Stepping boldly into the new Millennium

"In the present environment of change and uncertainty, it is going to become ever so challenging in the Millennium 2000, as has never been before, to sustain and reinforce the basic norm and values, standard and dictum, in order to ensure equity and justice in the fast changing socio-economic relationship. The dynamics of law and society creates new demand on the lawyers and Judges to redefine the yardsticks without having to reinvent the wheel. Variables need to be measured not only in term of interdisciplinary interaction of socio-economic forces but also in the context of inherent inequality that exists in society coupled with the imbalance of power. The challenge before our courts and lawyers and particularly the law teachers is to train the lawyers and future Judges as to how one can ensure equal justice in an inherently unequal society; what the rationale for recognition of these inequalities are and how legal process can help remove the irrational inequality; in order to iron out those patent and latent form of inequality and injustice, oppression and exploitation law and the Lawyers, Judges the law enforcing agencies and regulatory authorities must be trained and motivated to change their conventional and stereotyped mind sets so that they can play their roles to meet the challenge of time. The new millennium calls for a broad alliance and consensus where law & court can  play the most important role while alliance among science, technology and system interacting with each other can benefit and empower the people. This dynamics along with the contradiction and conflict in the fast moving competing values and interest create new demand and dimension on lawyers and on the legal education in particular". How to deny legitimacy to in equal treatment causing injustice and oppression and resulting undue exploitation and how to unburden the vehicle of Justice from the shackle of oppressive rules and technicalities and at the same time to continue the link with the basics without having to break the main stream of thoughts and reasoning creates an intellectual challenge in developing legal rationale requires a new technique and training of the legal mind.

LETI realizes "that in this whirlpool of a journey, law will be the only interweaving thread which will keep the society together in a balance, constantly providing the tool for structuring and restructuring, shaping and reshaping the relationship among various socio economic forces by empowering people to make choice.

In the context of present socio-economic condition going through the process c globalization, the new dimensions of work of the legal practitioners demand change in the quality, content and complexion of legal education, which is an urgent social necessity. Since law is a social process, on-going and future programs of LETI would strive to provide an insight into the society and train the mind of the lawyers preparing them to participate in these social processes.

Lawyer outside court is not so common event in our country, whereas, in the developed countries, every transaction is done with the assistance of a lawyer. Many of the disputes are settled outside court & alternative dispute resolution in many cases are preferred to litigation. LETI would focus into this unexplored potential of legal education & lawyer skill that cannot be overlooked anymore.

In the recent years, the need for developing a working knowledge in English amongst the legal professionals has become quintessential, especially due to the rapid improvement of information technology dominated by English speaking countries. Unless young lawyers are given the opportunity to develop proper skills of reading and writing in English they will have no place in the Information Super-Highway in days to come. With a view to prevent the present trend of deteriorating standard of English amongst the lawyers, LETI has been developing English languages learning courses for lawyers since 1996. The institute is determined to further intensify this training through state of the art language lab facility, CD-ROM based learning and high standard With the help and support of the government grants and from the donors and sponsors such as, the Royal Netherlands Government, Embassy of Switzerland, CIDA, USIS, UNHCR, British Council and other donor agencies, LETI wants to continue developing and expanding it's program for training of lawyers with BVC, CLEP, ELF, RLTR courses in the areas of skill development, lawyer and in negotiation as well as in the area of Human Rights, Gender Sensitization, English for Law, Corporate law, Conveyencing, Arbitration, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Ethics and Human Resources Development through various packages, crush program and research projects.

In addition to running and developing the existing courses as mentioned above following are under preparation to meet the demands and challenges for Justice education and training for the brave new world:

•           Works towards converting the traditional mode of law teaching in conventional manner into a systematic study of law and jurisprudence in order to make it a right and people oriented justice education.

•           Developing and updating law curricula and imparting Legal Education and Training for Law graduates as well as offering degrees/diplomas through modern training facilities of a model law school at its own campus and or participate or initiate joint sponsorship with other Universities and Institutions.

•           Designing pre Law entry course and evaluation system giving emphasis on language skill and encourage computer proficiency between law student and new entrants to the Bar classroom training.

1.         Developing skill for research, library use and computer knowledge for Internet research.

2.         To develop training program for law teachers.

3.         To develop curriculum for undergraduate study encouraging modern and Interactive teaching method.

4.         Providing training, research and institutional support for the District Human

5.         Rights Monitoring Cells of the District Bar Associations.

6.         Training Journalists & NGO workers on investigation into HR violations.

7.         Training Crime Investigators and creating Independent public Prosecutors to be trained by LETI (a panel to be maintained by each of the Bar Association).

8.         Sensitization course for Lawyers for promotion of Children's Rights.

9.         Offering training packages on economic Law (Conveyancing, Corporate Law,

10.       Banking, Financing, Taxation, Copyrights, ADR, Land Survey etc.) Work towards developing a distance and open learning audio-visual method for law students and other learners in law by using state-of-the-art technology (i.e. interactive clinical methodology through Internet, CD-ROM and Video Conferencing).

11.       Developing a modern English language Laboratory and imparting English for

12.       Law courses through interactive method, CD-ROM and other audio-visual methods.

13.       Enhancing in-house research facilities.

14.       Improving and intensifying HRTP courses.

15.       Improving and intensifying Bar Vocational Courses.

16.       Working towards further development of LETI in terms of infrastructure and quality of training.

17.       Working closely with the law Commission, standing committee of the Parliament and with the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for Law Reform.

18.       Assisting Government in formulating a Social Charter that will address the societal wants as per the Laws of the land especially in relation to women, children, the

Poor, disadvantaged and minorities.

19.       Conducting meticulous study on the best possible system of Family Court that will be efficient and effective.

20.       Espousing non-derogatory Laws by setting minimum standards during emergency.

21.       Working towards developing gender sensitive and human rights curricula/norms in all educational materials, with particular emphasis on gender issues, equal rights, minority rights, child right and rights of woman and children and removing discrimination and anti-human rights material from the educational curricula at all levels and disciplines.