Teisės studijų tobulinimo gairės esminių aukštojo mokslo kokybės užtikrinimo parametrų kontekste
Guidelines for the Improvement of Legal Education in the Context of the Essential Quality Parameters of Higher Education

Summary/Abstract: Not only in Lithuania, but also in the other countries, there is a growing tendency among young people to choose a legal education. Law is a professional sphere of immense depth and breadth and it is evident that during several years in a school of higher education, designed to grant legal knowledge and skills, it is impossible to convey all aspects and nuances of the law. Legal education in a higher school is only the beginning of a lawyer’s education, while on the other hand it provides a unifying experience among practising lawyers. Consequently, university law schools preparing lawyers certainly provide an important contribution to the creation of a legal state, while providing skills, modelling values and shaping attitudes for future judges, state officials, prosecutors, attorneys and other persons responsible for the implementation of legal mechanisms necessary for the proper functioning of the state. The necessity to improve the level of the preparation of lawyers to engage in the practice of law stems from the changed expectations from both society and students and also from new challenges, specific to the whole environment of higher education. Furthermore we are living in time where globalization and new technology has created vast changes both in the traditional meaning of a university and the purpose of studies. Ongoing international processes, such as increased international cooperation, the internationalization of higher education, the adoption of respective documents such as Bologna declaration and the processes that flow from it necessarily stimulate the reformation of a higher education from one direction. From the other side- higher education, especially in Lithuania, is rather often criticised for the low quality of studies, for excessively long programs which sometimes lack sufficient specialisation, for the lack of participation of social partners in the governance of a university, among other aspects. The authors of the article, having in mind the challenges outline above, conducted extensive research, in order to establish to what skills should be taught in the traditional system of legal education in Lithuania and provide guidelines for improvement of the legal education in Lithuania in accordance with current international trends. The first part of this article is devoted to analysing the quality parameters of educational services in the context of the Bologna Process. In the scientific literature analysing the quality of higher education, there are various different understandings and definitions of quality. However in the opinion of the authors of the article, after evaluation of various scientific research and having in mind the ongoing processes in the sphere of European higher education, the primary focus on improving the quality of a legal education should involve the provision of specified learning outcomes. That is, an analysis must be made of what capacities and competencies a res

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