THE NECESSITY OF PRAGMATIC APPROACHES IN LAW STUDIES

Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that has its roots in the United States of America of the 1870s. To give a simple definition of the idea, pragmatism is about considering thought as a tool or instrument for prediction, action, and problem-solving. The idea is to view all of the concepts, beliefs, and meaning in terms of their successes and practical usages. Considering pragmatism from a legal point of view, it emphasizes the need of including a varied set of data and considers law as a practice that is rooted to a specific context which is instrumental and is always attached to a definite perspective.

The traditional view of the law is all about case-based application of the law that highlights the universal and basic qualities of law specifically and advocates the thorough examination of pattern and dispute from analogy. Legal pragmatism negates this traditional picture of law and judicial decision-making. Pragmatism has emerged as the preferred approach taken by any major law school in the recent times. One of the prime reasons behind this is the changing nature of the crimes and the necessary evolvement of the law framework in the present times.

One of the major significance of such an approach is that in this case, all the legal controversies are attached to a unique and specific context. When the specific contextual scenario is viewed upon, it leads to a detachment from any philosophical abstraction from the practical affairs of the law governing our lives and societies. Even the seemingly abstract legal concepts are being changed to make them more relevant and contextual. You can think of the pragmatic approach as a return from abstractions to concrete, which is a necessity in terms of a professional course like that of law. All legal decision-making and controversies take place in specific circumstances which are highly constitutive of the issue and the ultimate decision runs the risk of being inaccurate if viewed from a non-circumstantial perspective. Moreover, the classical approach has been found questionable when applied to different controversies which naturally speak of the superiority of pragmatism.

The classical approach to law studies was based on sticking to the core principles regarding the deduction of legal decisions. It is widely accepted presently that such an extreme view of foundationalism can be detrimental to the practices as imbibed by a young professional. The pragmatic approach offers an image of induction and puts emphasis on the creative problem-solving actions of jurisprudence. The advocates of this modern approach view that knowledge in law, similar to other domains, is necessarily open-ended and in need of continuous revision and testing. Thus, the law is that branch of knowledge that is in need of constant growth and that naturally makes it outgrow any supposed foundations.

The pragmatic approach also advocates the investigation of the effects of a decision on the capabilities of a legal institution. This approach to the studies is less interested in the precedents and more concentrated towards being future-oriented. For instance, a judge who has imbibed the pragmatic view does not put an emphasis upon consistency with the past decisions and is rather more concerned with the worldly implications of his/her decisions. The good thing about getting the students future-oriented through empirical studies is that a whole new set of reasons become legally relevant and applicable when considering a case or taking a decision. A pragmatic law professional allows all sorts of data, including the economic and sociological ones, for the overall assessment of the case at hand. Thus, in place of putting an emphasis on the dominance of consistency with precedent, the pragmatic lawyers and judge emphasize the dominance of consequences in elucidation.

A legal pragmatist also has a better stand when it comes to the adoption of perspectives, and he/she does not take to broad generalizations and acknowledgment of the extensive manners of description. In fact, he/she will consider that not every facet of the case is unraveled and simplified and the situation is rather open-ended and subject to revision in the light of further information or another perspective. The acknowledgment of different perspectives entails a strong stand against the previously endorsed analogies. It leads to a much-needed acceptance of the new and definitely more inclusive legal descriptions.

As discussed so far, legal pragmatism is a significant alternative to the traditional approach of studies in the legal domain, and that is one of the prime reasons for its rising importance in the top law schools. We, at the K.R. Mangalam University, one among the top 10 universities in Haryana, understand the value of pragmatic approach in law studies and have given our best efforts to inculcate the best of the practical applications in our courses.

As a premier law school of the country that ranks among the top LLM colleges in Gurgaon, we have the distinct objective of arming our students with enough skills, knowledge, and attitude to make them successfully meet the requirements of the present and the challenges of the future. We understand that law in the present scenario has turned into an all-encompassing and all-inclusive arena. Our courses have thus been made with the perfect amalgamation of law and non-law subjects to aid the students in acquiring wide-ranging perspective both for their responsibilities as a manager and as a legal professional. Our methods of study are steeped in the modern scenarios of learning and implementation, and that has borne fruits in the form of bright career opportunities for all of our alumni.