An education ministry advisory panel has compiled guidelines for setting up graduate facilities for the study of law, to be introduced in April 2004.

Recommendations include small classes and ensuring that 20 percent of lecturers also work in the legal or judicial field, panel members said.

The panel, chaired by Kinki University professor Koji Sato, plans to compile a final report by mid-2002 after getting feedback from universities, they said.

After the final report is submitted, the government plans to submit related bills to an extraordinary Diet session in the fall.

Of universities nationwide with law-related departments and graduate schools, 83 percent are considering launching graduate faculties of law similar to law schools in the United States.

The government plans to increase the number of people passing the national bar examination to around 3,000 from the current 1,000 by around 2010.

The outline states that the standard term of study at the law schools be set at three years but stipulated that those who have already studied law elsewhere can finish within two years.

However, it stipulates a two-year educational course cannot be set up in advance.

The panel stipulated 12 as the minimum number of lecturers and recommended that there be at least one lecturer per 15 students.