Social and Cultural Barriers in Transformation of the Legal Profession in a Less Developed Town of Central Uttar Pradesh

Globalization and the evolution of the knowledge-based economy have caused dramatic changes to the character and functions of higher education particularly in the field of professional education of law. The professional education in India has been passed through a process of transformation in post-independence era and its expansion can be seen in the form of the establishment of law colleges in different part of the country where the medium of instruction was either English or the local language. Most of the colleges were having evening classes so that in service persons could also attain the professional degree in law. This has opened avenues for the people who were, in fact excluded from the profession particularly rural people, lower and middle-order castes, minorities as well as lower income group people. In post-globalization era, a number of structural reforms were introduced in the field of higher education especially in professional education of law. With an aim to cater the growing demands for skilled legal professionals who can effectively function in the emerging legal order, a number of National Law Schools/Universities were set up by the state governments. In contrast to three years Bachelor of Law course, these newly established law institutions started Five-Year Integrated Degree Course in Law with a mixture of the subjects like sociology, political science, history along with a variety of papers on law with a very high fee structure affordable only by upper-middle and upper class students excluding the other section of society from high quality of legal education. The curriculum of these law schools is highly glocalized in the sense, that each institute has its own curriculum as per their local perception of the course within a general framework of five-year integrated course in law.