Legal Research: A less-travelled Contour

Synopsis:

• Introduction
• Importance of Legal Education
• Legal Research Vis-à-vis Legal Education
• Legal Research from Career Perspective in the times of a Rush Success
• Why one should opt for Legal Education here at Adamas?
• References

Introduction:

Being a small town girl, I have always encountered situations and people who conveniently question the importance of higher education. In legal education, “Why do you need to study after LLB?” Practice is much more important than higher studies. After completion of LLB, u can always go to Court or prepare for Judiciary. Judiciary, Legal Practice and Advocacy, no doubt is the most and Judiciary, but isn’t research the bridge which helps in settling the gap between the social demands and well-settled legal principle.

Importance of Legal Education:

Legal education as is rightly said to be professional education equips a legal practitioner in fulfilling varied roles in discharge of social justice. The contour of legal profession is certainly undeniable in present times, which touches the demand of contemporary democratic nation. It consists of the policy makers, academician, market regulators and such other allied opportunities. Taking all these factors in mind, it is gradually comprehended that legal education deserves a better and wider space.

The quality of legal education has been a long standing concern of the regulatory bodies, i.e., UGC, the University Grants Commission and BCI, the Bar Council of India. Gradual attempts of setting quality standards for accreditation & curriculum and providing funding for legal education institutions have proven to be perfect attempt towards quality legal education. However, the recent challenges of legal education system have been deduced to be lack of practical training and exposure, inadequate research infrastructure and lack of focus on the quality demands and check of the legal profession.

Legal Research Vis-à-vis Legal Education:

Legal research is basically an inter-disciplinary field which studies law from societal perspective. It focuses on the relationship between law and society and the degree up to which the current legal systems moulds the social, economic, and cultural factors. In recent times, law schools have recognized the significance of socio-legal research in understanding the intricate network of the complexity of law and society. This encourages critical thinking and strives to dig deeper into the national legal system and deduce its impact on individual and communities. At the juncture of this liberal-cultural change, wherein the society is accepting new boundaries & perspective and removing taboos, socio-legal research has proved to add valuable insights into the functioning of the legal system and its impact on society.

Legal Research from Career Perspective in the times of a Rush Success:

Academic value of the legal profession is still a question of credibility. As previously cited, the credibility of higher education in legal stream is still in question. A few days ago friend of a relative of mine conveniently suggested me to give the SSC examination and try to be qualified as a high school teacher and that has a tag of “government employee”. But, it was very difficult for me to explain that I have invested almost 9 years of my brief in legal education, since I started my Graduation. Even if someone shows me the greed of being a governmental employee, it would be very difficult, or rather quiet impossible for me to leave being a teacher of law and teach something else. This is how the society impacts an individual. To make people aware about the true position of law in a developing nation and to achieve true status of equality, democracy, sovereign and justice is a difficult task. Research helps to shape legal reforms and provide a drive for social change. Research on access to justice, discrimination, and human rights is a very sensitive approach which can support legal reforms and inadvertently promote social justice and equality. As a one liner, I would always recommend, research is that weapon which bridges in settling the gap between the social demands and well-settled legal principle.

Why one should opt for Legal Education here at Adamas?

Our Respected Chancellor Sir along with his Team has rightly termed the Community as “Adamas”. Most of us might not know that the word ‘diamond’ comes from the Greek Word “Adamas” meaning unconquerable and indestructible. Here, at Adamas we strive to make students come out with flying colors, just like a polished Diamond gets displayed at a store.  The School of Law and Justice, very recently has made their deserving space under the banner of the Indian Institutional Ranking Framework (IIRF) Ranking 2023, as the No. 1 Private Law Institutions in West Bengal and 27^th within the contours of India. And we consistently try to maintain the respect which has been awarded with prestige and additional responsibility of maintaining the standard.  Through our academic journey, our students are fully engaged into research activities at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The students are engaged with moot problems which help them to inculcate a critical thinking behavior right from the first year under UG degrees. Further research project, tasks, research assignments and dissertation are incorporated within the curriculum to integrate a research culture and encourage students to understand the wide contours of vast legal knowledge.

References:

1. Prof (Dr.) Gaurav Kataria, Professor & Head of Department, School of Law, LPU, Rajsam and, Rajasthan, India Significance of Socio-legal Research in Law, Available at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/significance-socio-legal-research-law-schools-kataria-trk=articles_directory, last visited on 04.04.2023.
2. Quality of Legal Education in India: All you need to know, Available at https://www.clearias.com/quality-of-legal-education-in-india/#:~:text=Facilitating%20economic%20and%20social%20development,in%20creating%20laws%20and%20policies, last visited on 04.04.2023.