International Association of Law Schools (IALS) held a forum for Law Deans in Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific Law Deans’ Forum 2017 was held from March 9 until March 10 and Faculty of Law Universitas Gadjah Mada became the host of the event. The forum discussed about many issues which are faced by Law Science in Asia-Pacific region.
Asia-Pacific Law Deans’ Forum is a yearly agenda of IALS as the organizer of Law Schools in the world. As an international forum, the forum was attended by Deans from many universities in Asia-Pacific. At least 10 countries attended the forum, including Malaysia, China, Bangladesh, Russia, Singapore, and India. The forum was also attended by domestic and international practitioners in Law sector.
One of those practitioners was the judge as well as the Head of Yogyakarta State Court, Dwi Tomo, SH., M.Hum. In the first session of panel discussion entitled Principles of a Legal Education – A Judicial Perspective, Dwi Tomo delivered several recent law issues in Indonesia, particularly in Yogyakarta. According to Tomo, one of the issues is the excess of internship students in Yogyakarta State Court. He said the judges in the court were overwhelmed to supervise hundreds of students from many universities.
“The excess of internship students causes a headache for the judges who also have other duties in the court. Therefore, we need to look for an effective way to solve the issue for the two parties,” said Dwi Tomo.
The issue which was delivered by Dwi Tomo became one of the Deans’ forum target which is direct information from practitioners in judges sector. The information will help Deans to compile an appropriate curriculum for law education system. This issue was also emphasized by the Head of IALS, Francis SL Wang. According to Wang, it is important for the forum participants who were Deans of Faculty of Law from many countries and practitioners to share information.
Wang further wondered if the current legal system education has been adequately implemented. Moreover, Wang also emphasized the recent challenges faced by Law education. Therefore, the discussion among the Deans, according to Wang, was very beneficial for the better implementation of law education.
“We hope through this forum, the organizer of law education can evaluate and formulate solutions for the challenges which are faced by Law schools,” said Wang.