Missing the Wood for the Trees: How Indian Legal Education Fails to Deliver the Professional Lawyer?
| Published date | 01 January 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23220058231220247 |
| Author | Suvrajyoti Gupta,Shireen Moti |
| Date | 01 January 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Missing the Wood for the Trees:
How Indian Legal Education
Fails to Deliver the
Professional Lawyer?
Suvrajyoti Gupta1 and Shireen Moti1
Abstract
In this work, we compare the Indian and American legal education systems, to argue that the former
lacks the toolkit to impart professionalism among its graduates. ‘Professionalism’ in American literature
means the internalization of legal skills along with values of public service. The formation of these
cognitive attributes through law school and formative years is known as ‘professional identity formation’.
We refer to the American discourse of professionalism and argue that Indian legal education should
switch to the American Bar Association output-based model, thereby creating a clear goal but flexible
pathways, allowing for faculty-led innovation in courses, curricula and pedagogy. We also underline
other aspects of Indian legal education like faculty shortages and barriers between academia and
profession as causative factors preventing the growth of professionalism in law graduates, which may
eventually disadvantage them in the global workplace. We call for reform and discourse of the basic
attitudes of the Bar Council of India and the legal educators.
Introduction
The legal profession can be seen in a social contract with the society at large, whereby the public grants
the profession autonomy through peer review, i.e., the right to regulate entry, mobility and the standards
of the profession.2 In return, each member of the profession and the profession as a whole agrees to meet
certain correlative duties to the public, including (i) maintaining the highest standards of minimum
who are unable to meet such standards; (ii) promoting and fostering the values and ideals that are
fundamental to the legal profession; and (iii) restraining self-interest to a certain degree in order to serve
the public purpose of the profession.3
1 OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
2
3 d ed
Article
Asian Journal of Legal Education
11(1) 60–73, 2024
© 2024 The West Bengal National
University of Juridical Sciences
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/23220058231220247
journals.sagepub.com/home/ale
Corresponding author:
Suvrajyoti Gupta, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
E-mail: sgupta@jgu.edu.in
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