Legal Wisdom
An Amalgam Essential To Be A Real Lawyer
I express my gratitude for sparing your time to check this article out. If you are not a part of legal fraternity then do not jump into a conclusion that reading this article would be an utter waste of time for you. I am sure you will be able to connect your academic life experiences with the gist of this article. I shall take you through a linear narrative to convey my thoughts.
July 2015
First Year
Yeah, that is when I got the tag of a law student and I was proud to be one. While I was taking baby steps towards the law life, I was very thrilled to go to my law school wearing the classy black and white uniform. Well, some of you might feel, ‘What is the big deal about it? After all, it is just a white shirt tucked into black trousers, a black belt fastened around the waist and a pair of black shoes. Yeah, it is just that, but I experienced a sense of grandeur when I wore my uniform. I felt my uniform symbolises that I am a part of the mighty legal fraternity of our country.
Within a few months, all my excitement flipped one-eighty. A cloud of dissatisfaction formed over my head. Just like the case with most of my seniors, the glow of my shirt faded off gradually and it was no longer tucked into my trousers like a fine gentleman, my grey crocs replaced my black shoes and there were days I wore blue jeans instead of black trousers. The transformation was for real and that was when I asked myself, ‘What the hell am I doing here? My idea of dealing with the law took a big U-Turn and then I thought I will give it some time to figure out the answer. I had decided to go with the flow.
January 2020
Final Year
While I was attending a boring lecture session a research scholar walked into our class with a bundle of papers. She introduced herself and briefed about the area of research for her PhD. I do not remember the exact title of the research, but it was based on the Scope of Quality Legal Education in India. She distributed the questionnaire sheets among my peers. I am normally very lazy to fill forms. But I found this topic interesting that I started to fill out with so much enthusiasm. The questions were targeted to extract our opinions about the quality of legal education and the advancement we look for.
“Students, do you have more suggestions to make?” She enquired before leaving.
“Ma’am I have got a few suggestions to make,” I raised my hand and said.
“Well, go on,” She encouraged.
“Ma’am I feel the present curriculum miss one key ingredient to assess the legal aptitude of a student,” I voiced my opinion.
“Mmm…what’s that?” She asked with an inquisitive tone.
“Ma’am our legal education and the syllabus lack ways to inculcate ‘Legal Wisdom!’ I believe legal wisdom is an amalgam of legality and rationality that makes a real lawyer. When I talk with my peers from other law schools regarding this, they second my thought. Even my peers from National Law Universities say they are conditioned to become nothing but corporate slaves,” I replied.
“Can you be more specific? Elaborate your idea of ‘Legal Wisdom,” She asked.
“Yeah sure, ma’am. I believe legal wisdom is not something that one can obtain just by mugging the lines and understanding the theory. Anyone can learn the lines and throw it on answer sheets to score marks as per their memory skills. There is nothing exceptional about that,” I asserted.
“But we got to appreciate one’s reading and research skills, right? Not everyone takes that kind of efforts, right?’ She responded with a counter.
“Yeah, of course. But do we use what we learnt as an input to get an output other than marks? I mean, are we trained to use this knowledge pragmatically? Or do we apply the knowledge we gathered in real space to get a better insight and develop a clear-cut perspective on things around us? That is where the role of legal wisdom comes to play,” I advocated.
“Alright, can you elaborate on this point? How do we culture legal wisdom in students?” She urged.
“Ma’am first we should include certain activities as a compulsory part of the curriculum. Such as organising classroom discussions and open forums weekly. Attendance should be made compulsory to ensure that everyone participates. Then take any topic with contemporary relevance to start with the proceedings,” I suggested.
“How does that help?” She asked curiously.
“Everyone should mandatorily make their point. A panel of academicians shall take up the roles of moderators and evaluators. They shall evaluate the merit of the point one made based on the magnitude of rationality present in it,” I propounded.
“Well, is it just about the rationality? What about the legality in question?” She asked.
“Of course, legality will be taken as a criterion for evaluation. But ma’am I feel rationality is the main fodder for developing legal wisdom. Legality is something we get straight from the books, but rationality is something one attains beyond the books. One should process information gathered through research and observation inside their head to churn out a rational opinion,” I argued.
“Both legality and rationality can have a chameleon effect. They go parallel to each other at some instances and unparallel to each other at other instances. That is because the law is not stagnant, it is always subjected to amendments. For instance, ever since the year 1861 homosexuality had been criminalised. But on 6 September 2018, Section 377 was declared unconstitutional in so far as it criminalises consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex. A code that was irrational, indefensible, and manifestly arbitrary for many years was finally amended. For many decades, a majority found the entire context of the code rational and vouched for it. Even after its amendment on paper, an amendment on the perception of this majority is still gradual. I know my peers around me who blatantly insult queer people with gross and unparliamentary terms. I try to correct them but when that attempt fails, I stay away from such people as I realise no matter what some people somehow do not change at all. Instead of digging into more rational and legal aspects associated with a matter, many looks for ways to trivialise,” I asserted.
“Let me take the amendment on Section 377 of Indian Penal Code that favours consensual sexual activity between adults of same-sex to question its rationality and legality further. In this context, I shall put Section 377 and Section 375 in a beam balance to make my observation.” I continued.
The first line of Section 375 lays down:
A man is said to commit “rape” who, except in the case hereinafter excepted, has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of the six following descriptions.
“There exists ambiguity when it comes to the meaning of Section 375 in relation with Section 377. The question is regarding the gender inclusivity of the law,”
The amendment should go like this:
A man or a woman is said to commit “rape” who, except in the case hereinafter excepted, has sexual intercourse with a man or a woman under circumstances falling under any of the six following descriptions:
“It makes a significant change in the legal context with a slight amendment in terms of words. Thus, there should be an equilibrium between legality and rationality,” I conveyed my argument.
“Do you have more examples to substantiate your point?” She asked.
“Oh, plenty. Ma’am almost all the happenings around us can be used as the topics for discussion to seek their opinion. Discussions on controversial topics such as Sabarimala reflected the minds of people. I found many law students go berserk in social media as they abridged and contradicted the concepts of rationality and legality with their comments. It was a classic example of how rationality can be corrupted by communalism. Similarly, I found many law students raving about the police encounter of four rape accused in Hyderabad in December 2019. I saw many posts being shared like ‘4 Bullets Shot, 1.3 Billion Heads Raised’. It was pathetic to see law students blindly supporting these sorts of parallel punitive system. Hence, it is important to foster legal wisdom among law students to see things rationally and legally,” I explained further.
“Well, alright. Anyway, thanks for your suggestion. Thank you all,” She concluded and left.
“Wow, what is wrong with this baldie? He is asking for more!!! Hasn’t this guy had enough of all these?” soon after she left, I heard a murmur from the row behind me.
It was said by one of the so-called ‘sharpest minds’ of the class, who holds the reputation for scoring well even when he studies a night before the exam, and who is considered as a prospective ‘great attorney’ in making. But I was not surprised by that comment from him. I had had enough experiences from the past five years to assess the quality of mind that he possesses.
“If you got something to say, say loudly straight to my face! Alright?” I turned around and commanded. I was annoyed not because he made fun of my all bald look that I kept back then. I was annoyed because of the sheer audacity he showed to bad-mouth my suggestion.
“Oh sure,” He nodded and replied with pity on his face.
The feeling of pity had a polarising effect on that instance because I felt that same towards him. After all academic brilliance and potential alone cannot make a person sensible and wise. His comment was a representation of many students who disagree with my thoughts. I cannot solely criticise the institutions and academicians for not taking a holistic approach to legal education. Students who keep an archaic mindset act as a regressive barricade on the path towards a revolution.
It was in my final year I figured out that the real purpose of learning law lies in acknowledging, culturing, and imbibing the legal wisdom. That is a social responsibility and professional ethics a person belonging to legal fraternity must adhere to. I hope the barricades created by the people who leech off the orthodox educational system will be eradicated by the progressive and visionary minds.
