The object of the law is twofold, viz., primarily, it seeks to protect and guarantee the interests and promote the welfare of the people and secondly, it seeks to administer justice according to the rule of law or procedure established by law. The celebrated legal statement – “People’s good is the highest law” of the Roman lawyer Cicero best reflects the first objective.
The Law Commission of India defines legal education as a science which imparts to students knowledge of certain principles and provisions of law to enable them to enter the legal profession. Legal Education is the process which equips the future lawyer, judge, administrator, counselor and legal scientists to know how legislative, executive, judicial organs of the government, are designed and how they operates. Legal Education is a technique, arena and platform for rational, orderly and non-violent settlement of disputes and handling of conflicts.
“Future lawyers should be more aware that law is not a system of abstract logic, but the web of arrangements, rooted in history but also in hopes, for promoting to a maximum the full use of a nation’s resources and talents”.
We broadly understand globalization as an ongoing process which entails the free movement of capital, labor, goods, and services across national borders. However, these parameters of economic globalization cannot be viewed in isolation from other aspects such as the free exchange of ideas and practices. From this perspective, the legal systems in various countries have a lot to learn from each other – both in terms of institutional design and the evolution of substantive laws.
With increasing trade and investment across borders, there is an imperative need for all of us to understand the functioning of international institutions. At the same time, our national legal system must offer a balanced response to the rapidly changing socio-economic realities. We must also bear in mind that in this age of the internet and frequent international travel, judges, lawyers, academicians and even law students from different countries have a lot of opportunities to interact, collaborate and learn from each other’s experiences. Access to foreign legal materials has become much easier on account of the development of information and communication technology. Until a few years ago, subscriptions to foreign law reports and law reviews were quite expensive and hence beyond the reach of most judges, practitioners and educational institutions. However, the growth of the internet and globalization has radically changed the picture. The decisions of most Constitutional Courts are uploaded on freely accessible websites.
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