Seminar on Legal Education: International Perspective was held here at Institute of Law, Nirma University. The seminar was graced by the presence of various foreign academic luminaries: Prof. Luis G. Franceschi, Senior Director, Governance and Peace, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, Prof (Dr.) Stephen Thomas Hardy, Professor of Law & Dean, Coventry University Law School, United Kingdom, Dr. Peter Schaefer, Professor, HoF University, Germany, Prof. Dietmar Boerner, Professor and Head, Business and Law Department, HoF University, Germany, Dr. John Winterdyk, Professor of Criminology, Mount Royal University, Vancouver, Canada, Dr. Ricky Lee, Professor of Law, The University of Notre Dame, Sydney, Australia.
The esteemed guests highlighted the need for collaboration amongst universities across the globe. They opined that ‘Law’ as a subject never operates in isolation in any country especially in times when global trade and global education are at their peak. Like art, law has no boundaries. Today, more than ever there is a fundamental need for people of diverse backgrounds to come together and share their experiences and ideas. This stems from the fact that the world today is a global village where people of different regions face similar obstacles, being at the cusp of ideological and political shifts. We need to make the most out of available resources as a global society.
They also stressed that we need to make informed choices. Learning is a sense of power and at times, there is a risk involved in learning. But we need to take that risk, need to come out of our comfort zones and expose ourselves. Learning is always is a two way street. They also discussed the role of community engagements as a great learning opportunity for students. There is a huge difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is merely “knowing”, learning, or understanding facts as they pertain to certain situations. Wisdom, on the other hand, is the ability to apply that knowledge to given situations. They also discussed the idea of Student and faculty exchange programs and joint researches being undertaken and need for capacity building in educational arena.
They congratulated the institute for organizing such an event and said such programs act as a catalyst in introducing students to laws and policies from different perspectives and thus deepens their understanding of the core concepts of law. This encourages the students to research and find innovative solutions, which provides an avenue to better career opportunities.
Mr Vibhor, Co-Founder- Spinning Wheels Internship Program, (based at Rajasthan) and Mr Aditya Kavya, (an alumnus of Nirma University) spoke on how Spinning Wheel organization is making community leaders while working with government schools. They are involved in the process of developing life skills within the less privileged group of the society through internships.
Earlier, Prof. (Dr). Purvi Pokhariyal, Director and Dean, Institute of Law, delivered the welcome address. She stressed on the vision statement of the university: “Shaping a better future for mankind by developing effective and socially responsible individuals and organisations” She said that to make legal learning more relevant we need to share the best practices from different foreign law schools. The institute stands for justice education and the students need to learn from invited deans and senior professors from leading foreign universities and law schools.
Ms Shreya Shrivastava, Assistant Professor- Institute of Law, delivered the vote of thanks.