Welcome to the ALEP Blog
A guest post by Mohammad Fahim Barmaki
Over the past ten years, entry into state law schools for the pursuit of legal education in Afghanistan has become increasingly difficult. Public demand has grown tremendously while the job market has not expanded as much. Students pursue a university education in hope of seizing upon economic opportunities that may be available. The legal profession and the notion of participating in democratization and the rule of law have incentivized many to pursue higher education in the field of law. The capacity of state and private educational systems has grown as well, yet for many reasons capacity has not kept up with demand.
Students choose their majors based on a variety of factors, but not always on the job they wish to pursue. Law is typically the second or the third most demanding field in Afghan society. This field of study is not exclusively defined as a field for lawyers. It is very common to work for a law firm after graduating from law school in Western countries—especially in the US; in Afghanistan however, law students’ paths typically take many more directions.
In the course of studying law, legal and political studies are thoroughly mixed with one another and the course of study is frequently called the study of Law and Political Science. Judgeship can be pursued as a career path within the school, and Law and Political Science graduates may also seek a diplomatic and administrative career after their graduation. Of course, there are academic requirements in each field that must be satisfied before students utilize their capacity as a judge, diplomat, or a lawyer. But generally students may decide to choose one of these fields to begin building their career from the start of the third year of their undergraduate studies.
As demand for higher degrees in law is great, there are not many universities to which students in Afghanistan can apply. There are a few state law schools around the country, and a selection of private ones in Kabul and a few other provinces. Some of the most credible public law schools in Afghanistan are Kabul University Law School in Kabul, Herat University Law School in Herat, Balkh University Law School in Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalal-Abad University in Jalal-Abad, and Alberooni University Law School in Parwan.
Legal education is offered not only through the Law and Political Science Faculty, but also through the Sharia Faculty. The Sharia Faculty delves into Islamic laws and jurisprudence rather than positive law and is more Arabic language oriented. Thus, legal education in Afghanistan is a complete mixture of Islamic and positive law where a nuanced skillset in the field vitally requires a subtle understanding of Islamic law. For this reason, a few important Islamic subjects are mandatory components of the curriculum for Law and Political Science students, and nearly every subject adamantly cites Islamic references and must be in accord with Islamic law.
As with students at most law schools, Afghan students usually find it very difficult to adjust to the high expectations and new pressures they face during their first and second years of their law degree. Students are challenged with rich and extremely complex bodies of hybrid Islamic and Roman laws along with political theories. The first year is dedicated to a basic introduction to the laws of Afghanistan, political theories, international organizations, history of international relations of Afghanistan, etc. Students are introduced to more specific legal and political studies in their second year. By the start of the third year the class is separated into two sections: Students who would like to pursue careers in judicial institutions register for the Judiciary Section and those who want to pursue diplomatic careers register for the Administrative and Diplomacy Section.
Students of both sections have basic knowledge of these complementary subjects and even during their specialized third and forth years they may share some elements in their curricula. This type of curriculum enables each division to pursue a career in both diplomatic affairs and the judiciary under the condition of passing their specific exams before entering either one. Each field’s exam is different and requires specific subjects to be covered in order for students to be proficient enough to pass them. Passing these specialized exams can be quite challenging, as there are no private or public institutions that offer preparation courses. Additionally, many students do not study all of the subjects tested in these exams during their university coursework. They must independently find ways to gain mastery of subjects in which they lack proficiency should they sit for an exam in a field they did not study in their third year.
The curriculum of the judiciary section has been designed to impart to students the practical aspects of the legal system by teaching subjects that are most relevant to judicial and legal work. The same goes for the diplomacy section. By simultaneously dividing and intermingling legal study between two focused paths, there is limited time in these paths of study for hands-on field experience and in-depth subject analysis. Additionally, this style of study allows less opportunity for students to develop lawyerly-thinking, a technical skill that is considered essential to the study of law in the US. Although the style of legal study in Afghanistan may have some disadvantages, it is a rich method of learning that enriches students’ knowledge of the theoretical dimensions of the legal system as a whole.
To augment the limited practical skills that students gain in their first four years of study, additional post-graduate programs have been designed for those who want to become judges or full-time lawyers after graduating. Students who wish to sit for the bench must complete a two-year post-graduate program before they can take the exam. Students who wish to become lawyers complete one-year of additional post-graduate education before taking the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association (AIBA) exam. Similar to the judicial section, students in the diplomacy section must also complete a mandatory one-year diplomacy course after passing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ entry exam. Unlike the American Bar Association, the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association (AIBA) does not create a curriculum to be used by law schools. Generally, each university faculty establishes its own legal curriculum and sends it to the Ministry of Higher Education for approval.
Higher degrees, such as a Master’s or PhD, are hitherto unavailable in Afghanistan for the field of law and politics, and for the most part, in all other fields as well. The lack of such degrees significantly limits opportunities for educational advancement in the country. For individuals assiduous in their pursuit of higher degrees and teaching in academia, pursuing academic opportunities abroad may be the only option. Although some schools are developing Master’s programs—Kabul University Law School is developing a Master’s degree in International and Comparative Law, these programs may be years away from actually convening.
There are a variety of teaching methodologies applied by different professors in the field of Afghan legal education. Professors have the chance to direct their own texts and build their own method of teaching. As a result, teaching styles vary widely; some professors focus on dialectic—following the Socratic method, whereas others lecture volumes of material that far exceed the capacity of a one semester course.
The slow progression of Afghanistan’s education system, legal studies and otherwise, can be attributed to the prolonged period of war that has completely annihilated the country’s ability to support academic research. Although some professors continue to write and research, they frequently struggle to find the support that they need to continue their research and get their work published and distributed. In some instances, professors even teach their own written, yet unpublished texts. This crisis is stifling, and the bulk of academic writing and research quickly expires and is swallowed into a black hole. The government has unfortunately further crippled growth by showing little to no interest in supporting research in academia. These factors perpetuate the information void that exists in Afghanistan and neglects to recognize the important role that the intellectual community could play in advancing the country forward.
As with any war-torn country, it should not be surprising to know that the government provides so little compensation for professors and researchers that they must seek other income-generating opportunities outside of academia. As a consequence, many teaching professionals seek employment with NGOs, thus dividing their time and taking their focus away from their teaching obligations. The political and social disasters of Afghanistan have become excuses for the government to neglect the critical needs of the academic community; without accountable support from the international community, the irreparable damage to the higher education system in the country may simply continue to worsen.
The consequences of war continue to linger on, and the greatest repercussion has been inflicted upon the most talented students who rise through the university system, only to stumble into an environment of limited opportunity after graduation. Even for graduates of the prestigious Law and Political Science Schools, there are few prospects for employment. As disconcerting as this is, neither the government, nor private organizations have made significant efforts to provide work or volunteer opportunities for graduates. Based on these observations, the government of Afghanistan must shift its focus to supporting higher education and economic opportunities, without which the future of Afghanistan may be in flux.
-Mohammad Fahim Barmaki is a visiting scholar at Stanford. He received his LLM from George Washington Law School.
