Intellectual growth should commence at Birth and cease only at death –Albert Einstein
Law College Dehradun organized an enthralling and insightful 14 day National Faculty Development Program from July 6-19, 2021. The 14 Day NFDP, the first of its kind, comprised esteemed speakers from the Indian legal academia. The National FDP was truly national in spirit and execution with participants from Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, in the south to, Assam and Meghalaya, in the North East, besides West Bengal, Punjab, Harayana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. The resource persons on all 14 days were diverse both in their expertise & experience, and were from recognized universities and institutions of immense repute.
Day 1
Speaker: Prof B N Pandey
The inauguration of the 14 Day NFDP on “Emerging Techniques of Teaching and Learning Law” on the 6th of July was graced by the Chief Guest and esteemed speaker for the day Prof (Dr) B N Pandey who is a renowned academician and expert from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, at the Seminar Hall of LCD, UU. The Guest of Honour & Patron-in-Chief Honorable Chancellor, Shri Jitendra Joshi along with the convener of the NFDP 2021, Officiating Vice Chancellor and Dean of LCD Prof (Dr) Rajesh Bahuguna, Co Convener and officiating Principal LCD, Prof (Dr) Poonam Rawat, organizing secretary Dr Radhey Shyam Jha, Dr Aijaj Ahmed Raj, Dr Lakshmi PriyaVinjamuri, and Dr Vijay Srivatsava, the faculty members of LCD, UU were the ones who joined us live, while the other participating faculty members from other universities virtually joined the event through the online mode. The event was formally launched with the lighting of the lamp. The speaker of the day Prof (Dr) B N Pandey commenced the session with the topic “Analysis of different emerging pedagogical methodologies of teaching and learning law”. The relevance and significance of innovative and novel methodologies to motivate the students, and the use of diverse tools and techniques synchronous with the course curriculum were explained. During his discourse, he stated that the private law schools are at par with the national law schools, and the edge that the latter have, can be overcome by introducing student centric pedagogical methods. The importance of mooting, debating in English and Hindi were narrated with illustrative anecdotes, while emphasizing on the crucial aspects of continuous learning for teachers through regular teachers’ testing techniques including peer review, and appraisals with comprehensive adoption of a much established and successful American style of the student centric teaching-learning process.
Day -2
Speaker: Prof Rajesh Bahuguna
The second session of the online 14 Day NFDP was addressed by our own erudite and experienced academician Prof (Dr) Rajesh Bahuguna on the 7th of July deliberating on the topic of “Teaching ADR in Law: The emerging need for ADR Training for the students”. Dr Bahuguna spoke on the aspects relating to litigating and non litigating advocates, and explained how to take classes on ADR and commended the BCI for having introduced Mediation as a compulsory course in UG programs of Law. The talk lucidly covered aspects pertaining to the meaning and scope of ADR, the techniques, and legal recognition clarifying most of the posed queries on not only the “Why” and “What” of ADR but on where ADR subsists. The two-hour deliberation comprised the rationality behind the law of ADR, adversarial and inquisitorial systems, concepts of conciliation, mediation, arbitration, and negotiation, emphasizing the advantages of ADR as an out of the court settlement of disputes. The talk concluded with a concise discussion on plea bargaining and the connection between the ADR Act and S/89 of CPC besides others. The opinions of Late President Abraham Lincoln, Late Shri M K Gandhi, and former President Dr APJ Kalam were quoted to emphasize the effective adoption and adaptation, besides the promotion of the Alternative Dispute Mechanisms for solving legal disputes.
Day -3
Speaker – Prof S D Sharma
Prof S D Sharma, Senior Professor, Kumaun University, elucidated on “An assessment of teaching and learning law in the context of the paradigm shift towards online teaching” on the third day of the NFDP on the 8th of July. Prof Sharma opened his talk quoting the philosophy of Shri Rabindranath Tagore on the service of a teacher. The existence of online teaching in America since 1950 and the advent of the technological concept of the internet leading to virtual online platforms for teaching, and thereby the role of the teacher in online teaching were explained. The 4 Cs of conceptualization, context, collective responsibility, and concise teaching and the process of teaching-learning including the assessment methods were also included in his talk.
Day -4
Speaker – Prof Wani
“Contemporary issues and challenges related to online teaching and learning law” were deliberated upon and elucidated by Prof Wani who made opening remarks on the advent of modern legal education during the British Era. Out of the necessity of the Englishmen to address their lack of knowledge of the language, culture, and customs of the nature leading to the change in the system of learning, governance, justice, and legislation. This British system was formally replaced by the present day legal system in India thereby resulting in the imposition and introduction of foreign systems in the Indian context leading to declaration of the pre-British system in India as obsolete and dysfunctional. The adoption of the new legal framework created a lacuna and hence there was a need for the Indian system of Education and learning. It brought a paradigm shift to the dynamics of the change and connected the people with the new governance. Emphasizing this emergence, he stated that a “law teacher should think on his own” without being influenced by an adopted process. In continuation, he said a law teacher must build confidence, capacity, and observe problems in the society, system and should be able to suggest to the judges the line of thinking and interpretation. The session on Prof Wani further dealt with the emerging techniques of teaching and learning law in the 21st century which was a challenge in itself. Emphasis on self-thinking which permits two-way traffic connecting legal education with the societal needs, and leading to social inclusion on one hand and creating original thinkers or the other. Prof Wani concluded his talk by suggesting that law teachers should acquaint themselves with the use of new technology, focus on content delivery through e-courses, and should get sentimentally connected with their students. At the same time they must be conscious of their future which is facilitated by engaging in training sessions, research, projects, and sensitization on social concerns.
Day -5
Speaker – Prof (Dr) M Z M Nomani
“The understanding and importance of survey of literature in legal research” – Prof (Dr) M Z M Nomani, Aligarh Muslim University, gave an illustrative and self-opinionated talk on the aspects of research connecting it at large to intellectual property right interpreting the work of research as a novel and original piece of work. Emphasis was on the framing of research questions wherein the researcher has objectivity, and a direction ignited by the review of the literature and its importance. The review of literature should be focused and the objectivity of research should be adopted dispassionately with lateral and out-of-the-box thinking, specifically including targeted questions that are not personal. Prof Nomani elucidated on the characteristics of review of the literature, and said it should be citable, quotable, able to be summarized, and collated, with basic questions of research, thereby attaining the core of the theme. The identification of the research gap is the key to the survey of existing methods. They are to be reviewed for understanding the persistent methods and methodologies which are feasible through a broad research review. Prof Nomani in his concluding remarks elucidated on the application of precedents especially of international communities in terms of the oncological status which is a corpus of knowledge and understanding of Epistemology (Science/theory of knowledge) keeping within the boundaries of freedom of the press, speech, and expression while studying the existing literature with reference to a problem of research.
Day-6
Speaker – Prof Dr Madhurendra Kumar
Prof (Dr) Madhurendra Kumar, Kumaon University, delivered a talk on challenges in the implementation of emerging techniques of teaching and learning law, wherein he deliberated at length on the need in the present day for an acquisition of knowledge towards new technologies and focus on the understanding of emerging technologies. The law teachers of today, in his words, need to be equipped with both the traditional methods to cater to the rural background students as well as with the latest technology to impart them the required knowledge. The paradigm shift towards the use of information and communication tools (ICT) has necessitated for each teacher to learn the application of new application software for the conduct of classes in legal science. The learning is to be done more by the teachers in the present day as they have to adapt to online teaching through various platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex (CISCO), and many others for the deliverance of their classes, especially in view of the subsisting pandemic. The need for interdisciplinary face of copyright issues, plagiarism, and technology overhaul was another aspect deliberated upon by Prof Kumar who also touched upon the aspects of mental and emotional balance to deal with the challenges of implementation of the new technologies.
Day -7
Speaker – Prof (Dr) C P Singh
Prof (Dr) C P Singh, Senior Professor at Lucknow University deliberated on “Assessment of Student Behavior and the Role of Student Mentorship in Online Teaching and Learning Law” during his talk on the 12th of July 2021 as an esteemed speaker for the NFDP. His focus was primarily on disciplinary issues that are tough to be tackled online. While sharing his views he also asserted that both academics and discipline are crucial for a student’s overall growth. The behavior of a student, reflecting on his body language, language, interpersonal skills, and communication skills summing up to the soft skills quotient of a student is very tough to assess on the online platform. Law students need to be assessed for both their soft skills and life skills as the law requires people interaction and management. However, in the online platform, wherein the student is not available physically, mentoring for behavioral change or counseling on issues of relevance becomes a very tough challenge, and is also a very big concern. The biggest hurdle in it is that the teacher/mentor can only counsel those students who reach out and the rest are not approachable to the faculty. This can be overcome, as per Prof Singh, through compulsorily mandated days for one-on-one counseling along with proctored teaching where the teacher is given the virtual control of the class as in offline teaching. Prof Singh stated that the discipline and punctuality of the students should not be compromised in the process of online education.
Day -8
Speaker – Dr Ghayur Alam
Dr Ghayur Alam, Dean NLIU, Bhopal, illustrated in his talk the use of case method and case study method in legal education and research while discussing the application of andragogy and peer group interaction. Emphasizing on training, trainers, and the ability of scientific temper Prof Alam conducted the session through direct interaction with the participating teachers of law. He also stated that the first step towards learning is posing, asking, questions. He enlightened the virtual audience on the origin of the Common Law, its historical significance, terms statute, and its merit, besides the various Latin maxims that have immense significance in the teaching of law. He dwelled at length on the origin of, explained the role of the method, case method, and syllogism in the teaching of law and specifically in the case method in legal research studies. He concluded his talk with an illustrative example of Article 141 of the Indian Constitution, and on the operation of a judgment including both territorial and universal.
Day -9
Speaker – Prof (Dr) Jeet Singh Mann
Prof Dr Jeet Singh Mann, National Law University Delhi, delivered an interactive session on the topic of “The Art of Quality Research and Project Writing in Law” on July 14, 2021. Prof Mann spoke on “How”, “What”, and “When” to teach, and also discussed how to write a quality research project on the conduct of empirical research, and the process of conduct of field research in a socio-legal project. The talk commenced with Prof Mann’s perspective on the fundamentals of life which he said were hard work, progress at one’s given place, appreciation for work done through recognitions, invitations, and projects of UGC, and other bodies. The session was highly interactive in which the participants were asked to share their perspectives on quality.
The quality of research, he said, had its promise in novelty and originality and that was something every law researcher should focus on. He discussed whether the law was an integral part of social sciences, at length, and cited the perils of internet data for research and ascertained the need to quote the original source also and a need to collect data from the source institution. The difference between plagiarism and similarity index (SI) was discussed and stated that a proposal should focus on subject analysis, both in theory and in practice, which differs depending on the different levels of conduct of research.
Day -10
Speaker – Prof (Dr) K Parameswaran
Prof (Dr) K Parameswaran, Gujarat National Law University Gandhinagar, delivered an excellent talk on the Confluence of Indian Constitutional Law, artificial intelligence, and holistic values wherein he emphasized that life at large should be connected or relatable to the Indian Constitution. He discussed whether a legislative personality is assigned to AI and whether articles 21 and 14 contribute to the constitution of legal persona to corporate organizations especially in view of the responsibility, and liability for any act done against the constitutional law by the AI model. The technology law perspective was deliberated especially with the focus on the data regulation, privacy, and data security context, the need for a procedure in progress for the adoption of AI in law, focus on the subjective realm of one’s life; societal relation and value for interpretation while also focusing on the constitutional implications owing to the predictive analysis of AI in terms of capability whether narrow, general or super-strong, ANI, AGI, and ASI respectively, and functionality. He concluded the talk which had good deliberate participation on the pretext of intelligible differentia as a key to the implementation of AI.
Day -11
Speaker – Prof (Dr) Priti Saxena
16th of July had university-wide participation during the talk by Prof (Dr) Priti Saxena on “Effective Assessment and Evaluation of Students’ Performance in Law teaching”. Dr. Saxena unpacked her talk with an introductory remark on assessment – The “What”, “Why”, and “How”, the generic attributes of graduates, the National Commission Report 2017, and The National Educational Policy 2020, and, survey analysis on aspects of assessment. She elucidated on the teaching-examination-assessment loop which needed to be analyzed for failure in terms of the result analysis, objectives to be met with, and reinforcement and reprocessing of the data which leads to the alignment of the curriculum in the multidimensional perspective concurrently, continuously, concretely and critically. Dr. Priti discussed the teaching-learning process which has to be carefully implemented in view perspectives of the diversity under the diverse age groups and hence the understanding and comprehending skills wherein the crucial aspect of critical thinking ought to be emphasized upon. In response to queries on the outcome based education system by the participants. She elucidated on the areas of assessment process using such thing as Fair share, White box shoe, and entry-exit methods, and emphasized that feedback is the sine-qua-non of assessment reforms, assess students in real-time reforms, assesses students in real-time with focus on critical and analytical learning and realistic outcomes.
Day – 12
Speaker – Prof (Dr) Harbansh Dixit
The twelfth session of the 14 day faculty development program was delivered on the 17th of July by Prof (Dr) Harbansh Dixit, Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Services, UPHES, on challenges related to conducting extension activities and outreach programs in legal education. In his talk he elucidated on the legal system being a subsystem of the social system, and both legal and social sensitivity are the fittest for the society. He stated that value addition should be for “Loksamaj” and one should go for armchair research for work in direction of legal education. He stated the essence of the UNESCO preamble, “the fight is always with a person’s heart” and hence said no one gets noticed without doing something unique or different. He explained how it was difficult to be practical and theoretical at the same time, and stated one who knew the Siddhartha” in principle will be able to accomplish a bigger job always and that it was important to redirect our mindset by overcoming mental barriers and inertia through regularly organizing legal clinics, legal aid camps, and consultancy and arbitration camps.
Day – 13
Speaker – Prof Nirmal Kant Chakraborti
Prof Nirmal Kant Chakraborti, Vice-Chancellor National University of Judicial Sciences NUJS Kolkata, delivered an impactful and effective talk on “Outcome Based Learning of Students and its important components in law teaching in 21st Century” on the 13th day of the 14 days FDP. The impactful talk by Prof. Chakraborty focused on the crucial aspects of teaching with a focus on the result of such teaching. The processing of the curriculum to map the outcome of the learning process to the placement and prospects for the learners. Prof Chakraborty spoke at length on the practical components of law teaching like mooting, debating, policy drafting, amendment writing, article writing, and other academic activities focused on law. The point of focus of his talk was on the adaptability of law faculty to the emerging requirements of the contemporary learning process, especially with a focus on the globalized education patterns and course structure. The crux is in the dynamics of legal education given the ever changing societal framework in a political and economic context that needs to be understood and aptly applied by the faculty during their teaching process
Day -14
The 14 Day FDP concluded on a positive note with the valedictory remarks presented by Dr Lakshmi Priya who moderated the sessions over the two weeks and summarized each talk by the esteemed speakers. Prof (Dr) Bahuguna profusely thanked all the speakers and participants in his opening remarks for the day, and Dr Poonam Rawat, the Head of the Department Law College Dehradun, delivered the official vote of thanks on the last day of the event which witnessed more than 100 law teachers and participants over the 14 days.
