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It was a happy group of young men,
and one woman, which received, yesterday, the first
diplomas of law ever awarded in the kingdom.
The 12 young graduates who had embarked
on Bhutan's first legal course in February last year
expressed pride and relief as they emerged from the
traditional convocation ceremony, conducted at the High
Court. "I'm glad we've made it," one of them
beamed. "The course involved a lot of hard work
but it was relevant, and I think many of us were surprised
to find that law could really be quite interesting."
The convocation was attended by a number
of dignitaries representing the government and included
a symbolic tribute by all the graduates to their instructors,
represented by the Drabi Lopon. Reviving the ancient
Bhutanese practice of Tshogju, or 'tribute to the teacher',
each student read out a summation of one subject in
the course and, at the end of it, presented it in a
written form to the Lopon.
The graduates also enacted a debate
in classical choekey, a tradition harking back to the
beginnings of the judiciary in Bhutan after which the
certificates were awarded by the Deputy Minister of
the Agriculture Ministry, Dasho Khandu Wangchuk.
High Court officials explained that
the year-long course was mainly aimed at giving the
young officers and in-depth understanding of the traditional
legal system before they were sent outside the country
for further studies in law. Describing it as being "woven
into the tapestry of the past to advance into the future,"
the Chief Justice explained that it introduced the young
officers to legal concepts and principles in the context
of Bhutanese culture, the national language and the
laws derived from them.
The course covered a wide range of
subjects including international law, traditional literature,
national development policies, legal and social etiquettes,
and exposed the graduates to film, music and art. The
traditional aspects including Da Shung or Dzongkha grammar,
Ngag Doen, the science of words and sounds, and Buddhist
thought relevant to legal study.
Two topics, Buddhist philosophy and
comparative studies between international and Bhutanese
law, seem to have made a particular impression on the
participants. "International law was a subject
that changed our preconceived notions of the interaction
that took place between various countries," one
of the graduates said, "today, [we know that] it
deals with a much larger and wider meaning. There are
more international agencies, treaties, economic unions
that together call for a greater understanding…."
Another graduate pointed out that the
study of philosophy had taught him the virtue of patience
in legal matters. "We learnt that our Buddhist
traditions can sometimes make our legal system softer
than others," he said. "But we also learnt
that, all the same, it is more important to dispense
justice in a sympathetic manner than to do it in a mechanical
way."
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