^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."
National Law School of India University (NLSIU), or simply National Law School(NLS), is a publiclaw school and a National Law University located in Bangalore, considered by rankings to be the best law school in India.
Having been spearheaded by the then Chief Justice Y. V. Chandrachud, National Law School was the first National Law University (NLU) to be established in India as well as one of the first in the country to offer the five-year integrated BA-LLB programme.
The university was established by the NLSIU Act of 1986 passed by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. By statute, the visitor of the school is the Chief Justice of India, who also is the de factoChancellor.[b] The day-to-day management and administration of the university is undertaken by the Vice-Chancellor. The founding of the school was the idea of N. R. Madhava Menon who also went on to establish other NLUs in the country as part of law education reforms.
Spread over 23 acres of campus, it houses India's largest law library and hosts some of the country's largest competitions and events, two of which are the NLS Debate and Strawberry Fields. The school is known for its highly competitive admissions which are screened through the Common Law Admission Test and National Law School Admission Test (NLSAT). It has a yearly intake of 568 students across its programmes.
Menon was keen on ensuring that the teaching at the university was not conducted in the traditional lecture format, which was then popular across Indian law colleges. As such, he introduced the case method, which originated at the Harvard Law School in the early 1900s. He also introduced the concept of group teaching, where more than one professor would conduct classes, with the professors taking contradictory positions and arguing the various points of law.[5]
The first batch of law students joined the school's undergraduate programme on 1 July 1988. Classes commenced before the school's buildings had been fully constructed; with instruction having been conducted at the premises of the Central College of Bangalore University until November 1991. The school then formally moved to its present-day location in the Nagarbhavi suburb.
Administration
Section 7 of The National Law School of India Act, 1986 names the Chief Justice of India as the Visitor of the school. This position is of the de factoChancellor. They have been given with wide-range of powers to cause inspection into the functions of the school.
The Vice-Chancellor of the school is the chief executive officer of the university, conducting day-to-day operations of the school. The first Vice Chancellor was the founder N. R. Madhava Menon. The school has since had five more Vice-Chancellors, namely N. L. Mitra, A. Jayagovind, G. Mohan Gopal, R. Venkata Rao, and Sudhir Krishnaswamy, who took over in 2019.[6]
Admissions to 5-year undergraduate programme are based on the Common Law Admission Test-undergraduate (CLAT-UG). For the 2023-28 session of the undergraduate CLAT, a total of 56,472 students contested for 2644 seats out of which 240 were of NLSIU.[8]
In 2020, NLSIU withdrew from the CLAT and announced it would be holding its own entrance examination called the National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT) which was later turned down by the Supreme Court of India.[9]
In June 2021, NLSIU announced a major expansion plan. The plan entails increasing the number of students enrolled on campus exponentially from 660 in 2021 to 2,200 in 2028. The increase in the number of students will mainly be as a result of increasing batch size of the BALLB cohort and establishing a three-year LLB course.[10]
NLSIU voluntarily accommodated 25% reservation for Karnataka students across its admissions but the Government of Karnataka has disputed the way it is practically implemented.[11]
Academics
One of the university buildings
Undergraduate
NLSIU offers school graduates its flagship five-year integrated B.A./LL.B. which qualifies the student to sit for the bar to practice law in India.
The undergraduate B.A./LL.B. curriculum at the school consists of a mix of social science and legal subjects. In the first two years, the law student attends courses on history, political science, sociology and economics alongside standard legal subjects, such as torts, contracts and constitutional law. In the latter three years, legal subjects dominate the curriculum.
In 2017, NLSIU radically overhauled its academic curriculum, allowing students to choose a greater number of their upper-year courses. The aim of the change was to bring NLSIU in line with international best-practices allowing students to explore areas of their interest to a greater degree.[12] This overhaul was also aimed at increasing the number of courses offered by industry practitioners by allowing for flexible evaluation patterns.
Postgraduate
NLSIU launched a three-year standard LLB programme in 2022, making it the first NLU to do so.[13][14]
The school offers both coursework and research degrees at the postgraduate level. The LL.M. is a one-year coursework degree. The PhDs are research degrees.[15]
NLSIU offers a two-year residential Master's Programme in Public Policy (MPP) programme, organised in six trimesters.[16] In 2016 the UGC had asked NLSIU to change the name of MPP to Master of Arts (MA) in Public Policy.[17]
In addition to the above full-time programmes, the school's Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) offers several part-time distance learning programmes, including a master's degree in Business Law (MBL) and Postgraduate Diploma programmes in various fields.[18]
National Law School of India is widely considered the best law school of India, ranking number one in all indices related to the law education. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked the institute first in its law ranking of 2023[22] as did India Today's "India's Best Colleges 2023: Law"[23] and Outlook India's "Top 13 Government Law Institutes" of 2023.[24]
Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial National Law Library
The Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial National Law Library at the school is the largest law library in the country, housing a collection of over 50,000 books and 20,000 journals covering a wide range of general and special subjects, comprising textbooks, reference books, back volumes of journals and reports, apart from current legal periodicals.[25] It is named after Narayan Rao Melgiri, who was a distinguished lawyer in Gadag. The Melgiri Library was inaugurated by Chief Justice of India Ramesh Chandra Lahoti in 2005. The library was built through contributions from the University Grants Commission (India) and Sudha Murthy,[25] chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and also the grand daughter of Melgiri.[26]
In 1995, the first UNHCR Chair for Refugee Law was inaugurated at NLSIU.[28] It serves as the Asian Centre for Refugee Law.[29]N. Subramanya worked on issues pertaining to refugees during his tenure as researcher under the UNHCR Chair and in 2004 two of his books about refugees were published.[30]
Student activities
The 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 has created various Activity-Based Committees (ABCs) which are in charge of specific student activities.[32]
NLSIU has a total of twelve ABCs which coordinate the activities of the Student Bar Association (SBA). These committees are re-constituted every year. The Co-ordination Council consists of the Convenors/Joint Convenors of the ABCs. This Council is responsible for ensuring that the various ABCs function coherently. A wide range of internal as well as inter-institutional activities throughout the academic year are organised by the ABCs and the Co-ordination Council. These include Spiritus (Sports Festival), Strawberry Fields (Music Festival), the NLS-Trilegal International Arbitration Moot, the NLS Negotiation and Mediation Competition and Admit One (Theater Festival). Students are also responsible for the publication of Quirk, an online magazine at NLSIU, which seeks to provide space to engage in a meaningful and mature dialogue.[33]
Competitive debating
NLSIU plays an active role in promoting parliamentary style debate in India. The school regularly participates in many international competitions and is currently the highest-ranking Indian team in the World rankings.[34] 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. Three out of the four semi-finalist teams, and six of the top ten speakers, were from NLSIU. Another boost for the Parliamentary Debate movement in NLSIU came in the form of the Cambridge University Debate Competition 2009, where the NLSIU team became the first South Asian team to "make the break" and reach the second round of the competition.[35] NLSIU teams have also performed extremely well in the inaugural Asians BP Tournament held in Chulalongkorn University, with all three of its teams reaching the semi-finals of the tournament, and two out of the top ten speakers (and four in the top 20). Since then, NLS has reached the semi-finals of the United Asian Debating Championships held at Assumption University, Bangkok, in 2010. The NLSIU team of Anil Sebastian Pulickel and Aniruddha Basu have also been finalists at ABP. NLSIU speakers are consistently ranked at the top of parliamentary debates at the national and international level.
NLSIU also hosts South Asia's biggest Parliamentary Debate Competition, the National Law School Debate.[36] The inaugural edition of the NLS Debate was held in 2002. The competition brings together participants from across South Asia. In 2011, NLSIU's Literary and Debating Society launched two new initiatives – the NLS Union Debate[37] and the NLS Debate Junior. Christ Junior College is also organising a parliamentary debate, in a tie-up with NLS.[38]
Students from the 5th year of the undergraduate course can take the opportunity to spend a semester abroad as part of the student exchange program run by the NLSIU. The University has MoUs for the same with over 30 universities all across the world, including the Georgetown University Law Center, National University of Singapore and the Sciences Po. Students from a number of these universities also visit NLSIU on short-term and long-term exchange programs.
Graduate Outcomes
Students graduating from the school pursue a diverse range of careers. A number of students opt to join corporate or other law firms. These may also include roles as business analysts in consultancy firms. Several students enter litigation careers, with a number of alumni having distinguished themselves in various courts across the country. NLSIU has produced 25 Rhodes Scholars.[45]
The founder Menon had outlined two objectives of the school and its replicas; first being to "strengthen the trial courts with competent judges at the grass roots" and the next being "to act as a pace setter in legal education reforms". He conceded in 2017 that he sees the former objective not being achieved. He believed this is because of the absorption of the school's talent by the corporate sector rather than by the grassroot litigation.[46]
A cultural performance during the 10th Asian Law Institute Conference with the theme "Celebrating Diversity: 10 Years of AsLI" - hosted by the university.
Vice-Chancellor Krishnaswamy signing an MoU with Major General V. M. Chandran from the Army Training Command regarding training army officers on cyber laws and legal studies
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.
^Out of the total, 56 are core faculty, 3 are adjunct faculty and 34 are visiting faculty
^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 intake is expected to be 300 for the session of 2024-29
^"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.
^ ab"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.
^"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.
^"NLUs – The birth of National Law School". Careers360. 24 October 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2023. The impact of the NLUs goes beyond conventional legal practice around courts and tribunals. In fact, in the initial period, the entire product was absorbed by the private corporate law firms denying talents to the litigating bar. Even the judicial services did not attract enough of the new set of law graduates. Gradually, a sizeable section migrated to litigative practice in the appellate courts. Even then, the trial courts which needed them most, did not get enough numbers of the new set of lawyers. In fact, this development necessitates a fresh look at the scheme of legal education started in Bangalore in late 1980s. One of the major objects of the National Law School experiment at that time was to strengthen the trial courts with competent judges at the grass roots and to act as a pace setter in legal education reforms. The latter object was completely fulfilled; it is now for legal educators to review the scheme to serve the needs of the litigating public particularly in the rural and tribal areas instead of blindly replicating the Bangalore model of 1980s.
