no attempt to integrate the clinic with the curriculum excepting

perhaps some support derived through the introduction of an optional course called Law and

Poverty" in the second year which carried a clinical orientation .The clinic continued to

attract some students every year and it diversified its programmes creating a lively interest in

clinical programmes amongst an increasing number of faculty members and students.

Every year the clinic organizes a week-long orientation course informing the students of the

clinics' programmes and encouraging them to participate voluntarily. The programme

continues to be voluntary and extra-curricular even today.

Delhi Legal Aid Clinic despite being a purely extra-curricular activity did accomplish some

impressive results during the recent past. Two Lok Adalats were organized in Delhi in 1985-

86 by the clinic in collaboration with Delhi Legal Aid and Advice Board. Over 150 students

were involved in this project another set of students assisted in reaching legal services to the

victims of the Bhopal- gas-tragedy .In collaboration with the Department of Adult and

Continuing Education, students and teachers of Campus Law Centre now support legal

literacy projects amongst the students of several under-graduate colleges of Delhi University

and through those students in as many communities in the Union Territory. These activities

cannot be called clinical education as such. They are not structured that way; nor are they

included in the law curriculum. Supervision is marginal. Though they do contribute to the


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learning experiences of a few law students in a clinical setting, they lack the academic frame-

work for self-directed education. They are more service-oriented programmes which

desperately seek academic recognition from the faculty and curricular planners.

Aligarh Muslim University

Aligarh Muslim University introduced in its third-year LL.B. class a course on "Advocacy"

which introduces students to fact investigation, legal research and writing, court procedures,

litigation strategies and issues of professional ethics. However, it does not go far in

introducing clinical methodology in terms of self -directed learning on the part of students. In

1985-86, AMU organized few legal aid camps and helped organize a Lok Adalat .A legal aid

clinic in the law school is said to be working with limited programmes.

Banaras Hindu University

On the recommendation of a faculty Committee, Banaras Hindu University Law School

introduced an optional course of Clinical Legal Education in the Vth and VIth semesters withcredit for a maximum of 200 marks .The course is open for 30 students each year who are

selected on the basis of aptitude and performance in written tests. The method of teaching is

through lectures and fieldwork. Fieldwork includes court visits, assignment in the law school

legal aid clinic, socio-legal surveying on specific problems and internship in the chamber of

lawyers. A faculty committee headed by the Dean manages the clinical course and

programmes. The Legal Aid Clinic was set up in the law school under the supervision of a

retired judge who was taken as a part-time Professor of the school on a token honorarium.

Presently there is a faculty member designated as director of the clinic. Funds for clinic

activities initially came from students' contribution, then from the National Service Scheme

of the University and later from the University itself. The University Grants Commission

provided a special grant for the clinic to expand its legal aid activities to the neighboring rural

areas. The clinic has its own bus to transport students on fieldwork.


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Students share the required time between the court, the field and the legal aid clinics' office.

Each week the students are expected to spend at least one day in court and report at the office

of the assigned lawyer on two occasions.

Another day they are required to spend in the legal aid office doing the work assigned by the

teacher in charge. The students and teachers associated with the clinical legal programme go

to the villages around the city and undertake programmes of legal literacy, socio-legal

surveys on the implementation of welfare legislation and attempt conciliated settlement of

disputes through legal aid camps. The students keep separate diaries in which they record

their experiences, do the written assignments and get the comments of the teachers / lawyers.

The court work is jointly evaluated by the teacher and the lawyer for a maximum of 50

marks. The teacher in charge of the legal aid clinic grades the work of the students in the

clinic for a maximum of 50 marks.

It is interesting to note that clinical legal education at Banaras Law School revolves almost

entirely around the legal aid clinic and its projects. Although it continues to function with

some success it reflects the troubles from which legal aid schemes generally suffer and it

does not receive full faculty support. Further, the clinical opportunities provided are limited

to a small section of final year students.

During the nineteen seventies a report was prepared by the committee on legal education

headed by Chairman Mr. Justice Ormrod which emphasized the need to combine the

traditional legal education with instructions in skills and techniques which are essential to

enable a person to follow a learned profession. Realizing the error of largely relying upon the

apprenticeship method, ignoring the new situations which had developed over a period of

time it recommended that new ways and means should be evolved to enable use of new

facilities for educating the professional person by supplementing them with training in

professional skill and technique. It emphasized the need for a synthesis between the academic

and professional and there integration into a coherent whole noticing the isolation between

both. It recommended three stages of legal education, the academic stage, the professional


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stage and the continuing education or training. This would enable the individual not only to

equip himself with the basic knowledge of the law but also acquaint himself with the skills

and techniques so essential to the practice of law. The idea of continuing education or

training would enable him to adapt himself to the ever changing scenario in the field of law,

so vital for career advancement.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION

Clinical Legal Education gathered importance globally due to its potential to improve the

quality of legal education. As law graduates in India directly enter legal profession without

any further training or any Bar Examination Law Colleges in India share the entire

responsibility of skill training. As a result Clinical Legal Education assumes more importance

in India. The concept of practical problem solving, whether by working in a laboratory or in

the field, as an important means of developing skills has been in acknowledged since time

immemorial. However, it was in 1901, that a Russian professor, Alexander Lyublinsky, first

proposed Clinical Education in law on similar lines as in medicine.The earliest reference on Clinical Legal Education in United States could be traced in the

year of 1917. Since that time, Clinical teaching has become an integral part of legal education

in most developed and developing countries. The global Clinical movement started taking

hold in the late 1960s; however, by that time Law Schools in the U.S. took the lead in

providing Clinical Legal Education. In most of the countries initially the primary focus of

Clinical Legal Education was on legal aid, social justice and professional responsibility.

However, this focus began to shift from client and community service to teaching skills,particularly in U.S. due to fading of student interest in public interest work.

Thus, the concept of Clinical Legal Education has evolved and contributed a new pedagogy

in the teaching of law. It, to a large extent, also plays a crucial role in bridging the gap

between the theory and real-life practice of law, or at least the environment in which they

operate.

The dearth of clinical legal education programs in the first half of the twentieth century

reflects several conditions that law schools faced in that era.


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First , law schools were distinguishing themselves from apprenticeships, and clinical legal

education efforts to create "model law offices" as part of law school education did not further

this market differentiation.

Second, law schools of this era were terribly under-funded and clinical legal education

courses with intensive faculty supervision were not as economical as large classes employing

the casebook Socratic method.

Third , law school teachers of this era disagreed about the value and feasibility - of teaching

lawyering skills other than legal analysis. For example, a 1944 Report of the Association of

American Law Schools (AALS) Curriculum Committee, primarily authored by Karl

Llewellyn, noted that the "current case-instruction is somehow failing to do the job of

producing reliable professional competence on the by-product side in half or more of our end

product, our graduates.

Fourth , the period from the 1920's to the 1940's was marked by ABA and AALS efforts to

create and raise standards for law schools, and none of these standards focused on

encouraging or requiring clinical legal education experiences.

These above four factors combined not only to limit the number of clinical programs but also

to stunt the growth of clinical pedagogy by limiting the number of law faculty teaching

clinical courses.

In the 1950's, there was no single vision of clinical legal education and the concept of a law

school "legal aid clinic" encompassed any "law school sponsored program for law student

work on legal aid cases." 23 A 1951 study of clinical programs identified twenty-eight clinics

run by law schools, independent legal societies, or public defender offices. At five schools, a

clinical legal education experience was mandated, but most schools offered clinics aselectives or extra-curricular activities. The work assigned to students varied among programs,

but typically included client and witness interviews, drafting pleadings, and preparation of

legal documents. Some programs gave students the opportunity to negotiate matters with

clients' creditors, and at least nine law school clinics provided opportunities for trials and

other court appearances. Most clinics attempted to have students work on cases from

beginning to end. Student supervision was cited as a "major problem," and the task of

23Quintin Johnstone, Law School Clinics , 3 J. Legal Educ. 535, 535 (1951).


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supervision was often delegated to experienced students, who supervised less experienced

students. At ten of the twenty-eight law schools with some form of clinical program in 1951,

students did not earn any academic credit for their work. At four schools, clinic credit was

available as part of a student's credits for a general course on legal practice. At the remaining

fourteen schools, students only earned between one and three hours of credit for clinic work.

By the end of the 1950's, thirty-five law schools reported "some form of legal aid clinic." 24 In

thirteen of these law schools, legal aid clinics were located inside the schools. In a few law

schools, all or most law students were required to do some legal aid work. In fifteen laws

schools, students were able to earn limited academic credit for clinic work. In only five law

schools, supervising faculty were able to receive teaching credit for their clinical courses.

Although the number of clinical legal education programs increased slightly from the late

1940's to the early 1950's, the late 1950's ended on a note of relative stagnation for the

nascent clinical legal education movement. There were several different models of clinical

programs, and no generally accepted definition or description. Schools defined "clinical"

programs to include both credit-earning and non-credit-earning real-life experiences for law

students either in programs located within the law school or offsite at legal aid or public

defender offices. The level of faculty involvement and supervision varied greatly, and clinical

experiences existed on the fringes of the law school curriculum. The limited growth of

clinical programs during this decade may reflect the fact that clinical instruction was only one

of several experiments under way to address perceived deficiencies of the casebook method.

Some of the other "experiments" included simulated trial practice courses, legal research and

writing courses, drafting courses, and subject matter seminars based on simulated problems.

Notwithstanding these "experiments" many of which are now standard fare in virtually all

law schools the 1960's witnessed continued complaints by law students and some lawfaculty about large classes, the dominance of the casebook method, and the lack of writing

opportunities. Of all the curricular experiments since the introduction of the casebook method

in the late nineteenth century, "the concept of clinical legal education was to prove the most

important." In fact, clinical legal education is "so often called the most significant change in

how law was taught since the invention of the case method that it now sounds trite. 25Until

24

AALS Proceedings 121, 121 (1959)25Philip G. Schrag& Michael Meltsner, Reflections on Clinical Legal Education 5 (1998).


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Clinical programs entered the scene, skills training and social justice work were for all intents

and purposes, off the legal education agenda. Legal doctrines dominated the Law School

syllabi, with virtually all instruction offered through classroom courses dominated by

traditional lectures in India. Legal education was Law School , not lawyer school.

Introduction of Clinical Legal Education changed this scenario. Clinical Legal Education is

directed towards developing the perception, attitudes, skills and sense of responsibilities

which the lawyers are expected to assume when they complete their professional education.

Thus, Clinical Legal Education provides students with opportunities for professional and

intellectual development and prepares them for the practice of law, as competent, and socially

as well as professionally responsible lawyers. Clinical Legal Education took its roots in India

in the late 1960s. But Clinical Legal Education becomes integral part of curriculum only

when BCI introduced four practical papers to improve standards in legal education in late

90s. These papers are aimed at provi ding practical training to law students. Until these

papers were introduced in the curriculum, very little effort was made by Law Colleges to

train students in advocacy skills. Clinical Legal Education in India offers an opportunity to

make integrative transformation of legal education and at the same time make legal

profession socially relevant. To make such a transformation Clinical Legal Education should

be viewed as a method of teaching and understanding law effectively rather than a component

to offer mere skills. The complexities of modern life require lawyers to play multiple roles

such as advisors, negotiators, arbitrators, mediators, and administrators. The present day legal

profession calls for much more skills than what was required of a legal practitioner a decade

or so back. The field of lawyering is becoming highly competitive in that sense. Clinical

Legal Education justifies the existence of law school in communitys context. The faculty

will be benefited by the real lif

clinical legal education jha

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