Potterheads! Kolkata university is offering a law course on Harry Potter

Potterheads take note! A law university in Kolkata is offering a new course on Harry Potter which will encourage students to explore legal aspects of J K Rowling’s fictional world and its many real life lessons. The course titled “An interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special focus on Rowling’s Potterverse” will be offered as an elective to 4th and 5th year students of the B.A LL.B (Hons) programme at the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in Kolkata.

The course, designed for the winter semester by Assistant Professor Shouvik Kumar Guha, attempts to serve as a breather from the orthodox law school curriculum. “This course is meant to be more of an experiment. It will take both me and the students out of our comfort zones,” said Guha.

“In law schools, people get a very specific set of subjects. The curriculum revolves around the hard letter of the law, case laws etc. Given the fact that this course lasts about five years, students also get bored,” he said. Students will learn to apply legal principles in a completely new scenario, and understand how things will work through insights into a wizarding world constantly under government surveillance.

Given the many societal, legal and political changes, including the slew of landmark Supreme Court judgements, law students need to learn to adapt and respond to events unfolding around them, Guha said. According to a statement by NUJS, the Harry Potter series vividly exposes the limitations of laws and institutions. In Potterverse for example, The Ministry of Magic uses its representatives to torture children for daring to tell the truth, and imprisons or even executes its citizens without the benefit of due process of law. Its infamous prison Azkaban is designed to drive inmates to despair and suicidal tendencies without any hope of reformation. In numerous instances, the wealthy control and influence government policy.

The series thus provides a unique platform for students to reflect and compare the legal situations with their own government. The course aims to cover legal traditions and institutions, crimes and punishments, economy, politics, contracts in the Potterverse. Classes for the course are due to start this December.