NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad has recently received funding from the Union Ministry for Law and Justice to conduct an empirical study on the state of legal education in India. In the first phase (August-September 2016), as part of this study, faculty members from NALSAR will be visiting most of the NLUs (barring those which are less than 5 years old) to interact with a cross-section of individuals involved in administration, faculty members and students. In the second and more substantive phase (November 2016 – March 2017), our intention is to cover a representative sampling of law colleges and departments that are part of larger public and private universities.
The emphasis of this exercise will be on gathering opinions about questions pertaining to (i) the explicit and implicit barriers to legal education in our country, (ii) concerns about the quality of academic inputs/infrastructure and (iii) the persistent debates surrounding the social outputs from legal education. Aim of the study is to seriously inquire into questions flowing from the lack of student diversity in the NLUs, difficulties faced across the board in attracting teaching talent and the debate about the governance structures for legal education in general.
NALSAR University of Law has already reached out to the Vice-Chancellors of the NLUs for planning visits related to the first phase of this study. Dr. Sidharth Chauhan and Mr. Jagteshwar Singh Sohi will be visiting the following institutions:
RGNUL Patiala: August 19, 2016 (Friday).
NLU Delhi: August 22, 2016 (Monday).
NLU Jodhpur: August 23-24, 2016 (Tuesday-Wednesday).
NLU Orissa, Cuttack: August 26-27, 2016 (Friday-Saturday).
WBNUJS, Kolkata: August 29, 2016 (Monday).
NLU Assam, Guwahati: August 30-31, 2016 (Tuesday-Wednesday).
Mr. Sudhanshu Kumar and Mr. Vaibhav Ganjiwale will be visiting the following institutions:
HNLU Raipur: August 19, 2016 (Friday).
NLIU Bhopal: August 22, 2016 (Monday)..
RMLNLU Lucknow: August 23, 2016 (Tuesday).
CNLU Patna: August 24, 2016 (Wednesday).
NUSRL Ranchi: August 26, 2016 (Friday).
NUALS Kochi: August 30, 2016 (Tuesday).
Dates for visits to NLSIU Bangalore, GNLU Gandhinagar and DSNLU Vishakhapatnam will be out soon. Hopefully, they will all materialize by the first half of September 2016. Collection of responses at NALSAR Hyderabad will be on September 7, 2016 (Wednesday). Emphasis will be also on collating opinions from current students, recent graduates and teachers at different stages of their respective careers.
Responses will also be recorded from alumni and eminent names in the legal profession (Judges, Senior Advocates and Partners in law firms among others) through customized questionnaires in the next few months. List of institutions that will be covered in the second phase of the study between November 2016-March 2017 will be decided soon. Circulation of our questionnaires on public forums will be done in due course. Medium-term objective is to host a national-level consultation on legal education once we submit our report to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice in the first half of 2017.
Any questions or suggestions related to this study can be sent to legaleducation@nalsar.ac.in