Reforming legal education in Pakistan by introducing practical aspects in the current syllabus at the law schools and enhancing compulsory program during pupillage period
Teaching method in law schools should facilitate law students with an understanding of legal principles and concepts. Besides, during the studies law students should be able to apply the relevant legal knowledge and skills to solve legal problems. On top of that, the students should be able to de...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/71838/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/71838/3/Schedule%2021-3-2019%20Curved.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/71838/2/Reforming%20Legal%20Education%20in%20Pakistan%20by%20Introducing%20Clinical.pdf |
| Summary: | Teaching method in law schools should facilitate law students with an understanding of legal
principles and concepts. Besides, during the studies law students should be able to apply the
relevant legal knowledge and skills to solve legal problems. On top of that, the students
should be able to demonstrate good drafting and advocacy skills. The challenges facing by
legal education in Pakistan is the tendency of maintaining the earlier methods of teaching
without making changes for many years which affected the institutions of the country being
weakened, and thereafter facing crisis in legal education as highlighted by the Supreme
Court of Pakistan’s recent judgment. Therefore, the stakeholders are expected to make in
supporting the order of the Court to revamp and enhance the current legal education. This
paper aims to compare the mode of teaching, assessments, and examinations at the law
schools in Pakistan and Malaysia by adopting qualitative method and comparative analysis.
Besides, syllabus in the law schools in Pakistan and Malaysia are analysed. It is found that
the Malaysian universities stressed the practical aspect to the law students. This research will
recommend that the syllabus, the method of teaching, assessment and examination, needs to
be reformed by looking at the Malaysian practice. The enhancement includes to have a
compulsory Legal Attachment Program (“LAP”), revising the final year’s syllabus by
including vocational and clinical legal practice subjects in preparing the students for
pupillage, to introduce Alternative Dispute Resolution subject in providing skills to resolve
dispute through non-adversarial method and to introduce compulsory mooting as part of
adversarial skills. The new method will promote the development of the critical thinking and
problem-solving skills, team skills, ethics and professionalism for competent lawyers in
Pakistan. The paper further suggests that the Pakistan Bar Council to introduce strict ethic’s
course for pupil and a legal aid program. |
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