There is a well-established argument that says something close to the following: countries develop and societies attain multi-dimensional ( political, economic, and social ) stability once they ensure that no one is above the law (also known as the achievement of Rule of Law).
And to me, it seems a sound argument, but the question that has baffled me was- how do we achieve a way of life that is built on a strong Rule of Law?
Eliminating corruption, reducing hunger and poverty, improving governance, and ensuring the independence of the judiciary were certainly some of the suitable answers that came to my mind, however, the one that seemed the most suitable was “improving legal education”.
Some of you may ask the question, How? And I would point out to the current fight against COVID 19. While the fight against the disease required a lot of effort from different institutions, the hospitals, and the medical field in general(with its research, education, and technology) as an institution was the one that made the biggest difference.
And it is therefore by reflecting on this ongoing war against COVID 19 that I concluded that a fight for a strong “Rule of Law” will require many things, but the one thing that will make the biggest contribution will be a strong and meaningful legal education.
To expand my argument further- I will argue that a proper legal education that produces effective legal professionals capable of establishing viable rules and regulations based on sound legal policies will do three things that our legal system (Somali Legal System) lacks. These are :
(1) It will inject the required legal expertise into the system;
(2) By accomplishing the first one, numerous sound legal literature will be produced by these competent lawyers; and
(3) This will provide the opportunity for the legal system to evolve and grow.
Thus, proper legal education will produce a competent judiciary that has the required literature and which will, therefore, be able to evolve.
This is lacking in our country. A cursory look of our current legal system initially reveals the massive absence of all the three points highlighted above. It lacks the required skilled manpower, which resulted in the total absence of any meaningful literature and which in turn hindered any possible development of the system.
Therefore, let me conclude by telling the Somali leadership that the key to our survival as a society lies in establishing not a strong military or economy, but an effective rule of law and which can only be built if we have the proper legal education to produce the manpower that could run this system.
So, please invest in the country’s legal education and focus on the following three main areas
(1) Expanding the English language skills of the students;
(2) Encouraging the local scholars, through grants and similar incentives to produce the required relevant literature and;
(3) most importantly, building the infrastructure that the legal education requires (such as creating comfortable classrooms for students, raising the salary of the teachers so that they will have the time to focus on the subject of their choosing and most importantly, building moot-courts and clinics for the law schools so that students will learn through practice).
