Law education
Being
a Barrister: The vortex of confusion
Mufassil
M M Islam
Practice
of Law has been lucrative, challenging, struggling and
even been frustrating to many. Since time immemorial good
and evil fought to establish supremacy. Society, humanity,
culture, morality and ethics bonded with religion fought
back the norms and law and order ruled the most developed
of societies. But the laws are elusive, confusing and
even paradoxically different from lands to lands. The
Romans with the Twelve Tables, the Muslims with the Holy
Quran, the Grecks with the Orthodox beliefs have tried
and are still trying to establish the ultimate 'Rule'.
What we tend to forget that with different cultures, social
norms and even values laws are bound to differ although
the principles may be same towards the goal. For example,
the understanding of smoking in front of parents may not
be a legal question but a standard of social respect towards
the respectful and even Socrates bewildered about the
ever decreasing social values. But the society is like
a heart-beat, its progress goes up and down. Financial
strength, the power of implementing of the laws and the
rights to demand their obedience are often unrealistic
in certain society's practical situations. International
laws, treaties, conventions are formed to reach agreement
to certain common legal issues to avoid contradictions.
Hence,
the laws of the Indian sub-continent although has emancipated
from the Hindu, Arab and British cultural fusions, they
have reached to a certain shape that we all need to accept
that our present legal system is unique of its own. For
example, the Civil Procedure Code or even the Indian Penal
Codes were handed down to us by the British when there
was no such codified law in Britain itself. On the other
hand, do we have Privy Council in Bangladesh, Pakistan
or India? We are not British protectorate, colony or dominion,
so the decisions of the highest court of appeal in UK
are not binding on us.
The
basic academic degree to become a legal practitioner in
England and Wales is usually to do the LLB and then either
to do to the Bar Vocational Course and the pupilage to
have the practising certificate as a Barrister (UK) and
they are considered to be the authorities for Substantive
Laws and Court matters or to do the LLB and then the LPC,
Training Course to be a Solicitor who are expected to
be experts in procedural laws. There are other ways to
become Legal Practitioners in UK as well. In England,
no one can call himself a Barrister (UK) for legal practice
purposes until that individual had completed the Pupilage
at a Barrister's chamber and for a Bangladeshi student
to get access to a Barrister's chamber is extremely unlikely
as academic qualifications issues, work-permit issues
and position availability issues are there. The Bar for
England and Wales have planned not to allow any student
to do the Bar Vocational Courses from 2008 if that student
does not have a pupilage offer from a Barrister's chamber.
They have not yet decided whether to allow any student
who wants to practise abroad will be allowed any levy
or derogating proviso to the regulation. So what will
happen to those students who are doing the LLB (UK) from
Bangladesh? They must tread carefully before embarking
on the desired courses.
Now,
the difference between the legal systems of Bangladesh
and UK need to be discussed. The legal systems, laws and
regulations in UK are very different. For example, the
Court systems in UK are different from those of Bangladesh.
The definitions of legal terms are also immensely different.
For example, the definition of 'Rape' and the definition
of 'Extortion' are surprisingly different. The police
powers are different. The Immigration Laws are different.
At times, these differences are so different that a student
who completes the LLB (UK) but has no LLB from Bangladesh
are bound to have serious lack of knowledge to practise
in Bangladesh. A Barrister who is retained by a client
on Writ or Constitutional Rights issues will have no knowledge
of Bangladeshi Constitution until he had done some serious
academic studies on that subject and we cannot expect
a practising lawyer to study the whole Bangladeshi constitution
with academic devotion. He will study and research on
case by case issues. But on the other hand, if that person
had done his PhD from England on constitutional laws and
has basic law degrees from Bangladesh, can be called an
expert in that issue. But what we needs to engage research
experts and practising lawyers to sit together and reshuffle
the LLB academic curriculum in Bangladesh to make them
in a LLB teaching method of the west which proves to be
more effective for a practising lawyer. For example, the
LLB exams in England are mostly problem-solution oriented
rather than lengthy question-answer patterns in our existing
LLB systems. LLB (Hons) and LLM degrees at our Universities
are praise worthy efforts. CLEP at Bangladesh Bar Council
need to be for longer in course periods. If the CLEP is
at least 10 mothers in duration, our future lawyers are
bound to benefit.
If
a Barrister is required to know the core subjects before
willing to practise in Malaysia and if the Malaysian Bar
can impose restrictions on UK Bar and if India can endeavour
enforcing restrictions, then why our Bangladesh Bar Council
cannot put restrictions. Our Advocates who are also Barristers
need to shun their pride and need to accept the fact that
even many of them do not have practising certificates
in from England, never appeared with a single case at
British Courts, unaware of the implications of the European
Conventions on the changes of British legal systems and
if they do not have LLB from Bangladesh and if they do
not have long practising experience in Bangladesh, are
most likely not to have required knowledge to practise
as lawyers here. If any Barrister do not hold a practising
certificate, he is not authorised even to give advise
on any English Legal issues whether in England or abroad.
We are aware that there is a strong lobby to halt any
ban on basic LLB degrees to be mandatory for Advocacy
certificate in Bangladesh, but we need to be vocal. Simple
passing of the Advocacy exam at Bangladesh Bar Council
cannot be sufficient criteria to practise here.
There
are many courses available from recognised legal education
providers in UK who can help our practising lawyers as
they address general practise issues worldwide. We can
contact CLT, BPP and other institutions in London who
run these courses.
Businesses
are thriving in Bangladesh to provide foreign LLB degrees
to general mass, but we do not put restrictions on our
own Bar requirements, our future generations will hold
us accountable for our actions.
The
author is currently employed at Lindesay & Co Solicitor
Advocates, London.
