Widening the scope of legal education

Updated on: Monday, July 20, 2009

Taking India-Germany cooperation and exchanges in the field of education forward, the Vice Chancellors of three Indian law universities were on a visit to Germany from June 10 to 20, with a view to having a glimpse of the legal education system in that country. The visit was organised by Deutscher Akademicher Austausch Dienst.

Professor Mahendra P. Singh, vice chancellor of The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, Professor Doctor Venkata Rao, vice chancellor of National Law School of India University, Bangalore, and Justice N.N. Mathur, vice chancellor of National Law School, Jodhpur, share thier views in a conversation with this writer recently in Berlin.

Says Professor Mahendra P. Singh: “In the area of law, we in India, always look up to the U.K. or the U.S. and we borrow ideas from them. But there is also something we can learn from the German law as well. In Germany the approach to university education itself is totally different,” adding, “Germans have a philosophical approach to legal studies. Law here is serious academic discipline and leaning law is seen as a means to understanding and contributing to society.”

“Trans-national law system will be the future,” says Dr. Andreas Fijal of the Department of Legal Studies at Freie Universität (FU), Berlin.

“We are looking forward to increased exchange of law students between India and Germany in future. Such exchange programmes are very important for law students in both the countries. India’s common law system interests German students,” Dr. Fijal says. FU encourages more German students to study one semester in India.

According to Professor Dr. Venkata Rao, academic exchange programmes between India and Gemany is not new. “But it was restricted to the areas of science, technology and engineering. Now, the focus is also on humanities and social sciences as well,” he says.

The NLSIU has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Köln University, Germany, for student exchange at various levels. An intensive exchange programme is yet to happen between both the countries. “

Justice N.N. Mathur says: “Trade or business law may not have relevance. There is greater scope for research in the area of governance for law students from both countries.”

His university has an informal exchange programme with Freiburg University, Germany.

Constitution studies and governance in India seem to be the areas of interest to many German law students. “Intellectual property rights is one area where we need more exchange of ideas and where more and more research is required,” he adds.

Swarupama Chaturvedi, lecturer at NLSIU, who is presently an exchange faculty in Freiburg University, says that social changes and scientific developments and inventions are closely associated with law and enable citizens to make use of the inventions. “Internationalisation of legal studies is the need of the hour," she says.

“The world needs 1 million quality law graduates in the next five years, and therefore the future of law students is rather bright,” points out Mr Rao.

Widening the scope of legal education

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