^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 school offers a five-year undergraduate Bachelor of Arts–Bachelor of Laws programme (BA/LLB) and a postgraduate single LLB programme, both of which qualify graduates for admission to the bar.
Spread over 23 acres, the campus houses India's largest law library and hosts some of the country's largest competitions and events, including the NLS Debate and Strawberry Fields festival.
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 popular across Indian law colleges. He also introduced to the university the concept of group teaching, where more than one professor would conduct classes, with different professors taking and arguing contradictory positions in law.[5]
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 instruction being conducted at the Central College of Bangalore University until November 1991. Thereafter, the school moved to its present-day location in the Nagarbhavi suburb.
In 1995, the first UNHCR Chair for Refugee Law was inaugurated at NLSIU,[6] which serves as the Asian Centre for Refugee Law.[7] Professor N. Subramanya worked on issues pertaining to refugees during his tenure.[8]
Administration
The Chief Justice of India is the Visitor and de facto Chancellor of the school, with the ability to inspect the functions of the school.[9] The Vice-Chancellor of the school is the chief executive officer 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.[10]
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 competed for 2644 seats, out of which 240 were offered at the NLSIU.[13] In 2020, the NLSIU attempted to withdraw from the CLAT, announcing that it would hold its own entrance examination. This was later rejected by the Supreme Court of India.[14]
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.[15]
The NLSIU has reserved 25% of seats for Karnataka students across admissions, but the Government of Karnataka has disputed the way this is implemented.[16]
Academics
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.[17]
Postgraduate
NLSIU launched a three-year LLB programme in 2022, making it the first National Law University to do so.[18][19]
The school offers a one-year LLM by coursework, a two-year MPP, and doctorate programmes.[20][21][22]
In addition to the above full-time programmes, the school's continuing education department offers several part-time distance learning programmes, including a Masters in Business Law and postgraduate diplomas in various fields.[23]
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,[27] as did India Today's "India's Best Colleges 2023: Law",[28] and Outlook India's "Top 13 Government Law Institutes" of 2023.[29]
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.[30] 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.[31][30]
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.[33][34] 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.[35]
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.[36]
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.[37] 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.[38] In 2011, the NLSIU launched the NLS Union Debate and the NLS Debate Junior.[39] Christ Junior College also organised a debate with NLS in 2011.[40]
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:
National Law School Journal
National Law School of India Review
NLS Business Law Review
Socio-Legal Review
Journal on Environmental Law Policy and Development (JELPD)
Journal of Law and Public Policy (JLPP)
International Journal on Consumer law and Practice
Indian Journal of Law and Technology
Indian Journal of International Economic Law (IJIEL)
^"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.
National National preserve National military park National identity National colours National symbol National Theatre National parks of Azerbaijan National conservatism National Bolshevism National monument (United States) National day National parks of Taiwan National parks of Canada National sport National highway National park National Trails System National grassland National symbols of Pakistan National myth National memory National security directive National university National monument Missouri National Guard National Galleries Scotland National Marine Sanctuary National security Natio…
nal syndicalism National Forest National Bank Act National Road National Geographic National Theatre Bucharest Iași National Theatre Championnat National National poet National initiative National Geographic Global Networks National parks of Scotland List of national parks of Iceland National Reform National Historic Landmark Air National Guard National Heritage Act Order of National Heroes National parks of Wales National accounts National Theatre of Ghana Grand National National League National liberalism National Assembly (Seychelles) National-anarchism National Trust National Heritage Area National memorial National Security Department National Parks of Poland National library National Museum of the Philippines National Lampoon, Inc. List of national parks of the United States Lists of national symbols National dish National Institute List of national parks of Canada National government National Gallery National parks of New Zealand National Artist of the Philippines List of national parks of the Netherlands National highways of India The National 53rd National Conference of the African National Congress National Lampoon National Academy of Sciences List of national museums Li