Boostrapping : EDU.04 - Procedure for Law Education
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Proposed administrative procedure - EDU.04
Administrative   procedures   for   Law   Education

Purpose : To improve classI-XII students' awareness and information about laws including administrative/courts procedures; and inform students about existance of various important laws of India and West, their advantages, disadvatages and their limitations.

Pre-requiste readings : EDU.01

Post-requiste readings : EDU.05


    Contents

  1. Overview of EDU.04
  2. Methods to teach law
  3. Teaching taxation/banking laws
  4. Law exams
  5. Advantages of EDU.04
  6. Draft of the act to create procedure EDU.04

Overview

(A note : each time, I mention the word "Law", it includes administrative/court procedures. )

IMO, students should start learning the laws from the 1st grade, or whenever parents approve that his child should take law classes. Why so early? This web-page is ONLY to explain procedures for law education of classI-XII students. To see the reasons, please click here.

Teaching of laws should also include information about existing laws, punishments, administrative/ legal procedures and evidence acts. But over and above that, the emphasis would be to develop the ability to "create" new and "modify" existing laws. This would require a rigorous training in drafting laws and punishments.


Method to improve students' knowledge of Law

One method I suggest to teach Law is as follow
  1. a group of 8-12 students should be asked to attend complete sessions of a few cases in a local courts. The courts/cases MUST be chosen at random.

  2. once the case is over, they should be asked to discuss and write their opinions covering the following issues (analysis)
    1. was the judge fair? was the verdict fair? was the judge castist? was his judgement motivated by his castist inclinations? was the judge was corrupt? was the judge inefficient or was he just pretending?
    2. was the punishment (or acquittal) fair? was the form of punishment (prison, fine etc.) fair?
    3. what exact laws were applicable in this case? are these laws fair?
    4. what were the evidences? were these evidences fair?
    5. how would have you acted if you were the prosecutor/defense lawyer?
    6. what would have been their verdict if they were on the jury?
    7. what impact can the verdict cause on the society?


  3. discuss and write about following (synthesis)
    1. what should have been the laws, if the laws were unfair?
    2. is the text of the law simple enough to understand? can you provide simpler text?
    3. what should have been the punishment in your opinion?
    4. could anything have been done to stop that crime?
    5. is there anything that would have made the trial faster? simpler?
    6. if you believe that the judge or lawyers were unfair, what mechanisms do recommend to ensure that judge/lawyers act fairly?
    7. does there exist an alternate interpretation of the law, which would make the verdict unfair?
    8. does there exist an alternate interpretation of the law, which would make a completely opposite verdict look fair?


  4. And so forth. Each case would invoke new issues. Much of the plan would be left to the teacher/students.

  5. The students would be supervised by a teacher for 1-2 hr. a week. It would be more interesting if schools can ask retired judges or a retired/practicing lawyers or a technical expert in the field of the case to occasionally participate in the discussion.

  6. The students should be asked to take cases in the subordinate as well as higher courts. The cases should be chosen at random.

Teaching taxation/banking laws

The students from class-V, or whenever parents decide, should be given idea about Laws in Taxation, Banking, Monetary Frauds etc. This will enhance the monetary sense one needs these days. The teacher can take disputes in taxation, banking etc. as the case study and organize talks from retired accountants/lawyers/bankers.


Taking tests in law

Unlike Maths, most people take interest in law. So a rigorous test-and-reward system is not required. Some baseline test-reward scheme would be there. A small test involving multiple questions should be created. Securing [Median - (Max - Median)/2] would be a pass. There should be no payment for pass, but failing students would be penalized with 50% reduction in their payments in other subjects. After all, what good is the knowledge of any subject in the world if one does not know the Law?


Advantages of EDU.04

  1. Awareness about law and law making and implementing structures would grow.

  2. Providing law education to students will encourage the people to take actions necessary to simplify laws and law-making processes. This will lead to a more democratic society.

  3. Knowledge of laws in masses is necessary to make citizens capable of understanding and later drafting text of the laws. Best of all, knowledge of laws and procedures would also inform people about the limitations of the laws and the limitations of the concept of law itself.


Draft of the act to create procedure EDU.04

One law needs to be passed in City Council (or District Panchayat) to enact EDU.04. To see the draft, please click here.

     Now citizens can ask City Councilor to pass these Acts. But IMO, it will be wiser for citizens to first enact procedure LM.01 then use LM.01 to pass this EDU.02 draft WITHOUT any help from Councilors. To know about procedure LM.01, please click here.


If you have any other question, please mail it to MehtaRahulC@yahoo.com. Thousand thanks in advance.



Next - EDU.05 : To improve students' knowledge about corruption, nexuses etc. in Executive/Courts