January 22, 2021

The urgency to work on our Legal Language

The first sound of the child coming into the world is filled with discomfort. The first cry of the baby makes sure he is alive. At first the child does not know how to behave in the society, in the social circle and how to express himself. Gradually, he learns to express himself through the limited vocabulary. Just as language is complex for a child, the legal language is complex for law students when the legal jargon is brimming with Latin terms. Law is a very complex subject, especially for the students who don’t even know how to speak English because of the weak foundation, then how to understand the law which is full of legal jargon because to be strong in any language, one should have a strong foundation. In the profession like law, words are the essential tool.

Language has  great importance, cases turn on from the meaning that judges understand from the words. Attorneys must use the right words to fulfil the wishes of clients. It is the words which help the lawyers to win the case which they cannot win with the mere facts. It has been said you will be learning a new language when you study law, but it is all lie. How can one study a new language when the law schools left it to the students to study on their own and it leads to difficulty in understanding the language not only while studying but during practise as well. If a law student is not fluent in  the only  language he or she  should be then they are of no use. Law schools now days emphasised more on the other subjects like political science etc.

What is the use of these other subjects when the students don’t know the spirit of law which is a legal language? What is the use of making them lawyers when they don’t know one thing about legal language?  The laws schools are giving everything to the students. In India, the laws schools have a growing tradition of moot courts which has made legal education  far more practical, behavioural and effective than just simply memorizing the language of law and yes, it helps students to learn some legal language, however, not to the extent that they can call themselves outstanding in legal language. The Law schools made it their responsibility to  organise many debating competitions so that they can actively participate in this and  different competitions which has made in the making lawyers a lot of smooth-spoken and expressive so that they do not cower in the court.

“There are various research centres and cells like moot court cell, training and placement cell, cell on research and publishing etc within the law schools dealing completely different branches of law publishing various, journal and newsletters and thus encouraging the students to write a research paper which can also help them further in the future in writing books, articles etc, this trend has, in turn, led to increasing the level of research in law on the whole.” Pretty much every graduate school has a temporary position board of trustees or cell like preparing and arrangement cell which commands a specific number of mandatory entry level positions for the understudies so as to make them well refrain with the pragmatic subtleties of law.

The way that law offices, for example, Amarchand and Mangaldas and Luthra and Luthra offer grounds positions have given an extraordinary lift to the understudies to join the lawful calling as they no longer need to stress over setting up their own legitimate practice without any preparation, however, these law offices not just check the way how assistants handle the circumstance, yet additionally check their insight to perceive how great they are in lawful language.

Many law schools even offer to coach for judicial services exams as well, which is a great boon to the students. But all these things are of no use when the students don’t know legal jargon. Because while the law schools emphasis on making students well versed in the practical thing, they did not give a single glance on the theoretical aspect which is also important like practical aspect. But the thing is we cannot just blame teachers, law schools for everything. It is the problem of students also. Being a student , it is always possible to put blame on others, but we never did anything to push our limits.

“Lawyers are always going to be students, because the learning doesn’t stop in law school. The irony is that when we become lawyers, we not only continue to be students, we simultaneously are teachers:- Michael S. Greco.” The study of the legal language does not end with  graduation but continues throughout the whole career of a lawyer. That’s why the education of legal language is very important. The very nature of legal language makes it a very difficult language to teach. The legal language is not any language which is very easy to teach and anybody can teach this language. This language needs a lot of patience and practise. There are many lawyers who takes gap after their graduation because the skill they need in the workplace are very different from the ones they study.

Because the thing is this, while they have the skills to win the case from the facts, but they do not have the legal language to win the case. The thing is, it is not only the responsibility of the teachers or the institution to teach legal language to the students, but it is also the responsibility of the students to give their best to learn this language. It is worldwide need now, that in order to ensure that the legal system is thriving, it is important to continue the legal education within the institutions. Society always keeps on changing and certainly changes in the legal profession will also occur. The impact globalisation has on legal profession, there is greater need of legal education to make active lawyers, judges. Only with the good legal education lawyers can keep with the society and will be well acquainted with new tools and skills.

This thing could only happens if one has a good legal education in law schools. With the continuation of legal education and training programs, it will not only enhance the competency of  the future lawyer but also they will know about the basic and important issues in national as well as  international legal areas. As for the best time to start the education of legal language is now. The teaching of this language should be must in all law schools  and not only in 1st year but in all years, this will help them in acquiring better knowledge of legal language. Owing to the better knowledge acquired by the students, it will be easy to study languages of other branches of law in more detail and it will be the best for students, for the future of our legal profession in India.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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