| |19 JULY 2024HIGHERReview· Optimising student-teacher ratio, · Handling the problem of increasingly diminishing marginal enthusiasm level of students as they graduate from one semester/trimester to another,· Realising that technology is both a genie and a demon at once and hence can be fruitfully utilized to promote the objectives of legal education,· Evolving technology-neutral policy framework to con-vert the challenges posed by technologies into oppor-tunities, and· Equipping students with abilities which can surpass technology.Few months ago, India partially opened her door to foreign lawyers and foreign law firms to practice in India which is likely to push the frontiers of merit and competi-tion in legal profession. Globalization of legal market ne-cessitates training in foreign languages and laws. If our stu-dents are not trained in either, India will not be able to reap the benefit of reciprocity in foreign legal markets. In your perspective, how should we encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students within the context of legal education?Who can encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills in law-students? One who is trained in critical think-ing, problem-solving and is enthusiastic about it and knows how to play the role of intellectual-midwife and help stu-dents produce new and useful ideas.Freedom and equality of participants are the sine qua non for critical thinking. Thinking is step-by-step process which may be linear, cir-cuitous, lateral, and/or transcendental.If it exists ­ in the physical world and/or imagination (legal fiction) ­ then it can be known by taking following steps: (i) understanding, (ii) comprehending, (iii) describing, (iv) analysing, (v) crit-ically analysing, (vi) combining the results of last five-steps to transcend them so as to (vii) create new and useful meth-od of problem-solving. In law one must learn how (not) to learn:(i) fact, (ii) law, (iii) relationship between facts and law, and (iv) fit facts into the most appropriate legal cate-gory. A person trained in law is able to understand facts of every type. Facts may be simple or complex. Facts may be relating to day to today life. Facts may relate to complex technologies like biotechnology, information technology, robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing.In law, facts win or lose cases. In your opinion, what skills or qualities are most important for law students to develop during their legal education?Law students are equipped with skills to avoid, or at least minimize, or solve a problem both efficiently and effec-tively. Legal skills can only be learnt, acquired and mas-tered only through continuous practice under the guidance of a professional. Law is a discipline singularly empty of born geniuses. Epiphany and serendipity are rarities in law. READING-READING-READING- is the first and fore-most sine qua non of imbibing legal skills. Skills of speaking, writing, thinking, researching, problem-solving necessar-ily depend on varied and eclectic reading.Students must actively participate in moot-courts, debates, essay-writing, and should also try to publish in law reviews and journals to hone their skills in research, writing, listening, argumenta-tion, and counter-argumentation. How do institutions balance the need for traditional legal doctrines with the evolving demands of a changing legal landscape?Society evolves so does law. During the process of evolu-tion, existing legal categories may be modified, narrowed, broadened, eviscerated, and/or supplanted. Legal doc-trines were/are born in response to social problems and keep on evolving as inarticulate major premises having the capacity to adapt themselves with the changing demands of time. Doctrines either subsume social change or pro-vide basis for analogy.During the interregnum there may be maladjustment and dissonance between social and legal. But the beauty and utility of common law ­ a system and method of law developed in England and retained by her former colonies ­ lies in her ability to provide some solu-tion to emerging challenges even during the interregnum. A person trained in common law method, knows how (not) to find a workable legal solution to a problem.
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