LETTER | The traditional one-way lecturing will soon become a fading fashion in the higher education sector, thanks to the innovation of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and now, with the social distancing rules due to Covid-19 pandemic. 

The higher learning institutions must embrace technology in their methods of teaching and learning and the law schools are no exception. 

The in-person face-to-face teaching of law must be innovated with the online learning either by live lectures or pre-recorded lectures, depending on the creativity of the lecturers who should have the autonomy to adopt various interactive contents to engage with the students regardless of their locations, provided that these students have good internet connectivity. 

Undeniably, this method will provide the students with the opportunity to learn law at their own pace, viewing the pre-recorded lectures as many times as they want until they have fully grasped on the content covered. 

The need for the law schools to innovate in their teaching and learning using technology is even more pertinent now since the Malaysian judiciary has already embraced technology in the delivery of justice. 

The courts have introduced the e-filing, e-service, e-court system, queue management system, and case recording and transcribing. More recently, the live-streaming or broadcasting of the Court of Appeal’s proceedings and thus, allowing the public virtual entry into the courtrooms. 

As the courts have taken a leading role by adopting technology in the delivery of justice, it is proposed that the Legal Profession Qualifying Board and the Malaysian Bar - who are entrusted with the learning of the legal education in Malaysia - should recognise and accredit that the legal education needs to be transformed to adapt to the challenges in the era of IR4.0 but without compromising the quality. 

In short, legal education must embrace the disruptive force of technology. 

The law schools must prepare their students to embrace technology and to churn technology-savvy law graduates for their future employability.

ASHGAR ALI ALI MOHAMED is a law professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.