A Critical Look at Pakistan's Legal Education System:

The Problems:

As someone who has taught contract law, I have not only witnessed these challenges firsthand but have also personally grappled with the frustrations that come with Pakistan's legal education system. Standing in front of a packed classroom, I often saw students struggling with outdated textbooks and disorganized notes. Rather than engaging in meaningful discussions or honing the critical thinking skills essential for a successful legal career, they were often left to memorize information simply to pass their exams.

These issues are often debated in academic circles, but the real impact on law students—and by extension, on our legal system—is deeply troubling.

Justice is the bedrock of any civilized society. It is through a fair and effective legal system that we ensure justice is served and the rule of law is upheld. But how can we hope to achieve this if our legal education system remains outdated, ineffective, and disconnected from modern realities? The problems are many, from obsolete curricula to ineffective teaching methods, leaving much to be desired in Pakistan's legal education system.

1. Outdated Curriculum

In many public institutions across Pakistan, the legal education curriculum remains outdated and irrelevant, failing to provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge to meet the demands of today’s legal profession. Unlike other fields, a law school’s curriculum should be organized around societal issues like fundamental human rights, dispute resolution, and international law.

This approach would better prepare future lawyers to act as problem-solvers and defenders of justice, equipping them with the knowledge they need to tackle legal and professional challenges. However, from my experience, Pakistani law schools often offer mandatory, one-size-fits-all courses focused on specific codes and laws with little practical relevance to real-world scenarios. Instead of learning to think critically and creatively, students are taught to memorize statutes and case laws simply to clear their exams.

This lack of practical exposure leaves students with a limited and outdated skill set, stifling innovation and critical thinking—both crucial for a modern lawyer navigating a rapidly changing world.

2. Lack of Interdisciplinary Education and Research

Legal education shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. It must address the social, economic, and political intricacies that directly or indirectly impact legal issues. Legal education should go beyond just learning legal codes; it should develop a broad range of interdisciplinary skills that enable lawyers to pursue justice in the face of contemporary challenges.

From my observations, law schools attempt to incorporate subjects like Sociology and Political Science, but they do so using traditional lecture-based methods that don’t promote critical thinking or engagement. Instead of participating in group discussions, debates, or mooting exercises, students are often handed notes and PowerPoint slides to memorize, with grades based on how well they can regurgitate the information.

The result? Pakistani law graduates are unprepared to tackle increasingly complex and interdisciplinary legal issues in areas like technology, finance, and business.

3. A Disconnect Between Theory and Practice:

Despite recognizing that practical skills are fundamental to excelling in the legal profession, most students are left to figure out the practical aspects of their careers on their own or through internships—many of which are inaccessible due to socioeconomic and geographical constraints.

This lack of practical training can prevent novice lawyers from becoming experts, as they find few opportunities to apply their legal knowledge to real-life scenarios. I’ve seen students excel in exams, earning perfect scores, but when faced with real-world legal challenges, their lack of practical experience puts both their reputation and their clients’ interests at risk.

As we can see, Pakistan’s legal education system is in desperate need of reform. Outdated curricula, a lack of interdisciplinary education, and limited practical training opportunities produce graduates who are ill-equipped to navigate the complexities of the modern legal system.

This, in turn, hinders effective legal representation and restricts access to justice, particularly for those who are economically disadvantaged or live in remote areas with scarce resources.

Revamping Pakistan’s Legal Education

To ensure equitable access to justice, strengthen the legal framework, and empower the existing legal system, it’s crucial to reform legal education to keep pace with the evolving global landscape.

The Solutions:

1. Revitalizing the Curriculum:

To produce lawyers capable of addressing contemporary legal challenges and upholding justice, legal institutions must overhaul their curricula. This means incorporating not only traditional legal subjects but also interdisciplinary and practical learning. For instance, courses in emerging areas like technology and environmental law should be given equal importance alongside core subjects like contract and criminal law. This will help students develop a more nuanced understanding of the legal profession.

However, such reforms require intensive pedagogical training and collaboration between academia and the legal industry. The current system can’t continue to churn out underprepared graduates and expect the deteriorating legal framework to improve on its own. Such practices only perpetuate the status quo.

2. Building Practical Proficiency:

The existing curriculum can be improved by incorporating extensive clinical legal education, moot court exercises, and effective internships. These practical experiences allow students to see the real-world impact of legal issues and foster a sense of ethical responsibility.

Academic institutions should actively collaborate with stakeholders in the legal profession to ensure that the practical aspects of legal education are adequately addressed. This will help produce graduates who are well-prepared to meet the challenges of the legal profession and the changing needs of society.

3. Promoting Critical Thinking:

Beyond the curriculum’s substantive content, legal education must also focus on developing critical thinking and analytical skills. One effective way to do this is by adopting the Socratic Method of teaching, widely used in US law schools. This method encourages students to think independently and reason through legal problems, moving beyond mere memorization and intuition. Law isn’t static; it evolves with society. Law schools and professors can’t provide all the answers, but they can instill the reasoning skills and innovative mindset needed to tackle new challenges.

4. Use of Modern Technology for Legal Education:

Although e-libraries and legal research databases have been around for years, their use among students remains limited. Most Pakistani institutions don’t provide the necessary access or guidance for students to use technology effectively in their careers, forcing them to rely on outdated libraries and spend countless hours on research that could be completed in minutes with modern tools. Moreover, the hefty fees associated with subscribing to e-libraries and legal databases make them inaccessible to many law students, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This financial barrier further widens the gap between students from different socioeconomic classes, depriving many of the opportunity to fully utilize these valuable resources. With the advent of artificial intelligence, technology’s impact on the legal profession has only deepened, allowing lawyers to improve efficiency and productivity. However, Pakistani lawyers are lagging in this trend.

Institutes and stakeholders should emphasize creating and promoting online learning platforms, virtual reality simulations, and interactive case studies. Additionally, there should be efforts to negotiate more affordable access to e-libraries and research databases, possibly through institutional subscriptions or government subsidies, to ensure that all students have the resources they need. These tools offer students a more engaging and immersive learning experience without the constraints of geography, helping to create a more inclusive legal education system where students from underprivileged areas aren’t entirely deprived of opportunities.

Conclusion:

Pakistan’s legal system has long been criticized for its slow, outdated, and cumbersome procedures, its lack of equitable access to justice, and its archaic regulations that ignore contemporary social thought and jurisprudence. Despite limited efforts to modernize the system, many challenges remain that can only be addressed by a highly professional and educated class of young lawyers who can lead the way and raise the bar. With the revival of legal education system, fresh graduates with knowledge and skills in emerging areas of law can help overcome the outdated framework that has led to ineffective legal remedies. Likewise, the persistent denial of justice and loss of confidence in the legal system due to inexperienced and unprofessional lawyers would gradually diminish as trained graduates enter the profession.