What Must Be Taught: Standard of Courses and the Curriculum

Part II(B): the four compulsory clinical courses, papers 21 to 24. They are Drafting, Pleading and Conveyance; Professional Ethics and Professional Accounting System; Alternative Dispute Resolution; and Moot Court Exercise and Internship. Chapter 500 sets each out in full with its printed mark scheme.

Part II(C): the optional papers. Not fewer than six papers, numbered 25 to 30, chosen from the groups the Schedule lists, and a university is free to offer only a few of the common options rather than all of them.

What the compulsory list tells you about the objectives

Read it beside chapter 20 and chapter 30 and it becomes an argument. The compulsory list is not only private law and procedure. It includes administrative law, environmental law, taxation and two labour papers, which are the law of the regulatory state rather than the law of the courtroom.

And the clinical papers are compulsory core, not electives. Drafting, conveyancing, professional ethics, accountancy for lawyers, negotiation, conciliation, arbitration, mooting, trial observation and internship are all inside the twenty-four compulsory papers.

So the Rules already answer the objectives question. A regulator that makes negotiation and conveyancing compulsory has decided that legal education is for more than advocacy, which is the point chapter 30 makes from the other end.

The gap between the Schedule and the classroom

The Schedule prescribes; it cannot deliver. A Centre may list all twenty-four papers, examine the four clinical ones by written paper, and satisfy an inspection that looks only at the list.

Schedule II itself tries to prevent that, and this is the detail worth knowing. For paper 21 it requires not fewer than fifteen practical exercises in drafting and fifteen in conveyancing, with marks allotted to each and ten marks for viva. For paper 22 it requires that examination rules include assessment through case study, viva and periodical problem solution besides written tests. For paper 23 it requires the course to be conducted by senior legal practitioners through simulation and case studies, with evaluation in practical exercises for a significant part. For paper 24 it fixes three components of thirty marks each and a viva of ten.

In other words the Schedule prescribes the ASSESSMENT of the clinical papers, not only their titles. A college that examines them as theory is in breach of Schedule II and not merely doing something regrettable. Chapter 390 takes it up as a question of examination reform and chapter 520 as a question of clinical legal education.

A worked example

A university publishes its LL.B. syllabus. How does a student check it against the Rules?

Count the compulsory papers. All twenty in Part II(A) should be there under recognisable names.

Find the four clinical papers. They should be numbered separately and carry the components Schedule II prescribes: fifteen drafting and fifteen conveyancing exercises in paper 21; case study, viva and periodical problem solution in paper 22; simulation and practical evaluation in paper 23; three moots, two trial observations, two client interviews and a diary in paper 24.

Count the optionals. Not fewer than six from the prescribed groups.

Now look at the examination pattern. If paper 24 is examined by a three hour written paper, the syllabus is not what Schedule II requires, whatever the list says. That single check tells a student more about their college than any brochure.

Quick revision

Rule 8 lays down the standard of courses and makes Schedule II binding.

Schedule II Part I: English as the medium; the numbers of law papers in both streams and of liberal discipline subjects in the integrated stream.

Part II(A): twenty compulsory law papers, including administrative law, company law, public international law, taxation, environmental law and two labour papers.

Part II(B): four compulsory clinical courses, papers 21 to 24.

Part II(C): not fewer than six optional papers, numbers 25 to 30, from prescribed groups.

The Schedule prescribes assessment as well as content for the clinical papers, so examining them as theory is a breach of the Schedule.

Test yourself

1. Which rule makes the curriculum binding, and where is the curriculum found? Rule 8 of the Rules of Legal Education 2008 lays down the standard of courses; the curriculum is in Schedule II.

2. Name the three parts of Schedule II's course structure. Part II(A), the compulsory law papers; Part II(B), the four compulsory clinical courses at papers 21 to 24; and Part II(C), not fewer than six optional papers from prescribed groups.

3. What does the presence of administrative law, taxation, environmental law and labour law in the compulsory core tell you about the objectives of legal education? That the regulator does not regard legal education as training for the courtroom alone, since these are the law of the regulatory state and are the subjects a graduate going into administration, compliance or policy will use.

4. Give one respect in which Schedule II regulates assessment and not only content. It prescribes the components and marks of the clinical papers, for example not fewer than fifteen drafting exercises and fifteen conveyancing exercises with ten marks for viva in paper 21, and three components of thirty marks with a ten mark viva in paper 24, so examining those papers as written theory is a breach of the Schedule.