Tarun Arora serves as a Professor and Dean of School of Legal Studies at Central University of Punjab, India. Life Member, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. Also associated with the United Nations Development Programme as an Expert on International Biodiversity Law and different statutory committees/ Board of Studies of Law in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). His areas of expertise are Environmental Law, Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence and Human Rights.
Significance of Systematic Content Analysis Approach in Legal Education in India
Abstract:
The initial stage of introduction of legal education in most of the jurisdictions has been observed as more rhetorical than scientific. The influence of social, economic and political forces sustained the rhetoric based on interpretive techniques of legal texts. The orientation and conditioning of law students in majority of the institutions is still continuing on the basis of literary interpretations of authoritative texts. However, the trends of legal education in U.S. and U.K. during last seven decades demonstrated integration of Systematic Content Analysis (SCA) in pedagogy and research. This technique curbed the gap between theory and practice of legal principles. Furthermore, it equipped the students with systematic, scientific and epistemological information to support their claims. The SCA develops its base on factual, verifiable, objective and pragmatic components in contrast to metaphysical assumptions. These traits inculcate intellectual honesty and inquisitiveness in underreported areas of different aspects of governance, administration of justice and rule of law. As a law in context, it is driven in the direction of social problem to be addressed by a rule than to the rule. Against this backdrop, the proposed presentation emphasizes that in context of digital revolution, this is the right time to apply SCA in legal education to strengthen its scientific base in India. It will discuss the roadmap of integration of SCA in structural, institutional and procedural aspects of legal education in India.