National Law School of India University

Motto	Dharmo Rakshati Rakshata (Those who protect Dharma are protected by Dharma)
Established	1987
Type	National University
Vice-Chancellor	Dr. A. Jayagovind
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 India's premier 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. Image File history File links Nlsiulogo. ... A motto is a phrase or a short list of words meant to formally describe the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. ... Dharma (Sanskrit धर्म) or Dhamma (Pāli) means Natural Law or Reality, and with respect to its significance for spirituality and religion might be considered the Way of the Higher Truths. ... The date of establishment or date of founding of an institution is the date on which that institution chooses to claim as its starting point. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Vice-Chancellor (commonly called the VC) of a university in the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries, and some universities in Hong Kong, is the de facto head of the university. ... In some educational systems, an undergraduate is a post-secondary student pursuing a Bachelors degree. ... A graduate school or grad school is a school that awards advanced degrees, with the general requirement that students must have earned an undergraduate (bachelors) degree. ... The Vidhana Soudha is the seat of Karnatakas Legislative assembly Bangalore (Kannada: ; (?) in Kannada and // in English) is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. ... Karnātakā (Kannada: ಕನಾ೯ಟಕ, Hindi: कर्नाटक) (IPA: //) is one of the four southern states of India. ... An urban area is a term used to define an area where there is an increased density of human-created structures in comparison to the areas surrounding it. ... This page as shown in the aol 9. ... The Vidhana Soudha is the seat of Karnatakas Legislative assembly Bangalore (Kannada: ; (?) in Kannada and // in English) is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Karnātakā (Kannada: ಕನಾ೯ಟಕ, Hindi: कर्नाटक) (IPA: //) is one of the four southern states of India. ... August 29 is the 241st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (242nd in leap years), with 124 days remaining. ...

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. Set up as a "pace-setter and a testing ground for bold experiments in legal education", the NLSIU admits 80 students for its immensely popular 5-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) programme every year. Students are chosen on the basis of a highly competitive all-India entrance exam (less than 2% of the total number of applicants make it through), held on the first Sunday in May each year. Foreign nationals are encouraged, with five seats being reserved for foreign nationals (preferably from SAARC countries). The South Asian Association for Regional Co-Operation, or SAARC, (established December 8, 1985) is an association of 7 countries of South Asia namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. ...

While in most common law countries, law education is post-graduate ("graduate" in USA) education, the Bar Council of India decided to make the NLSIU law programme a five-year one, with courses in the liberal arts included in the first two years. This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...

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 1992, when it eventually moved to its present location in Nagarbhavi. A doyen of legal education in India, he was instrumental in setting up the National Law School of India University in Bangalore, and was its Founder-Director. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In addition to the five-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) under-graduate course, it also offers graduate courses in Business Laws and Human Rights, along with Distance Learning programmes. Plans are said to be underway to increase the number of courses on offer.

Legal research and student activities

NLSIU periodically conducts round-table conferences on contemporary socio-economic and legal issues, particularly in the context of challenges faced by a developing country. Furthermore, its faculty and research centres are often called upon to provide draft versions of legislations as well as to contribute to formulation of government policies.

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 extra-curricular 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.

Student Festivals

NLSIU hosts an inter-collegiate literary and cultural festival called Legala, along with Rampart, a fashion show and Strawberry Fields, which claims to be India's biggest rock show, drawing more than fifty bands in the most recent editions. Strawberry Fields is noted for having been a launching pad for the careers of a few bands such as Pin Drop Violence and presents a host of different styles of music, ranging from funk to blues to death metal. Apart from that, it also 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. Pin Drop Violence is a rock group from Bombay, India. ...

Achievements

The main reason NLSIU has the stature it does is its record of 100% placement (i.e., all those who sit for the recruitment process get jobs). The recruitment process is managed by the student-run Recruitment Coordination Committee (RCC). Now, with the rise of other universities following the National Law School model, this seems to be a less exceptional feat.

Many students do not sit for the on-campus recruitment process, choosing to pursue further studies. Students from the National Law School managed to secure a Rhodes Scholarship (two scholarships in the years 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2005) for study in Oxford in every single year from 1996 to 2004, out of the six scholarships allotted annually to India, which is a feat unmatched by any other college in India. Students have also secured a number of other prominent fellowships and can be found in the some of the top law faculties in the world. Rhodes House in Oxford The Rhodes Scholarships were created by Cecil Rhodes and have been awarded to applicants annually since 1902 by the Oxford-based Rhodes Trust on the basis of academic qualities, as well as those of character. ...

Teams from NLSIU regularly take part in moot court competitions] and parliamentary debates at an international level. In 1999, the NLSIU team won what is arguably the most prestigious moot competition in the world, the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition conducted by the ILSA which is held in Washington, D.C., every year. Furthermore, it has also won the Stetson International Environment Moot Court Competition conducted by the Stetson University College of Law in Florida. It has also regularly participated and made the break many times in the Willem C. Vis Commercial Arbitration moot (hosted by Pace Law School), making the quarter-finals in 2004 and 2005 (making the cut in second place), and has been a semi-finalist in the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot. NLSIU teams have also been regular at the World Universities Debating Championship as well as the All-Asian Intervarsity Debating Championships. Moot court (sometimes synonymous with mock trial) is an extracurricular activity in many law schools. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Stetson University is a private, co-educational university in DeLand, Florida, United States, with a teacher education center in Celebration, Florida, a main Stetson University Law School in Gulfport, Florida (near St. ...

The National Law School has been rated the number one law college in India by India Today from 1998, when the magazine started publishing its annual list, until the year 2004, and again in 2006. India Today is one of the Indias best-selling and most widely circulated weekly magazines, and is run by Aroon Purie. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Alumni

Despite being a young law school, its alumni have been making a name for themselves all over the world. They can be found in a wide range of fields, from law firms, to international organisations, to journalism and even modelling.

Criticism

As stated by a former director, one of the principle objectives in establishing the NLSIU was to increase the quality of the bar. 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. 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. A bar association is a professional body of lawyers who, in some jurisdictions, are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession. ...

Journals published

• Indian Journal of Law and Technology [1]
• Socio-Legal Review [2]
• Student Bar Review [3]

See also

• De Minimis (the NLSIU a cappella group)

De Minimis is the contemporary a cappella group of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, India and consists entirely of undergraduate students of the B.A., LL.B. (Hons. ... A cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. ...

External links

• Official website
• Quirk website