National Law School of India University

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National Law School of India University
National Law School of India University Logo.svg
Other name
National Law School, NLS Bangalore, NLSIU
Motto
Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah (trans. Dharma protects those who protect it)
Type State University [1]
Established1986;39 years ago (1986)
Founder N. R. Madhava Menon
Affiliation UGC, BCI
Budget ₹38 crores [2]
Chancellor Chief Justice of India (de facto) [i]
Vice-Chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy
Dean Saurabh Bhattacharjee
RegistrarN.S. Nigam
Total staff
109 (16 - Administration) (93 - Academic) [a]
Students935
CampusUrban-located residential-cum-day school, 23 acres (9.3 ha)
Language English
Founding document The National Law School of India Act, 1986
Website www.nls.ac.in
  1. ↑ As per section 7 of the Act, "the Chief Justice of India or his nominee who is a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court shall be the visitor of the School."

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), commonly referred to as the National Law School (NLS), is a public state law university established under the National Law School of India Act, 1986, enacted by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Located in Bangalore, India, it is widely regarded as one of the country’s leading institutions for legal education and has consistently been ranked first in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for law.

Contents

The University offers a five-year undergraduate Bachelor of Arts–Bachelor of Laws programme (BA LLB) and a one-year LLM programme. Entrance to these programmes is through the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).

Additionally, the University has an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts (Honours) programme, a three-year LLB (Honours) postgraduate programme, a two-year Master’s Programme in Public Policy, and doctoral degrees in law and social sciences, humanities and public policy.

Spread over a lush 23 acres, the campus houses India's largest legal library and hosts some of the country's well-known competitions and events, including the NLS Debate and Strawberry Fields festival.

The NLSIU is the only Indian institute to have won the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, having done so in 1999 and 2013. Furthermore, 25 alumni have been Rhodes scholars.

History

The National Law School was founded after two decades of work by lawyers including former Chief Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah, Ram Jethmalani and Upendra Baxi, who petitioned the Legal Education Committee of the Bar Council of India to establish a university to rival Harvard Law School. [3] Subsequently, the Bar Council of India Trust and Government of Karnataka reached an agreement to found the first National Law University in Bangalore. [4] In 1986, the National Law University of India was established under the leadership of its founder, then Vice-Chancellor N. R. Madhava Menon. [5]

Menon ensured that the teaching at the university was based on the case method at Harvard rather than the traditional lecture format that was then rampant across Indian law schools. He also introduced to the university the concept of collaborative teaching, wherein more than one professor would conduct classes, with different professors taking and arguing contradictory positions in jurisprudence. [6]

The first batch of undergraduate law students were enrolled in 1 July 1988. Classes commenced before the school's buildings had been fully constructed, with lessons delivered at the Central College of Bangalore University until November 1991. Thereafter, the school moved to its current location in the Nagarbhavi suburb.

In 1995, the first UNHCR Chair for Refugee Law was inaugurated at NLSIU, [7] which serves as the Asian Centre for Refugee Law. [8] Professor N. Subramanya worked on key issues pertaining to refugees during his tenure. [9]

Administration

The Chief Justice of India is the Visitor and de facto Chancellor of the school, with the ability to adjudicate and advise the operations of the school. [10] The Vice-Chancellor of the school is the chief executive of the university and manages the day-to-day operations of the school. The school has had five more Vice-Chancellors since Menon, namely N. L. Mitra, A. Jayagovind, G. Mohan Gopal, R. Venkata Rao, and Sudhir Krishnaswamy, who took over in 2019. [11]

The administration of the school is governed by the General Council, Executive Council, Academic Council, and Finance Council. [12] These Councils comprise key figures from the Government of Karnataka, the Chief Justice of India, the Chairman of the Bar Council of India, Judges of the Supreme Court of India, the Advocate General of Karnataka, as well as Ministers and Secretaries from the Karnataka State Government. Additionally, distinguished legal scholars contribute to the governance of the institution. [13]

Admissions

Admissions to the 5-year undergraduate BA LLB (Hons) programme are based on the Common Law Admission Test-undergraduate (CLAT-UG). For the 2023-24 session of the undergraduate CLAT, a total of 56,472 students competed for 2644 total law seats, out of which 240 were offered at the NLSIU. [14] In 2020, the NLSIU attempted to withdraw from the CLAT, announcing that it would hold its own entrance examination. This decision was soon overturned by the Supreme Court of India. [15]

The postgraduate version of the CLAT screens candidates for the Master of Laws Programme. CLAT is administered by the Consortium of NLUs.

Candidates of the undergraduate BA (Hons), three-year LLB (Hons), Master of Public Policy, and Doctor of Philosophy are screened by the National Law School Admission Tests (NLSAT) conducted by NLSIU.

In June 2021, the NLSIU announced a plan to increase the number of students enrolled on campus from 660 in 2021 to 2,200 in 2028, led by increasing the batch sizes of the BA-LLB cohort and the establishing of a three-year LLB course. [16]

The NLSIU has preserved 25% of seats for home students of Karnataka across admissions, but the Government of Karnataka has reservations on the manner in which this policy has been implemented. [17]

Academics

The original Academic Block, now known as the Old Academic Block (OAB) National Law School of India University, Bangalore, India - 20130524-05.JPG
The original Academic Block, now known as the Old Academic Block (OAB)

Undergraduate

The NLSIU offers graduates a five-year integrated BA/LLB which qualifies the student to sit for the bar in India. The curriculum consists of a blend of social science and law subjects. In the first two years, students attend courses in history, political science, sociology and economics, alongside legal subjects such as tort, contract and constitutional law. In the subsequent three years, students mainly study legal subjects.

In 2017, NLSIU overhauled its academic curriculum to allow students to choose a greater number of their upper-year courses, allowing students to explore areas of interest to a greater degree. [18]

In 2025, the university introduced [19] a three-year BA (Hons) programme with the option of an additional fourth year for research. Every student in the NLS BA (Hons.) programme [20] will have the option of electing a major-minor combination, or a double major. The majors and minors will be in the same areas/disciplines that are currently taught within the BA LLB (Hons.) programme. These disciplines are: 1) History, 2) Sociology & Anthropology, 3) Economics, and 4) Politics.

Postgraduate

NLSIU launched a three-year LLB programme in 2022, making it the first National Law University to do so. [21] [22]

The school offers a one-year LLM by coursework, a two-year MPP, and doctorate programmes in law and social sciences, humanities and public policy. . [23] [24] [25]

In addition to the above full-time programmes, the school's Professional And Continuing Education (PACE) department offers several part-time distance learning programmes, including a Masters in Business Law and postgraduate diplomas in various fields. [26]

Rankings

University rankings
Law – India
NIRF (2024) [27] 1
India Today (2022) [28] 1
Government colleges: 
Outlook India (2022) [29] 1

National Law School of India is widely considered the best law school in India. The National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked the institute first in its law ranking of 2023 and 2024, [30] [31] as did India Today 's "India's Best Colleges 2023: Law", [32] and Outlook India 's "Top 13 Government Law Institutes" of 2023. [33]

Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial National Law Library

The NLSIU's Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial National Law Library is the largest law library in the country, housing a collection of over 50,000 books and 20,000 journals. [34] It is named after Narayan Rao Melgiri, a lawyer in Gadag. The Melgiri Library was inaugurated by Chief Justice of India Ramesh Chandra Lahoti in 2005, and was funded by contributions from the University Grants Commission (India) and Sudha Murthy, chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and granddaughter of Melgiri. [35] [34]

In 2023, Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud and Bhutan Princess Sonam Dechen Wangchuck inaugurated a renovated library building, which now includes a number of accessibility features, including braille printers, screen readers, and desktop magnifiers. [36]

Student activities

Student Bar Association

The Student Bar Association (SBA) is the umbrella body that coordinates all student activities. All students are de facto members of the SBA. The SBA oversees twelve activity-based committees (ABCs) that manage specific student activities. [37] [38] Institutional events include the Spiritus sports festival, Strawberry Fields music festival, the NLS-Trilegal International Arbitration Moot, the NLS Negotiation and Mediation Competition, and the Admit One theater festival. Students also run the publication of Quirk, an online magazine at NLSIU. [39]

Competitive debating

NLSIU plays an active role in promoting parliamentary style debate in India. The school regularly participates in international competitions and is currently the highest-ranking Indian team in the debating world rankings. [40]

NLSIU reached the ESL Finals in 2002 and in 2007 at the World Universities Debating Championship. It also recently won the 15th All Asian Debating Championships held in Dhaka in 2008. NLSIU was the first South Asian team to reach the second round of the Cambridge University Debate Competition. [41] All three NLSIU teams reached the semi-finals in the inaugural Asians BP Tournament held in Chulalongkorn University, with two out of the top ten speakers being from the university. The school has also reached the semi-finals of the United Asian Debating Championships 2010.

Beginning in 2002, the NLSIU has hosted South Asia's largest parliamentary debate competition, the National Law School Debate. [42] In 2011, the NLSIU launched the NLS Union Debate and the NLS Debate Junior. [43] Christ Junior College also organised a debate with NLS in 2011. [44]

Moot court competitions

The NLSIU is the only law school in South Asia to have won the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition twice, in 1999 and 2013. [45] It also reached the Jessup finals in 2018. [46] The university has also won the Monroe E. Price Media Law Moot Court Competition at the University of Oxford in 2021. [47] NLSIU has also won the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court competition in 2009, [48] 2012 [49] and most recently in 2017. [50]

Notable people

Alumni

Faculty

Publications

There are numerous journals published by the students and faculty at NLSIU. Their National Law School of India Review has been cited by the Supreme Court of India in two notable judgments including the Right to Privacy verdict, which is the only student-run law journal of the already few Indian law journals to have been cited by the Supreme Court of India.[ citation needed ]

These are the journals published by the school:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Out of the total, 56 are core faculty, 3 are adjunct faculty and 34 are visiting faculty

References

  1. ↑ "State University". University Grants Commission (UGC), India. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  2. ↑ Financial statement for FY 2021-22
  3. ↑ "NLUs – The birth of National Law School". Careers360. 24 October 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  4. ↑ "National Law Universities, Original Intent & Real Founders | Live Law". Live Law. 24 July 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  5. ↑ "Articles – Manupatra". articles.manupatra.com. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  6. ↑ "About NLSIU". National Law School of India University. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  7. ↑ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (11 September 1995). "Information note on UNHCR's activities for refugee law promotion, dissemination and training". UNHCR. Retrieved 19 August 2011. This year, the first UNHCR Chair for Refugee Law was inaugurated at the National Law School of India University in Bangalore.
  8. ↑ "United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Chair on Refugee Law". National Law School of India University. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  9. ↑ V. C. Keshava, Exploring Mysore: a complete data map in a special style, V.S.R. Prakashana, 2004
  10. ↑ Section 7 of The National Law School of India Act, 1986
  11. ↑ "Sudhir Krishnaswamy takes charge as NLSIU's vice-chancellor". Hindustan Times. 26 September 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  12. ↑ Section 8 of The National Law School of India Act, 1986
  13. ↑ Section 2 of The National Law School of India Act, 1986
  14. ↑ "CLAT 2023 Seat Allotment: Seat Matrix, Cut Off, Admission". College Dunia. There are 2644 seats for UG Program,914 seats for PG Program
  15. ↑ "NLSIU Bangalore will not accept CLAT, to conduct own test for 2020-21, apply now". Hindustan Times. 3 September 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "NLSIU Inclusion and Expansion Plan 2021-25". National Law School of India University. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  17. ↑ Chacko, Jelsyna (7 January 2023). "25% horizontal reservation for Karnataka domicile students in place: NLSIU responds to State Law Minister". Bar and Bench - Indian Legal news. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  18. ↑ "'Freedom of choice': NLSIU radically overhauls LLB course structure, following Nalsar, Oxford, Harvard, NUS into electives style". www.legallyindia.com. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  19. ↑ "36 years after it changed teaching of law, NLSIU opens doors to liberal arts". The Indian Express. 12 December 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  20. ↑ "NLSIU launches three-year BA programme". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  21. ↑ "NLSIU Bengaluru to conduct NLSAT 2022 for 3-year LLB programme". news.careers360.com. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  22. ↑ Staff Reporter (31 October 2021). "NLSIU to launch 3-year LLB programme". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  23. ↑ "Ph.D in Law". National Law School of India University. Retrieved 7 January 2023. The Ph.D in Law programme is designed for post-graduate students who wish to advance their studies through research in law.
  24. ↑ "Master's Programme in Public Policy".
  25. ↑ "UGC asks National Law School of India University to rename flagship course". 17 February 2016.
  26. ↑ "Online and Hybrid Programmes". National Law School of India University. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  27. ↑ "National Institutional Ranking Framework 2024 (Law)". National Institutional Ranking Framework . Ministry of Education. 12 August 2024.
  28. ↑ "India's Best Colleges 2022: Law". India Today . 2022.
  29. ↑ "Outlook-ICARE Rankings 2022: Top 13 Government Law Institutes In India". Outlook India . 8 July 2022.
  30. ↑ "NIRF 2024 Rank" (PDF).
  31. ↑ "NIRF 2023: NLSIU best law school for 6th time, IISc retains 2nd spot". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  32. ↑ "Best Colleges in India 2023 Ranking, Fees, Courses, Exams and Jobs - India Today". bestcolleges.indiatoday.in. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  33. ↑ "Outlook-ICARE Rankings 2023: Top 13 Government Law Institutes". Outlook .
  34. 1 2 "History". Sri Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial National Law Library. Retrieved 7 January 2023. The library houses a collection of over 50,000 books and 20,000 journals covering a wide range of general and special subjects, comprising of textbooks, reference books, back volumes of journals and reports, apart from current legal periodicals. Computerized catalogues have been introduced to assist the students and research scholars in locating information in their areas of research.
  35. ↑ "Karnataka / Bangalore News : Director thanks Dharam Singh". The Hindu . Chennai, India. 29 August 2005. Archived from the original on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 24 September 2011. He said that the library inaugurated by Chief Justice of India R.C. Lahoti has been named after Narayan Rao Melgiri of Gadag, who was a distinguished lawyer and grandfather of Sudha Murthy, Chairperson of Infosys Foundation.
  36. ↑ DHNS. "Revamped NLSIU library prioritises access, new-gen tech". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  37. ↑ "ABC Overview". Abctabulation.wordpress.com. 14 September 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  38. ↑ Constitution of the Student Bar Association
  39. ↑ "About us – Quirk". nlsquirks.in. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  40. ↑ "World Debate Website". Flynn.debating.net. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  41. ↑ "NLS Debate | Organisers". Nlsdebate.in. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  42. ↑ "Lanka Law School wins NLS Debate". LegallyIndia.com. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  43. ↑ "NLS Debate Union is Back". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  44. ↑ "NLS Students Teach Student Debaters Verbal Warfare". The Bangalore Mirror. 4 November 2011. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  45. ↑ "NLSIU Bangalore wins the 54th Jessup International Moot Court Competition".
  46. ↑ "Breaking: NLSIU Bangalore WINS the Jessup world cup of mooting after 14 years".
  47. ↑ "International Rounds 2021". 11 March 2021.
  48. ↑ "NLSIU makes mooting history: India wins Manfred Lachs for the first time". Barandbench.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  49. ↑ "NLS Bangalore wins Manfred Lachs space moot grand slam after 3 years [Update]".
  50. ↑ "2017 Lachs Moot Court winners » International Institute of Space Law". iislweb.org. Archived from the original on 21 October 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  51. ↑ "Shamnad Basheer, My Friend And One of the Country's Brightest Legal Minds". The Wire. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  52. ↑ Ganguli, A.K. (2004). "Review of REJUVINATING[sic] JUDICIAL SYSTEM THROUGH GOVERNANCE & ATTITUDINAL CHANGE". Journal of the Indian Law Institute. 46 (1): 133–137. ISSN   0019-5731. JSTOR   43952425.
  53. ↑ "Gautam Bhatia - Forbes India Magazine". Forbes India. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  54. ↑ "Bhattarai, Ananda". SAGE Publications Inc. 7 December 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  55. ↑ "Menaka Guruswamy | Center for Contemporary South Asia". watson.brown.edu. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  56. ↑ "Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy: The 100 Most Influential People of 2019". TIME. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  57. ↑ "Professor Prabha Kotiswaran". www.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  58. ↑ Office, NLSIU Alumni. "Vice Chancellor's Message". NLSIU Alumni Office. Retrieved 13 January 2023The footnote mentions that Krishnaswamy graduated in 1998.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  59. ↑ "NLS grad, IPS DIG Aparna Kumar gets Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award after scaling 7 peaks on 7 continents". www.legallyindia.com. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  60. ↑ "K Vijay Kumar - The Peninsula Foundation" . Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  61. ↑ Bose, Praveen (16 September 2010). "BS People: R Srikumar". Business Standard India. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  62. ↑ "Lawrence Liang — The Centre for Internet and Society". cis-india.org. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  63. ↑ "Honourable Mr. Hari Prasad Phuyal". supremecourt.gov.np. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  64. ↑ "Lavanya Rajamani | Faculty of Law". www.law.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  65. ↑ Chacko, Jelsyna. "Aim to involve alumni in re-branding of NALSAR: New Vice-Chancellor Prof Srikrishna Deva Rao". Bar and Bench - Indian Legal news. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  66. ↑ "Krishna Udayasankar". National Law School of India University. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  67. ↑ "An island tale". The Hindu. 9 November 2015. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  68. ↑ "Jamia - Faculties - Faculty of Law - Faculty Members - Dr. Rose Varghese (Retd.)". www.jmi.ac.in. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  69. ↑ Almeida, Albertina. "Albertina Almeida". The Al-Zulaij Collective. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  70. ↑ "S Rajendra Babu takes over as NHRC chairman". DNA India. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  71. ↑ Bloomsbury.Domain.Store.Site. "Ajay Gudavarthy: Bloomsbury Publishing (IN)". www.bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  72. ↑ "Prof. (Dr.) Shashikala Gurpur". CMR University. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  73. ↑ "National Law University Delhi". nludelhi.ac.in. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  74. ↑ "University of Dar es Salaam - University of Dar es Salaam School of Law". www.udsm.ac.tz. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  75. ↑ "Vice Chancellor | The National Law Institute University Bhopal" . Retrieved 13 January 2023.
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