National Law School of India University

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National Law School of India University
Motto: Dharmo Rakshati Rakshata
(Those who protect Dharma are protected by Dharma)
Established: 1987
Type: National University
Undergraduates: 400
Postgraduates: 80
Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Campus: Urban, 18 acres
Website: http://www.nls.ac.in/

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU or NLS) is an institution for under-graduate and graduate legal education. Based in Nagarbhavi, a quiet suburb in the western extremities of the city of Bangalore, the NLSIU was established in 1987 after a statute was enacted for that purpose by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Karnataka, and has officially existed since August 29 1987.

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[edit] Experiment in legal education

Historically legal education in India was open only to graduates and seen merely as professional training. Dismayed at the quality of legal education in conventional universities, several members of the legal fraternity debated a new system of legal education through the 1970s and 1980s. NLSIU has been rated as the best law school in India for 9 out of past 10 years by India Today.

It admits 80 students for its 5-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) programme every year. Students are chosen on the basis of an all-India entrance exam held on the first Sunday in May each year. Foreign nationals are encouraged, with five seats being reserved for foreign nationals (preference is given to students from SAARC countries).

While in most common law countries, law education is post-graduate ("graduate" in the USA) education, the Bar Council of India decided to make the NLSIU law programme a five-year course, with courses in the liberal arts included in the first two years.

In addition to the five-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) under-graduate course, it also offers a post-graduate degree (LL.M.) in business laws and human rights, and distance learning programmes, including Masters Degree in Business Law and Postgraduate Diploma programs in Human Rights Law, Medical Law, Environmental Law and IP Law.

[edit] Early history

NLSIU was started in 1987 under the stewardship of its Founder-Director, Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon and has since had three other directors, including the present director (which post was designated as Vice-Chancellor in March 2006), Dr. A. Jayagovind. The first batch of students joined on July 1, 1988 in the integrated five-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) course. The first courses commenced even before the college buildings had been built, and thus the NLSIU started functioning from the premises of the Central College, Bangalore University and remained there until 1991 November, when it eventually moved to its present location in Nagarbhavi.

The previous directors of the NLSIU were Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon, Dr. N.L. Mitra and Dr. G. Mohan Gopal.

[edit] Legal research and student activities

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The student body enjoys a great degree of autonomy and coordinates a wide range of activities. The Student Bar Association (SBA) is the umbrella body that coordinates all student activities, and all students are members of the SBA. The SBA has created various Activity-Based Committees (ABCs) which are in charge of specific student activities. The high level of student autonomy also runs to the various hostels, which are run by various hostel committees. Co- and extracurricular activities promoted at NLSIU include debating, quizzing, music, dance, theatre and other literary and cultural activities. Students from the National Law School publish an informal literary magazine called Quirk since January 2005.

NLSIU has played a role in actively promoting Parliamentary Debate in India, and regularly participates in many international competitions. including the World Universities Debating Championship [1], where it reached the ESL Finals in 2002 and in 2007, and NLSIU is currently ranked as the highest Indian team in the World rankings. NLSIU recently won the 15th All Asian Debating Championships held in Dhaka and had 3 out of the 4 teams in the semifinals and 6 of thre top 10 speakers.

NLSIU also boasts of having the best Moot Court team in South Asia,a point substantiated by the fact that it remains the only team from the region to have ever won the prestigious Jessup Cup [2]. The NLSIU moot team has been critisised as being very inconsistent in their perfomance. However, they won India's most prestigious Moot the Bar Council of India Moot in 2008, proving that they are still the best in the country.

Library

The library is the 'heart' of any academic institution and plays an important role in all academic activities and more so in law institutions. Keeping in view the aims and objectives of the Law School , the library has been planned and is being developed by a team of qualified professional library staff and guided by the Library Council. It has a collection of over 40,000 volumes covering a wide range of general and special subjects consisting of text books, reference books, back volumes of journals and reports etc., apart from current legal periodicals. The Library functions from 8.30 A.M. to midnight . The library has adopted an open access system so as to facilitate readers to have easy access to the library resources.

The NLSIU Library has also established links with other important libraries in and around Bangalore in order to provide inter-library access for the benefit of students and teachers of the NLSIU. To assist the Students and Research Scholars in locating literature as well as information in their area of research, general reference, current awareness and computerized catalogues have been introduced. Further, essential reading materials will be supplied to the students in each subject at the beginning of the trimester by the University. An orientation program for new students is also organized to help them acquaint themselves with the library system and services for the maximum utilization of the available resources.

The NLSIU has introduced computerized facilities for both housekeeping as well as information retrieval. Since we have now a leased line connection to the internet, it is possible to have easy access to information directly from all available computerized data bases all over the world, not only in the field of law but also in other disciplines. Keeping in mind the vision to create an E-Law School , the University subscribes to many international online databases like Westlaw International, JSTOR, Kluwer Online, Springer Link etc. which contains enormous resources like international case reporters, statutes, and articles from law reviews, an invaluable source for a law school student. Similarly, Indian online data bases like manupatra.com, indlaw.com are also available for students and faculty. NLSIU is among the first legal educational institutions in India to subscribe to these online databases. The Library has CD-ROMs search facilities and the library has acquired important CD-ROM databases such as SCC-Online and Grand Jurix. With a computerized library system it is the aim of the library to establish a network of law libraries in India and also to establish a National Legal Information Centre, which will act as a clearing house of information in the field of law.

At present the library is housed in one portion of the Academic Complex. The building has all the modern state-of-the-art gadgets with wi-fi internet connection as well as highly modernized Audio-Visual equipments with teleconferencing facility etc. Special arrangements also have been made for the physically handicapped persons to make use of the library. This is a multi (three) storeyed building with ample space of 30,000 sq. ft. built area for storage of books and reading purposes. The building has been planned by well known Architects and with the financial assistance of the UGC and Mrs. Sudha Murthy.

[edit] Student life

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[edit] Student festivals

NLSIU hosts an inter-collegiate literary and cultural festival called Legala, along with Rampart, a fashion show and Strawberry Fields. Those apart, NLSIU hosts the National Law School Debate, a parliamentary-style debating championship which gets participation from countries around the SAARC region, as also Spiritus, which is the annual sports festival.[citation needed]

[edit] Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields presents a host of different styles of music ranging from funk to death metal, and Strawberry Fields' promoters credit it for having acted as launching pad for the careers of a few bands such as Pin Drop Violence and Junkyard Groove. Boasting a line-up of over 50 bands and crowds approximating 3000-4000, Strawberry Fields' organisers claim it to be one of the most anticipated events in the Indian music calendar.[citation needed] The event is held over three days, with the grand finale on a Sunday evening featuring 5 of the best participating bands, with a professional act as the headliner. Recent headliners include Junkyard Groove and bands such as the Helborg and Lane duo have expressed an interest in playing here in the past.[citation needed]

[edit] Criticism

As stated by a former director, one of the principal objectives in establishing the NLSIU was to increase the quality of the bar.[citation needed] However, it has been pointed out that most of those who graduate from NLSIU prefer a career in corporate litigation or as legal advisers to companies, instead of joining the bar.[citation needed] While this has been attributed to the increased presence of multinational corporations in India, along with the low salaries paid by advocates, no changes seem to have been made to combat this problem. This was intensified when Clifford Chance handed training contracts to twelve NLS students in 2006,[citation needed] which led to criticism by the Executive Council, including the Chief Justice, that not enough alumni were going into full-time litigation.[citation needed] However, recent alumni surveys indicate an increasing number of alumni who leave law firms in the mid career stage and move into litigation, social development and academia.[citation needed]

In recent times the University was in news for alleged mismanagement of its faculty recruitment process and pay checks to its staff. It was alleged that the recruitment rules have been flouted and there was discrimination and favouritism in the paycheck. It was reported by The Times of India that a three member enquiry committee headed by Justice V S Malimath had been appointed to check the facts of the controversy.[1]


[edit] Journals published

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Law school in administrative mess", The Times of India
  2. ^ IJLT website
  3. ^ SLR page on the NLSIU website
  4. ^ SBR page on the NLSIU website

[edit] External links

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