NEP 2020 To Discourage Stand Alone Law Universities; Moots Restructuring Of Legal Education And Making It Bilingual

The National Education Policy 2020 moots some significant changes for the legal education sector as well.

NEP 2020, which got the approval of Union Cabinet yesterday, calls for restructure of legal education, and also suggests to make it bilingual.

Most importantly, it says that the practice of setting up stand-alone professional educational institutions including legal universities shall be discouraged and that all such existing institutions will have to become multi-disciplinary institutions by 2030.

Restructuring of Legal Education

It states that the Legal education will be restructured to become globally competitive, adopting best practices and embracing new technologies for wider access to justice and timely delivery of justice. 

"At the same time, it must be informed and illuminated with Constitutional values of Justice - Social, Economic, and Political - and directed towards national reconstruction through instrumentation of democracy, rule of law, and human rights. The curricula for legal studies must reflect socio-cultural contexts along with, in an evidence-based manner, the history of legal thinking, principles of justice, the practice of jurisprudence, and other related content appropriately and adequately.", it reads.

Bilingual Legal Education

The policy also states that the State institutions offering law education must consider offering bilingual education for future lawyers and judges - in English and in the language of the State in which the law programme is situated. This is to alleviate delay in legal outcomes consequent to need for translation, it says.

Practice Of Stand Alone Legal Universities To Be Discouraged?

The Policy states that the practice of setting up stand-alone technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities, or institutions in these or other fields, shall be discouraged. " No new stand-alone institutions will be permitted except in specific fields as per national needs. All existing stand-alone professional educational institutions will have to become multi-disciplinary institutions by 2030, either by opening new departments or by operating in clusters.". 

The following screenshot is from the draft NEP Report submitted to the HRD Minister by the 'Committee for the Draft National Education Policy' chaired by eminent scientist Dr. K. Kasturirangan.

Click here to Read/Download NEP 2020