Advancements in Legal Education in India: Challenges and Opportunities for Interdisciplinary Research

Introduction

The draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019; envisions the promotion of multidisciplinary teaching, research and extension activities across higher education institutions in India. It is one of the few policies that suggests reformation to professional education, especially legal, technical, agricultural, and medical institutions. ¹ Interdisciplinarity in legal education can be traced back to Upendra Baxi’s, ‘Notes Towards A Socially relevant Legal Education’ the earliest authoritative piece that one can refer to. The report was transformational, especially in the Indian context, as it led to many reforms in legal education. Such changes are evident in the various Law Commission Reports, especially the 184th Law Commission Report on Legal Education & Professional Training, the Advocates Act, 1961, University Grants Commission Act, 1956, and other imminent policies that support the progression of interdisciplinarity, paving the way for the renaissance of juristic learning. ² The 184th Law Commission Report is an important starting point that sets the pace for engaging with interdisciplinary research in legal education, which elaborates and stresses the need for competence and social responsibility, invariably demanding the engagement of law with interdisciplinary teaching, research and extension. ³

For very long, research in legal education had confined itself to the study of codified laws and judicial precedents for preparation to practise at the bar and bench. The ultimate objective of law schools was, and to some extent still is, to teach law as a set of rules and regulations. With minimum prescription standards mandated by the Bar Council of India (BCI), the curriculum was designed to develop law as a distinctive discipline with no or less interaction with other disciplines. However, one has seen a reversal of the same, with the diversification of opportunities to a young law graduate, simultaneously propelled by the need to understand and address the problems of the society. Legal education has tried to resurrect itself from the time of the realist movement and slowly moved away from the theory of ‘training men for legal profession’ ⁴ or to ‘think like a lawyer’, as famously stated by Prof Langdell, towards a more interdisciplinary approach. Keeping in line with this progressive vision, Prof Dr N. R. Madhava Menon started the National Law School of India University in the year 1986. ⁵

Owing to the need to align legal education towards a global market, integrating interdisciplinary disciples, has marked the revolution of legal education across the globe. Yet, despite its incorporation in governmental organizations, industry and academia, it still has its detractors. It is argued by the traditionalists that interdisciplinary legal research is highly impractical and in a way dilutes traditional legal research. ⁶ It is further stated that legal academics have tried to pick up bits and pieces from other disciplines and have exposed themselves to ‘interdisciplinary dilettantism’. ⁷ According to the executive director of the Association for Integrated Studies, interdisciplinary means an inquiry that critically draws upon multiple disciplines and, further, can lead to an integration of disciplinary insights. ⁸

The 184th Report by the Law Commission of India identifies the challenges and multiple dimensions of legal education and the significance of improving the objective of imparting quality legal education in the profession. ⁹ With the emerging advancements in contemporary education, interdisciplinary legal research holds a significant role in modern curriculum. Legal research has multiple connotations. Legal studies, widely recognizes and follows doctrinal research of the legislations and judgments involving the process of collating, analysing, interpreting and its application to a given problem at hand. Such methods form the core of legal and judicial practice. ¹⁰ Such research is primarily employed in understanding and analysing law the way it is, and is often referred to as ‘black letter law’. There has been a gradual transition from such expositions, propounded by Salmond, towards a more progressive understanding of legal research, one that combines multiple dimensions, such as sociological, ethical, economic and historical. ¹¹ Such legal research connotes legal scholarship’s ultimate purpose to not merely acquire the necessary skills for the legal profession but also move beyond traditional scholarship. Hence, distinctions have been made between ‘research in law’ and ‘research of law’. ¹² The intention is to encourage the possibility of understanding legal problems and issues from a comprehensive framework and, at the same time, use these specific interdisciplinary experiences to address those issues without the strict inhibitions of the legal framework. Such experiences are crucial to address issues and look for solutions in areas such as alternate dispute resolution mechanisms, labour law, legal aid, human rights, environmental law, the Constitution, criminal law, etc. A synthesis of multiple disciplines, most importantly, enriches the students and teachers’ overall educational experience. ¹³ The education system that focuses specifically on a single discipline follows the traditional methodology, and it may not be at par with the essential pedagogy needs of the present.

Therefore, with the growing interface of law with other disciplines and the call for imbibing interdisciplinarity into legal research, on the one hand, and the argument to retain legal research in isolation, on the other, there is a need to strike a fine balance for the advancement of legal education. Such balance may be achieved through incorporating interdisciplinary scholarship to understand, analyse and make suitable changes to legal rules and the institutions that are influenced by them. ¹⁴ Such views are reflected in the works of doyens such as Prof Dr Madhava Menon, Prof Upendra Baxi and Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer. In addition, Chapter 16.7 of the draft NEP of 2019 ¹⁵ also has a new vision for legal education in India, that is, the promotion of multidisciplinary legal research, which reflects behavioural and comparative components as well. Hence, there is a need to continue with interdisciplinary sensitivity based on the ethos of these legal luminaries. In the background of such arguments and discussions, there is a need to revisit and understand the benefits and challenges in conducting and advancing interdisciplinary research.

Hence, the article presents a comprehensive literature review and analyses two institutions to unpack interdisciplinary perspectives in advancing legal education.

Research Methodology

The article adopts a qualitative approach in identifying the emerging trends in the discipline by comparing and providing a descriptive account of two different institutions offering the same programme (integrated degree course in law), Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Legislative Law/Bachelor of Law (BA LLB), while analysing the different approaches adopted by these institutions while imparting legal education. Reference has been made to the two institutions as the cases in point. They are differentiated by their type—‘Institution I’ is a law school in a private university, and ‘Institution II’ a law college affiliated to a state university. As an affiliated institution, the latter is more teaching-oriented, whereas the former, being a private university, focuses on teaching and research. Hence, in order to understand the differences that exist beween the two different typologies of institutions, it is pertinent to understand the benefits as well as the challenges that persists between the two different types of institutions with different priorities. Furthermore, the cases have been chosen to clarify the construct of legal education, which will help us in understanding ‘how’ interdisciplinary legal research faces challenges and ‘why’ there is a need for integration of interdisciplinary perspectives in law. According to Yin, a case study is used when ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions are to be answered, which can also lead to ‘exploratory’ and ‘descriptive’ answers to the questions posed. ¹⁶

Hence, the unit of analysis is specifically picked to represent two important and diverse typologies of institutions imparting legal education in India. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) Report of 2018–2019, ¹⁷ there are about 398,000 enrolments in the discipline of law, spread across specialized law universities, affiliated colleges and private universities. Thus, the present unit of analysis comprises a private university, named as ‘Institution I’, and a private college, named as ‘Institution II’, for the purpose of the research. Both Institution I and Institution II are amongst the most reputed law institutions in India, one located in the Northern part of the country and the other in the South. We have identified a private University and a private college in order to understand the challenges, the advantages of being its individual self and other aspects which are further elaborated in the later part of the study. The analysis is done through a keen observation of both the institutions. Also, while conducting the research, the researchers were extremely cautious to handle the study without any bias depending upon the evidence garnered and not tilt towards self-interest or any personal bias.

Review of Literature: A Contextual Background

The essence of legal jurisprudence is necessarily interdisciplinary in nature, a trend that came into vogue with the vast advancements in every aspect of human interface with science and technology. The law school had strictly witnessed intellectual isolation from other areas before the gradual acceptance of social sciences as a respectable academic discipline. ¹⁸ Interdisciplinarity emerged in and around the 1920s and was widely used in the discipline of social sciences after World War II before its usage in the discipline of law. The term was widely used to connote ‘a space of encounter’ between law and other disciplines. ¹⁹ Research in the legal discipline attributes different meanings and understandings to law, such as ‘law as a practical discipline’, ‘law as humanities’ and ‘law as social sciences’, depending on the intellectual collaborations and interfacing with other allied disciplines. ²⁰ Yet, there exist deep-rooted tensions between the ‘doctrinalists’, who are considered as being rigid and inflexible, and, on the other hand, the ‘interdisciplinaries’ whose theories and methods are often misunderstood and subjected to criticism, ²¹ hence making it critical to examine their contribution.

Scholars in the domain suggest that a significant development in the American legal education since 1870 was the reorganization and development of the interdisciplinary movement. Columbia Law School was the foremost premier institution which introduced the inclusion of other disciplines, especially the social sciences. Similar works were being incorporated in Yale University at around the same time. ²² Interdisciplinarity had gathered momentum by the early 1960s and 1970s and was considered as a radicalized form of education. The movement had largely merged into mainstream education by the year 1980 universities, with various offering combined courses and degrees ²³ such as Interdisciplinary Law and Policy studies in Ohio State University and Studies on law and society at Moritz College. Similar trends were also seen in the academic programmes offered at Chicago Law Schools, New York University School of Law and Yale University. ²⁴ It was argued that interdisciplinary research infused disciplines with new concepts, methods and research tools. ²⁵

Legal education in India developed as a response to the British legal system during the colonial time. Since there was no methodical and systematic method to the manner in which legal education was being imparted, a need for a major overhaul of the colonial legal education was felt after independence. The problems facing reforms were plenty. Issues ranging from objectives, content, methods, qualifications of the faculty and medium of instruction were the preliminary challenges that needed to be addressed. ²⁶ The First Law Commission Report ²⁷ had noted that the changes occurring in all dimensions of India—social, economic and political—required radical alterations to the legal education, which required to be re-looked at, so that ‘men of law’ were called to play various roles in the society. Influenced by Western philosophy, the need to make a significant contribution to the society and effectively harness the talent pool of the society ²⁸ remained the foremost goals of legal education in India. To further this, the BCI and UGC, vested with the function of promoting legal education laid down standards to impart quality legal education in furtherance to the powers vested under the Advocates Act, 1961. ²⁹

The furtherance of interdisciplinary perspective gained momentum with the significant contributions from the Ford Foundation in the year 1954. In the meanwhile, the Radhakrishnan Commission Report echoed the sentiments that legal education in India was not of profound scholarship and called for taking stock of the situation to make wide changes to the society. ³⁰ The All India Seminar on legal education conducted in Pune in the year 1972 considered as the watershed in the Indian history emphasized the need for learning interdisciplinary subjects. It was reiterated that the objective of legal education was not merely to create a generation of lawyers but to build contributors to the society at large. ³¹ Through a series of seminars and conferences conducted by the BCI and the University Grants Commission (UGC) between 1970 and 1980, the new scheme of study of social sciences subjects along with the law papers was received with scepticism and less enthusiasm from the legal fraternity in the year 1982. They also did raise concerns over the quality of such teachers, along with their suitability and adaptability to the discipline of law. ³²

Given the funding for research programmes, Indian legal educators were able to see the relevance and interactions of law in other disciplines. ³³ When Prof. (Dr.) Madhav Menon was appointed as the secretary to the committee for restructuring legal education in India, he came up with the proposal of incorporating doctrinal law courses, social sciences along with historical papers. The same was met with resistance and was dubbed as being unrealistic to the Indian context. In the meanwhile, the idea of establishing a national law school started taking root, which was influenced by the writings of Prof Upendra Baxi. Prof Baxi was highly of the opinion that the current law curriculum largely ignored questions of social relevance and that it did not address the issues that plagued the Indian milieu. Hence, Prof Menon, in order to overcome the criticisms, embarked upon the establishment of the National Law School of India University in the year 1986. The curriculum was unique, as it included interdisciplinary aspects such as social sciences and empirical studies.

The Report of the Curriculum Development Centre in Law, 1990 reflected the diversity of papers, which was structured to represent members from diverse backgrounds and experiences to revamp the structure of LLB education in India. In 1997 and 2008, the BCI introduced major changes to the curriculum which were reflective of the need to meet the ever-growing demands of the society. The same was reflected by the decision of the Supreme Court of India in the case of State of Maharashtra v. Manubai Pragaji Vashi. ³⁴

The 184th Law Commission Report of 2002 ³⁵ has dedicated Chapter III to highlight the importance and relevance of professional competence and social responsibility in legal education. The 2008 report of the National Knowledge Commission echoes that the vision of legal education is not to create lawyers but to ‘prepare professionals who can play decisive leadership roles in the society such as academics, legislators, judges, policymakers, public officials, civil society activist and the ability to meet the challenges and dimensions of internationalization where the nature and practice of law is undergoing paradigm shift’. ³⁶

Interdisciplinarity is considered as the hallmark of contemporary knowledge production and professional life. During these times, preparing young minds to produce interdisciplinary work remains a challenge. ³⁷ Interdisciplinary classrooms offer a powerful context for students’ learning and writing. ³⁸ Curricular revisions are being conceptualized, as it is found that integrative approaches have been considered to be compatible with collaborative learning, critical thinking and enhancement of multiculturalism. ³⁹ For instance, understanding the interactions of society and law, medicine and law and women and law enhances a student’s ability to view problems pragmatically and offer viable solutions, rather than providing a mere theoretical understanding of the discipline.

The current curriculum framework for legal education has an interdisciplinary outlook, yet the challenges largely pertain to the inability of the faculty to harness the same in teaching, learning and research. Integrating interdisciplinary perspectives with classroom teaching has greater implications in terms of promotion of future research, classroom pedagogy, effective communication to meet the expectations of students and facilitation of better interaction between fellow teachers. ⁴⁰ It is argued that interdisciplinary classrooms offer a particularly rich context for learning and writing and yet lack a robust mechanism for synthesizing and facilitating such interdisciplinary learning and teaching. ⁴¹

Students’ learning needs to be interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral and inclusive of scholars, practitioners and beneficiaries in the area for them to understand the true implications of such learning. Law is conceived as a central nervous system, with multiple inputs firing and influencing the rule of law. These inputs influence each other and, in turn, influence the nervous system as well. ⁴² Unless a holistic view is provided to students, the study of law from the perspective of social sciences or other sciences would remain distant and fragmented. The challenge of integrating courses in law with an interdisciplinary perspective calls for the development of innovation in methodologies and openness towards the integration of such methodologies in teaching. A dearth of qualified faculty members and a lack of library resources further fail to ignite critical thinking amongst the students.

Interdisciplinary researchers are often considered as theorists as opposed to the practitioners in spite of moving beyond the pre-realist Langdell’s approach of confinement to texts, and the influence of realist movement which points to the interface between law and society, Interdisciplinary approach is less understood and highly criticized. Since law schools adopt single methods of learning, leads to restrictive approach in understanding and inabilities in resolving intrinsic cases with the help of legal doctrines alone. ⁴³ It is worthy to note that Judicial precedents in cases such as Fender v. Mildmay and Brown v. Board of Education have been successful in bringing interdisciplinary research skills to mainstream legal practice. ⁴⁴

Challenges encountered by legal research are plenty, which could range from communication issues such as employment of different concepts and tussle for domination in areas of research to integration of research methods and effective utilization of resources. ⁴⁵ The spread of interdisciplinary research is often considered as a fad, as opposed to an intellectual shift that connotes changing patterns of knowledge production. ⁴⁶

When two disciplines appeal to a common pool, constructing different and unique metaphors, tends to lead to confusion amongst the larger audience and at times even to split recommendations. ⁴⁷ Also, in order to encourage interdisciplinary research, acquirement of specific skills is crucial, for example, the ability to integrate knowledge, freedom of enquiry, innovation, deductive reasoning, reasoning by analogy, synthetic thinking, etc. ⁴⁸ Due to these reasons, interdisciplinary research is considered as an elusive subject, as each discipline or domain may vary in concept, intellectual content, technicalities and methodologies. ⁴⁹

Credible work in the area of medical field and interactions with legal aspects have led to defining the roles and responsibilities of various relevant stakeholders. Similarly, the roles and interactions of social workers who are engaged with the legal system and discharge their duties to attain social justice cannot be ignored. Currently, in legal education, critical linkages between law and poverty, law and governance, law and peace and security, and law and media studies, and their social–economic–political impacts, which are being researched by researchers, has fostered interdisciplinary partnerships and led to policy recommendations.

With emerging trends in conducting legal research, concepts, terminologies, and methodologies require the intervention of technology and a whole new method of information handling. Despite the advancements, legal research has been the last in line to adopt and actively participate in adapting to changes unlike their scientific counterparts from other disciplines and it is argued that very little is known about the way in which legal research is carried out. ⁵⁰ In order to improve legal research skills, it is argued that there is a need for developing pedagogy for teaching legal research. However, the challenge largely remains in organizing such vast data cutting across disciplines and utilizing them effectively in the present context. ⁵¹

It is noticeable that there is a decline in basic or pure research and a gradual ascent towards applied research, and interdisciplinary research projects such as social justice, behavioural sciences and women studies are being conducted in law schools such as University of Chicago, University of Columbia and many more. A noticeable trend amidst all this is the role of political scientists, who have been able to bring in advanced scientific research techniques to the area of law, such as case studies, bloc analysis, scalogram analysis, small group theory, game theory, etc., which are being used to predict the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Dr Dahl, in his book Business and Politics: A critical Appraisal of Political Science, has remarked that the enormity involved in measuring the impact of empirical studies and their consequences is the reason behind the dearth of empirical research in the legal domain. The same is echoed in the works of Prof Ernest M. Jones from the University of Florida. The reasons could be numerous, ranging from lack of financial support, lack of training of the law faculty and pedagogical emphasis on doctrinal research to lack of a tradition sustaining empirical research. ⁵² Hence, in order to overcome these difficulties and foster better research practices, it is suggested that law schools offer courses in empirical research, enhance opportunities to students and faculty to conduct empirical research and encourage collaborations and interdisciplinary publications. ⁵³

Analysing Institution I and Institution II ⁵⁴

Key Recommendations

Knowing that trans-disciplinary research has a huge potential to enhance knowledge, opportunities and competencies, the following recommendations are provided to increase and enhance interdisciplinary perspectives in legal education in today’s context:

There is a need for a ‘Transformative Vision’ on the part of institutions, to align the curriculum and teaching methods, which is reflective of the social, economic and political changes in the society. For example, more subjects that reflect the ethos of interdisciplinarity can be offered to students, such as law and social transformation, political thought and obligations, law of poverty, etc., at the BA LLB level. Subjects such as space laws, forensic sciences, psychology and agricultural sciences can be offered at the BSc LLB level, and business management and communication, human resources, leadership, marketing and organizational behaviour at the BBA LLB and BCom LLB levels. Hence, discipline-specific alignments can be made to encourage interdisciplinarity.