Lanka's legal education second to none - Judge

Suraj A Bandara

The legal education in Sri Lanka will never be second to anywhere in the world, Supreme Court Judge S I Imam said. He was participating as the chief guest at the Sri Lanka Law College annual awards ceremony yesterday.

The Sri Lanka Law College official website was also inaugurated by Justice Imam on the same day.

He appreciated the pragmatic policy adopted by the Law College administration to teach all subjects in English medium. It is necessary to prepare young lawyers for modern world challenges. All lectures will be conducted in English medium and examinations could be faced in their own language. Each students will have a mandatory question paper to be answered in English medium to pass the examination.

He further said law students are facing a severe problems when they wanted to pursue higher studies in law. But post-graduate law education is not popular in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Law College decision to conduct post-graduate degrees is also highly lauded by the Supreme Court Judge.

He urged the fresh lawyers to be honest to the profession and protect the professional ethics under any circumstances. "Lawyers are the guardians of the law. They have to play a vital role in the society. Therefore, they should maintain high standards of ethics," he said.

Bar Association of Sri Lanka President Shibley Aziz, PC said the legal profession is a noble job. Ethics is an integral part of the legal profession. He urged all lawyers to be equipped with allround knowledge to be worthwhile in the profession.

He further said there are around 10,000 lawyers. Among them only around 5,000 are practising lawyers. Others are occupied with other works particularly as legal officers, he said. Law Collage Principal Dr W D Rodrigo said the Council of Legal Education is now focusing on improving the academic standards while improving the physical facilities in the College. Subjects such as Intellectual Property Law and Environmental Law were introduced to the curriculum recently.Nearly 570 law students were awarded with prizes and certificates.