File 29 : Common Bar Exam?

Those who follow my writings would know that I am a law student. Having been spending my 2 years of life in my lovely law faculty in UiTM Malaysia, Shah Alam had taught me many things on the legal aspect as well as the human aspect. Not to forget, political aspect as well.

First and foremost, for those who do not know the procedure before you are admitted to the Bar [the professional body that govern the lawyers], I am going to write here a VERY brief concept on how thing goes.

For overseas graduates and those who pursue law degree in twinning programs at private colleges, they had to sit for an exam which is called as the Certificate for Legal Practice [CLP] before they could practice as an advocate and solicitor in Malaysia.

As for local graduates [UiTM, UM, UKM, UIAM and UUM – but there’s a problem with UUM currently…], after they had finished their LL.B (Hons.) program, they need not take the CLP exam as they could be admitted as an advocate and solicitor right after they had done their chambering for the period of 9 months.

The reason for having the CLP exam was to ensure that overseas graduates would be familiarized with local laws. This is due to the fact that when they read law, for example, in the UK, they would read the Common Law. However, due to the rate of failure that is so high among CLP students, they [the overseas graduates] had started to voice out their dissatisfaction claiming that it is unfair for them to take the CLP when the local graduates need not. Plus, there are some claiming that the quality of reading law in Malaysia is not on par with the way of reading it overseas.

So, the government had now proposed to create a new examination to cater both local and overseas graduate. This is known as the Common Bar Exam. Its purpose, as can be seen by looking at its name, is to ensure that both local and overseas graduate would sit for a common exam to enable them to be admitted to the Bar. So, upon graduating, all graduates had to sit for this very exam.

Nevertheless, as a law student my self, I object to such exam. For me, CLP is needed for overseas graduates as they need to know at least a little on our own Malaysian law. They had spent their 4 years reading law overseas but when they intend to practice here, did they learn Malaysian law? No! So, that is why they need to take the exam.

As for us, local graduates, we spent 4 years in the law faculty, learning the ins and outs of our law. When we want to practice later, it’s the law that we had learned that we are going to use. So, what’s the purpose of having another exam when we had learned the laws of Malaysia for 4 years?

Furthermore, the way the law faculties in Malaysia conduct their law programs differ from one institution to another. For example, in UiTM, the course is done by using a 3+1 system. For three years, we will do Bachelor of Legal Studies (Hons.) Upon graduating, the graduates could choose either to work [as legal executives, legal advisers etc but cannot practice] or to pursue for another year doing the professional course. The professional course is needed if one wants to practice. The professional course is the LL.B (Hons.) and it is a simulation course where students will have their own firms, arguing cases as to prepare them for practicing in real world.

As an insider, I do think that the LL.B (Hons.) conducted in UiTM is the best as practicality is always better than theory. So, why should the student spend another year studying for the Common Bar Exam when they are ready to face the real world of practicing as lawyers? Besides, isn’t LL.B (Hons.) is sufficient to be the common qualifier for local graduates to practice?