The idea for the establishment of a National Law University in every state was recommended by Justice Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi in his 1994 committee report as a way to improve the standard and quality of legal education in India.[12]
The recommendations were finally implemented and National Law University, Jodhpur was set up in November 1999 by the passing of the National Law University Act, 1999 by the State Legislature of Rajasthan under the leadership of N.L. Mitra the founding Vice-Chancellor.[13]
Since the establishment, the university has seen four Vice-Chancellors, Dr. Harpreet Kaur, a professor and registrar of National Law University, Delhi being the latest, who took over charge from Dr. Poonam Pradhan Saxena in 2023 and has been the Vice-Chancellor ever since.[11][14]
The University on 14 March 2020 decided to suspend all classes till 31 March 2020 because of the state directives,[18] the same was extended indefinitely due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the nation and the classes shifted to an online medium. Unfortunately, one student succumbed to COVID-19 during this time, which led to student protests against the Vice-Chancellor and the university administration.[19]
The university started conducting online classes for the first-year Undergraduate students immediately after the declaration of the CLAT results to make up for the time lost due to the late conduction of the entrance examination.[20]
The 14th Convocation of the university happened virtually and was streamed on YouTube.[21] The 15th Convocation of the university was canceled entirely due to the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.[22]
The university after deferring the decision to reopen once[23] finally decided on 17 February 2022 to reopen the university in a hybrid mode from 1/03/2022 for all the students, keeping in mind the Rajasthan Government guidelines and the COVID-19 situation.[24]
Academics
Courses and curriculum
NLUJ currently offers following courses:
B.B.A./B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) Flagship Integrated Undergraduate Law Degree Program (5 Years/10 Semesters)[25]
The university offers its flagship five-year integrated undergraduate program in two streams B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) and B.B.A.LL.B. (Hons.)[29] Both are five year ten-semester courses with six subjects taught every semester and are open to students only on a fully residential basis.[25][30] Admission to these courses is through the Common Law Admission Test.[31]
The intake capacity of the undergraduate degree program is 104 students + 16 NRI/NRI Sponsored students with 15% and 7.5% seats being reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively. 5% seats for Physically Handicapped students is also reserved in each category.[32]
The Honors course is offered to fourth and fifth year students in the following streams:[30]
The university offers a fully residential 1 Year (two-semester) LL.M. in Corporate Laws and Intellectual Property Rights.[26] The selection for this program takes place through Common Law Admission Test (PG).[31][32]
The intake capacity for the LL.M. program is 50 Students with 15%, 7.5% and 5% seats being reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Specially Abled Persons respectively.[30]
MBA
The university offers a four-semester fully residential M.B.A. program with specialization in Insurance.[27]
The intake capacity for the MBA program is 40 Students with 15%, 7.5% and 3% seats being reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Physically Handicapped candidates respectively.[27]
The selection for this program happens based on two factors which are taken together to decide the merit.[27]
50% weightage for marks obtained in graduate program.
50% weightage for marks in various qualifying exams like CAT, CMAT or MAT based on a scale decided by the university.
PGDM
The University offers a 1 Year/2 Semester Post-Graduate Diploma (PGDM) in Insurance Risk Management.[27]
Doctorate
The university offers LL.D. and PhD programs at a doctorate level.[28]
The university conducts a National Level examination each year for the selection of candidates for the PhD program, which is followed by a personal interview, candidates who have qualified UGC-NET and JRF are exempt from the written exam.[33]
The university with the help of students and faculty publishes many high quality academic journals, a full list of the various journals published by the NLUJ is here-under:[30][35]
NLUJ Law Review: It is the flagship journal of the university. It is a bi-annual, double-blind student reviewed, and student-edited journal focusing on an inter-disciplinary approach towards legal writing. The Board of Editors consists of two faculty editors and a board of student editors at the university.[36]
Trade Law & Development:[37] It is a student-run journal launched by the university in 2009. TL&D seeks to explore interdisciplinary perspectives on world trade, international law, environment and development. The Journal is published twice a year, both online and in print.[38]
Indian Journal of Arbitration Law (IJAL) - The Indian Journal of Arbitration Law (IJAL) is a prominent academic journal published by CARTAL (Centre for Advanced Research and Training in Arbitration Law), affiliated with the National Law University, Jodhpur. Recognized internationally, IJAL is esteemed within the field of dispute resolution and serves as a reputable reference source. It holds indexing on HeinOnline, KluwerArbitration, Westlaw, and SCC, marking its presence in notable databases. IJAL consistently features contributions from well-established experts in international arbitration, contributing significantly to scholarly discourse. Within India, it has been consistently ranked as a leading journal in arbitration law and among the top peer-reviewed law journals by SCC Online. Noteworthy is the journal's impact on the field, with its articles cited in various scholarly publications, including commentaries, books, and works related to international arbitration law. The UNCITRAL's 'Bibliography of recent writings related to the work of UNCITRAL' has referenced IJAL multiple times, highlighting its relevance in international arbitration discussions. Moreover, the report by the High-Level Committee chaired by Justice (retd.) B. N. Srikrishna, reviewing the Institutionalisation of Arbitration Mechanism in India, has made references to IJAL while recommending changes to the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Notably, articles from IJAL have been cited by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, the Hon’ble Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Singapore and the Federal Court of Australia, alongside entities such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration, and the CIArb in their amicus curiae submission before the Supreme Court of the United States. Apart from its publishing role, CARTAL organizes lectures, discussions, and an annual two-day conference on International Arbitration, receiving support from various leading arbitration institutions and law firms like Linklaters, Baker McKenzie (New York/Washington D.C.), UNCITRAL, SIAC, and the ICC Court of Arbitration. IJAL holds the distinction of being the only student-run journal indexed on Kluwer Arbitration, acknowledged for its contributions by significant legal bodies, including the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee on Reforms in Arbitration.
Journal on Corporate Law and Governance
The Comparative Constitutional Law and Administrative Law Journal (ISSN: 2582-9807) ["CALJ"]: It is the flagship journal of the Centre for Constitutional Law and Administrative Law, published under the guidance of Prof. (Dr.) I.P Massey, Dean, Faculty of Law, National Law University Jodhpur. It is an open-access online journal published bi-annually, aiming to foster debate on contemporary issues in comparative constitutional law and administrative law, with a comparative perspective. The first issue of CALJ was published in 2013. The issues of CALJ are indexed on SCCOnline and Manupatra.
CALJ aims to promote scholarly excellence in the area of comparative constitutional and administrative law with a diligent editorial board, an eminent advisory board and an institution known for its academic excellence. Each issue contains articles, notes, case comments and book reviews based on contemporary issues of comparative constitutional and administrative law.
Journal of Intellectual Property Studies
Indian Journal of Legal Theory
Indian Competition Law Review
Scholasticus
MOUs and Collaboration
The university has signed many MOUs and collaborated with many different educational institutions and organizations, the list of various MOUs and Collaborations are:[39][40]
Eurasian Foundation: The Non-Profit Organization has sanctioned US$20,000/- to run a course in the university for its students and international scholars titled "Building Peace Communities in Asia".[48][49]
Research
National Law University, Jodhpur has established the following Centers with a view to facilitate students in understanding the intricacies of legal research, corporate work culture and develop insight in alternative forms of learning on academic and corporate subjects:[50][51]
Centre for Advanced Research & Training in Arbitration Law – CARTAL
The university also conducts several short and medium-term orientations, training and refresher courses for NGOs, Government officials and public administrators, local self-Government, legal professionals including members of the bar and the bench, other administrative authorities and corporate officials.
Moot Courts are needed for legal education today and they are well integrated into the curriculum of the university. They are a part of the university's culture both internally and externally. On the external side, since its establishment, the university has been hosting the M.M. Singhvi Bar Council of India Trust Moot Court Competition, organized to commemorate the memory of the late M.M. Singhvi, a lawyer in India. The Competition is organized under the aegis of the M.M. Singhvi Memorial Trust and the Bar Council of India. Teams from almost all law colleges in the country participate in the Competition and since 2007, the competition has turned international with even teams from outside India participating in the Competition.
The university also hosted the North Indian rounds of the Stetson Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, which is another Moot Court Competition. Apart from this, the university has also hosted the Surana & Surana National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition which is sponsored by Surana and Surana.
The first national competition was won in 2004 when the team composed of Manmeet Singh Rai ('08) and Sagarika Chakraborty ('08) won the national rounds of the Louis M. Brown Client Counseling Competition held at the Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur. The team subsequently represented India at the World finals of the Louis M. Brown Client Counseling Competition at Glasgow.
Since then the university has been victorious at the Susan J. Ferrell Inter-cultural Human Rights Moot Court Competition conducted by the St. Thomas University, Florida, in January 2007. The team composed of Anil Raj ('07), Gauarav Solanki ('07), Reshma Khan ('08), Kunal Mehta ('08) and Riddhi Sancheti ('09) secured the first position and also the second-best memorial prize. Also, Reshma Khan and Riddhi Sancheti were awarded the "Best Oralist" and the "Third Best Oralist" respectively.[53]
Besides, the university was an Elimination Round Participant (Frederic Eisemann Award) at the Fifteenth Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, 2008 held in Vienna.
The university teams participating in the East editions of the Vis Moot, held in Hong Kong have won several accolades, including Runners up for Best Speaker (Siddhant Chamola, 2013), Honorable Mentions for personal achievements by the speakers.
The university has qualified six times to represent India at the Shearman and Sterling Rounds (White and Case Rounds since the 2009–10 edition) of the elite Jessup Moot Court Competition (2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2015–16, 2018–19) and was Octa-Finalist in most of these Editions, also winning various memorial and speaker citations.[54]
In 2012, the university team consisting of Aritra Roy, Lakshmi Neelakantan and Jai Sahai has won the International Rounds of the Stetson Environmental Law Moot Court Competition 2012. This team also won the Surana and Surana Stetson India North Rounds earlier year.
The university team has also been a consistent performer at the Stetson International Environmental Moot Court Competition, having had won "Best Advocate" and "Best Memoranda" awards in many editions of the event. The team represented by Kartikey Mahajan ('11) and Meha Rashmi('11) won the 2009 edition of the North India rounds of the Stetson. They were also quarter-finalists at the International rounds of the Stetson moot.
In 2009, for the second year in running the university qualified for the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition to be held in Hague in 2010. They bagged the award for the 'Best Victims' Counsel' in the 2010 edition.[55] Only two teams from India had qualified for this competition.
In 2009, two members of the team representing the University at the Investment Law Arbitration Moot held at Frankfurt, Germany bagged honorable mentions for their speaking.
Teams from the university have received the Sarah Derrington Achievement Award twice at the International Maritime Law Moot Court Competition, Perth.[56]
Students from the university (teams comprising Joydeep Sarkar ('09), Kartikeya Saran ('09) and Nupur Kabra ('08) in 2008; Rishabh Chopra ('10), Shashank Prabhat Kumar ('10) and Meghana Sharafudeen ('11) in 2009; Arjun Mital ('13), Zara Kaiser ('13 and Gargi Mishra ('13) in 2012; Bharatendu Agarwal ('13), Preeti Chockalingam ('13) and Namrata Amarnath ('14) in 2013 and Ninni Thomas ('15), Aphune Kezo ('14) in 2014) have also been selected to represent India at five editions[57] of the Jean Pictet Competition on International Humanitarian Law. It also has been a consistent performer in the All India Bar Council Moot Court Competition.
Court Room Exercises(CREs)
NLUJ is the only National Law University to have Moot courts as a part of its educational curriculum. Students are required to draft memorials and subsequently participate in oral proceedings in every law subject per semester.
Legal Aid Clinic
The Legal Aid Clinic of National Law University, Jodhpur spreads legal awareness amongst the rural masses of Rajasthan through educational street plays and free legal advice.[58]
Following the Government of India's initiative of Smart Village, the Legal Aid and Awareness Committee of the University has adopted the nearby village of Surpura and has been working extensively towards the development of public facilities and basic infrastructure of the village.[59][60]
College committees
The following seven committees are student run and organize various events that take place in the university:[61]
This event is the university's biennial Inter Law College Sports fest organized by the Sports Committee since 2009, with many law universities from across India participating in this sports fest, the fifth edition of Yuvardha saw a participation of over 800 students. The main highlight of the fest is that no first round matchup is an elimination round.[68]
As of December, 2023 the university has hosted seven editions of this fest with the last one being Yuvardha VII which was hosted in October 2023.
NH-65
The Cultural Committee and the Academic Support and Literary Committee of NLUJ have been organizing this biennial Inter Law College Literary and Cultural Fest since 2010, this event derived its name from the location of the University on National Highway-65.[69][70]
As of May, 2022 the university has hosted five editions of this fest with the last one being hosted in October, 2018.[69][71]
Centre For Wellness And Counselling
The centre was established to ensure the upliftment of mental well-being of the students, the same is done by providing free of cost confidential therapy sessions, special lectures and awareness sessions on the topic of mental health.[72]
The Local Area Network (LAN) provides connectivity to the entire campus including the Halls of Residence.[74] Wireless Internet connectivity is also provided throughout the campus.[74]
Graduate Outcomes
Students who have graduated from NLUJ have pursued many diverse range of careers, some of them are as follows:
National Law School of India University (NLSIU), or simply National Law School(NLS), is a public law school and a National Law University in Bangalore. The university was established by the NLSIU Act of 1986, which was passed by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
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The Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) is an eminent public law school and a National Law University established under the Gujarat National Law University Act, 2003 in the state of Gujarat. The university is located at Gandhinagar, which is the capital of Gujarat and is located 23 kilometers north of the city of Ahmedabad. The statute provides for the Chief Justice of India or a Senior Supreme Court Judge to serve as the Visitor of the university.
The National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) / NLU Kochi is a public law school and a National Law University located in Kochi, India. It is the first and only National Law University (NLU) in the State of Kerala and is one of the 26 NLUs in India. Admissions to the university are done on the basis of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) which is one among the Top 10 hardest entrance examinations of India.
National Law Universities (NLU) are public law schools in India, founded pursuant to the second-generation reforms for legal education sought to be implemented by the Bar Council of India. The first NLU was the National Law School of India University aka NLS/NLU Bangalore which admitted its first batch in 1988. Since then, most of the states in India have NLUs. Currently there are 27 NLUs across the country out of which one is an off-centre campus of NLU Gandhinagar, GNLU SILVASSA Campus. Since the inception of NLUs, these law schools have continuously been ranked as India's most and world's one of the most prestigious and premier law schools by various agencies and are also referred as IITs of Legal Education.
Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) is a public law school and a National Law University located in New Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. It was named after the former Chief Justice of India, Mohammad Hidayatullah. It is one of the autonomous law schools in India and sixth in the series of such national law schools. It was established as a centre for legal excellence by the Government of Chhattisgarh under the Hidayatullah National University of Law, Chhattisgarh Act. The university offers a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) integrated Program, an L.L.M. Program, and a PhD Course.
ILS Law College, or in its full name Indian Law Society's Law College, is a government-aided law school in Pune, India. It was established in 1924 and offers courses that include three-year and five-year degrees. ILS is located on Law College Road, Pune. The college was aided by the Ford Foundation.
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Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, also known as RMLNLU or NLU Lucknow is a public law school and a National Law University located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was established as Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law Institute undergraduate and post-graduate legal education, later in 2006 it was renamed as RMLNLU to give a NLU touch to its name. It is one among the 26 NLUs across India and the first one established in Uttar Pradesh. It is among the top 10 National Law Universities / Law colleges in India.
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References
↑ Act, 1999, The National Law University, Jodhpur (8 October 1999). "NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY JODHPUR"(PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ JODHPUR, NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY. "RECOGNITION"(PDF). NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR. Archived(PDF) from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
1 2 Brochure, CLAT 2023 (2023). "Brochure NLUJ 2023"(PDF). Consortium of National Law Universities. Archived(PDF) from the original on 12 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ "About". Centre for Studies in Banking and Finance. 16 September 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
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