President Pranab Mukherjee asks law schools to focus on research

Bhubaneswar: Emphasising that the country needs to attract large global investments in a rapidly changing world, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday asked law schools to focus on research as future lawyers must be equipped with necessary knowledge and skill to think and act globally.

"The skill sets that the legal profession and the lawyers require in today's time are very different from those earlier," Mukherjee said in a speech read out in his absence by Chief Justice of India HL Dattu at All India Seminar on 'Global Legal Education' in Bhubaneshwar.

The President was slated to inaugurate the two-day national seminar organised by Confederation of Indian Bar in association with KIIT University but could not as he had to rush back to Delhi for personal reasons.

"Our future lawyers must now be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skill to think and act globally," Mukherjee said.

The concept of global legal education goes beyond international legal themes, he stressed, while asking law schools to focus on research.

Lawyers need to be more consultants than technicians and therefore need other skills like IT, project management and people management, he said.

Demographic shifts taking place in many countries around the world have brought issues involving immigration law and ancillary issues such as foreign property and inheritance flowing from wills and estates, Mukherjee said.

Stating that law is the very foundation of a democratic society, he said legal education is of great significance in furthering the idea of a civilised nation-state rooted in the Rule of Law.

Noting that India needs to attract large global investments, the president said the country needs to ensure a stable, non-discriminatory and investment friendly environment for these investors.

For this, emphasis should be on strengthening legal and regulatory processes, mainly with respect to coordination and cooperation between different courts and competent authorities for execution of court decisions, he said.

In his inaugural address, Justice Dattu said changes in the legal system reflected the growing complexity of the society and India must produce world-class professionals and academicians to compete globally.

Exchange programmes, good student-teacher ratio, partnerships with foreign universities and legal clinics are some of the steps which contribute to globalising legal education, he added.