Revisiting Legal Education for Human Development: Best Practices in South Asia

As suggested by one author, innovation, resistance and conformity have been the hall marks of legal education in global South. One of the recent paradigms has given a clarion call to alter legal education into justice education. To a certain extent, the observation captures the reality of nuances and adventures in legal education in South Asia. The paper investigates this paradigm based on doctrinal data, first-hand observation from some of the selected law schools in South Asia, survey conducted by the authors and survey conducted by International Association of Law Schools in 2012. An overview of approaches and models of legal education in Thailand, India, Singapore, Japan, China, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia depict different shades of world class education parameters as posited by some scholars and as prevalent in the globally high-ranking universities of USA, UK and Australia. Yet, the legal education simultaneously echoes the demands and requirements of the emerging democratic voices, cultural heritage and spill-over effects of globalization and is in constant search of broader horizons of learning and inclusiveness. The paper will highlight some of the best practices in legal education across the South Asian region and explore how far it serves the ideal of human development. Further, it will make a case for renaissance in terms of effective response to community needs.