Masters in law may soon be a one-year affair

New Delhi: The HRD ministry's Round Table on Legal Education has decided to look at the possibility of turning the two-year LLM course into a one-year programme.

There was near-unanimity that LLM should be brought at par with international level. Post-graduation in law is a one-year course world over.

The round table also decided to look into the feasibility of introducing law as a subject at the undergraduate level as well as having one-year diploma course in law so that a large pool of para-legal personnel was created. The meeting also decided to explore possibilities of setting up a highbrow legal research institute on public private partnership.

A seven-member committee, including two from foreign law institutes, will be set up to prepare a report on India's legal requirement by 2020. T K Vishwanathan, advisor, law ministry, said earlier attempts to set up four Centres for Advanced Legal Studies and Research, as suggested by the National Knowledge Commission, was not approved by the Planning Commission. Therefore, it was decided that the ministry should focus on setting up one institute.

HRD ministry's discussion paper circulated in the meeting also talked about bringing law into mainstream higher education. It suggested starting degree courses in law and economics dealing with application of economic theory and econometric methods to examine the formation, structure, processes and impact of law and legal institutions. Similarly, the paper recommended courses in regulatory law, business law, international law, environment law, constitutional law, general law and education in law.

As for teaching law in schools, the round table decided to first prepare a compendium of what is being taught in schools.

A few members suggested that there should be a curriculum review but HRD minister Kapil Sibal said Bar Council of India had already set up a course review committee. Therefore, the ministry should first examine the committee's report and then decide what needed to be done.