Legal Education and Research Methodology
LL.M. · 15 topics in 3 units
Unit I 5 topics
- Aims and objectives of legal educationWhy we teach law: professional, liberal, social-justice and research aims; the competing models (vocational training versus university discipline); Ormrod, MacCrate and the Carnegie report; Edwards's disjunction thesis; and the Indian constitutional aims behind Article 39A.5 min
- History and development of legal education in IndiaFrom the shastric and Islamic traditions through colonial law classes and the presidency universities, post-independence neglect and the Law Commission's criticism, the Advocates Act and the BCI, the law-and-development era, and the national law school experiment.6 min
- The Bar Council of India, the regulation of legal education and the five-year modelThe BCI's powers over legal education under the Advocates Act, the Rules of Legal Education 2008, the five-year integrated course and its rationale, the dual control of BCI and UGC, and the Supreme Court on the BCI's limits: Indian Council of Legal Aid, V. Sudeer and Bonnie Foi.5 min
- The future of legal education in India: problems and reformThe present problems of Indian legal education, the reform proposals of the Law Commission, the National Knowledge Commission and NEP 2020, and the forces that will shape its future: globalisation, foreign law firms, technology, interdisciplinarity, regional languages and the postgraduate degree.5 min
- Curriculum making and reform in legal education, and the National Education Policy 2020What a law curriculum is and who makes it in India; the steps of curriculum design from objectives to assessment; principles of curriculum reform; aligning teaching methods with the curriculum; and what NEP 2020 says about legal education and what it means for the LL.B. and LL.M.6 min
Unit II 4 topics
- Methods of teaching law: the lecture methodAn overview of law-teaching methods and how to choose among them, then the lecture: its continental and Indian history, its merits and defects, and how to make it work (the interactive lecture, structure, materials, and the tutorial and seminar as supplements).5 min
- The case method of teaching lawLangdell at Harvard, the casebook and the idea of law as a science; how the case method is used in class; its merits; the realist and Indian criticisms; and its adaptation through cases-and-materials and the problem method.5 min
- The Socratic method and the problem method of teaching lawThe Socratic dialogue from Plato to the American classroom, its working, merits and the criticism that it humiliates and excludes; the problem method and problem-based learning, with a worked classroom example; and how the two combine in Indian teaching.5 min
- Clinical legal educationLearning law by doing: Jerome Frank's call for a clinical lawyer-school, the American clinical movement, kinds of clinics, the Indian framework under Article 39A, the Legal Services Authorities Act, the NALSA clinic regulations and the BCI's compulsory clinical papers, and the problems clinics face in India.7 min
Unit III 6 topics
- Legal research: kinds and methods (overview for this paper)A compact answer-ready treatment of the research questions this paper sets: reflective thinking, analytical legal research, doctrinal research, and the qualitative-quantitative distinction, with pointers to the fuller Research Methodology notes.5 min
- Research tools, policy research, hypothesis, plagiarism and the report (overview for this paper)Answer outlines for the remaining research questions: questionnaire against interview, the steps of policy research, hypothesis, plagiarism under the UGC 2018 Regulations, and writing the research report, with pointers to the fuller Research Methodology notes.7 min
- Objectivity, value neutrality, originality and ethics in legal researchWhat objectivity can mean in legal research; Weber's value freedom and Myrdal's answer that value premises must be stated; the feminist and critical challenge; what counts as originality in a dissertation; and the ethical duties of the legal researcher, with pointers to the Research Methodology notes.6 min
- Historical, philosophical and comparative methods of legal researchThree modes of doctrinal research beyond exposition and analysis: historical research (its sources, external and internal criticism, and the dangers of presentism), philosophical research (conceptual analysis, normative argument, reflective equilibrium), and the comparative method (functionalism, its steps, its uses and the transplant debate).6 min
- Integrated methods: multi-method research, action research and feminist legal researchMulti-method legal research (nature, triangulation, designs, procedure and potential); action research from Lewin to participatory action research and its use in legal aid and law reform; and the methodology of feminist legal research, from Bartlett's 'woman question' to standpoint and intersectionality, with Indian illustrations.6 min
- Legal writing from research: articles, case comments and notesThe forms of research-based legal writing; how to plan and structure a research article; how to write a case comment, with a model outline; what a note is and how it differs from a comment; and the rules of style and citation that apply to all three.5 min