The Four Compulsory Clinical Papers

Paper 23: Alternative Dispute Resolution

What is to be taught. Negotiation skills, to be learned with a simulated programme; conciliation skills; and arbitration law and practice, including international arbitration and arbitration rules.

How it is to be taught. The course is required to be conducted by senior legal practitioners through simulation and case studies.

The assessment. Evaluation may also be conducted in practical exercises for at least a significant part of the evaluation.

Note the word required. Of the four papers this is the one whose method the Schedule states most strongly, and it is also the one most often taught as a theory course on the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

Paper 24: Moot Court Exercise and Internship

Three components of thirty marks each and a viva of ten.

Moot court, thirty marks. Every student may be required to do at least three moot courts in a year with ten marks for each; the work is on an assigned problem and is evaluated for five marks for written submissions and five for oral advocacy. Chapter 290.

Observance of trial in two cases, one civil and one criminal, thirty marks. Students may be required to attend two trials in the course of the last two or three years of their studies, maintaining a record and entering the various steps observed during their attendance on different days in the court assignment. Chapter 300.

Interviewing techniques, pre-trial preparations and internship diary, thirty marks. Each student observes two interviewing sessions of clients at a lawyer's office or a legal aid office and records the proceedings in a diary, carrying fifteen marks; and further observes the preparation of documents and court papers by the advocate and the procedure for filing the suit or petition, recorded in the diary, carrying fifteen. Chapter 300.

The viva, ten marks, on all three of the above aspects.

What the four have in common

All four are compulsory, in Part II(B) of Schedule II, and no University may omit them.

All four prescribe a method, not merely a subject: simulation for 21 and 23, association with practising lawyers for 21, 22 and 23, and performance for 24.

All four prescribe assessment, and three of them state mark distributions.

And all four are the answer to the criticism of chapter 60, that Indian legal education taught about the law and did not train lawyers. Whether they have worked is chapter 520.

A worked example

Take a single student's final year under Part II(B) as written.

Paper 21: they draft fifteen documents and fifteen conveyances, thirty pieces of work, each marked at three marks, with a viva at the end. They have drafted a plaint, a written statement, a bail application, a sale deed, a will and a writ petition.

Paper 22: they have read fifty disciplinary committee opinions and ten Supreme Court judgments, and been assessed by case study, viva and problems as well as by a written test. They can keep a client account.

Paper 23: they have negotiated in a simulated programme run by a senior practitioner, conciliated, and been evaluated on practical exercises.

Paper 24: they have mooted three times, attended a civil trial and a criminal trial and recorded each day's steps, sat in on two client interviews, watched a suit being prepared and filed, kept a diary, and been examined orally on all of it.

Now compare that graduate with the one chapter 20 described, who arrives in chambers and cannot begin. The gap between the Schedule and the practice is the whole subject of chapter 520, and the way to feel its size is to read what the Schedule actually promises.

Quick revision

Part II(B) of Schedule II: four compulsory clinical courses.

Paper 21, Drafting, Pleading and Conveyance: civil and criminal pleadings and conveyancing listed by document, plus writ and public interest petitions; taught by class instruction and simulation, preferably with practising lawyers or retired judges; fifteen drafting exercises at three marks, fifteen conveyancing at three marks, ten for viva.

Paper 22, Professional Ethics and Professional Accounting System: ethics, accountancy for lawyers and Bar-Bench relations; materials named, including fifty disciplinary committee opinions and ten Supreme Court judgments; assessed by case study, viva and periodical problem solution besides written tests.

Paper 23, Alternative Dispute Resolution: negotiation by simulated programme, conciliation, arbitration including international; required to be conducted by senior legal practitioners through simulation and case studies, with practical evaluation for a significant part.

Paper 24, Moot Court Exercise and Internship: three moots at ten marks each, five written and five oral; two trials, one civil and one criminal, with a record; two client interviews and observation of preparation and filing, fifteen and fifteen; and a ten mark viva on all three.

Test yourself

1. Name the four compulsory clinical papers with their numbers. Paper 21, Drafting, Pleading and Conveyance; paper 22, Professional Ethics and Professional Accounting System; paper 23, Alternative Dispute Resolution; and paper 24, Moot Court Exercise and Internship.

2. Give the mark distribution Schedule II prescribes for paper 21. Not fewer than fifteen practical exercises in drafting carrying forty-five marks at three marks each, fifteen exercises in conveyancing carrying another forty-five at three each, and ten marks for viva voce.

3. What does Schedule II say about who should teach papers 22 and 23? Paper 22 is to be taught in association with practising lawyers on the named materials, and paper 23 is required to be conducted by senior legal practitioners through simulation and case studies.

4. Name two things Schedule II requires in paper 22 that most courses omit. Accountancy for lawyers, which is part of the prescribed content; and the reading of fifty selected opinions of the disciplinary committees of Bar Councils together with ten major Supreme Court judgments, which is the only point in the curriculum directing a student to what actually happens to advocates who misconduct themselves.