A BAR SET SKY HIGH
NLSIU-Bangalore has become the nesting ground for nurturing the best legal minds and fostering a questioning spirit
Everyone who has attended the National Law School in the recent past has been confronted with this confounding question in their first year—“What is history?” Coming straight from school, where excelling most often meant successful rote learning of the syllabus, this question left me flummoxed. Also afraid, especially when our history professor, V.S. Elizabeth, singled me out to answer her question. I tried to put together something coherent, failed, was rightly ticked off, and went away wondering whether I had made a mistake in choosing to come to NLS. But why this moment remains with me almost 15 years hence is because it symbolised what life in NLS was about—questioning fundamental propositions, compelling students to think originally and a culture of
frankness that respected ideas, irrespective of who they came from.
Much of what makes NLS great is attributable to this open culture of questioning and mutual respect. This was fostered by the student body—anyone could pen their thoughts on any subject on 19(1)(a), our college notice board. As a firstyear student, I could openly disagree with my seniors on anything, provided I had good reason backing my argument, and senior students ac tively mentored junior ones. In fact, a senior who is now a close friend and an equity partner at a leading law firm, poured his heart out to me on my third day in NLS, emphasising the importance of grades (and not just moots) in law school and repenting having not taken academics seriously enough from the first year itself. The best part—whether one had good grades or not—one ended up with a real education that made sure we all reached somewhere in
life (some better than others).
This was made possible by a fantastic set of professors whose passion for their subjects was infectious. As in most other universities, there were better professors and worse ones, just as there were better students and worse ones. But my key takeaway from most courses I took in NLS, whether it be arcane rules of inheritance in Muslim personal law to the Supreme Court’s odd conflation of arbitrariness and equality in Article 14 of the Constitution, was that the study of law was a study of politics and power. Law, NLS taught me, is a legitimising instrument of state power designed to serve very specific, often majoritarian, interests. Just like it is necessary to have law to bring order and uniformity, concurrently time it is necessary to challenge it as being unfair, unjust or discriminatory. Both the study of law and its questioning went hand in hand at NLS.
While I’m delighted that NLS has once again retained prime spot in the national rankings, the same principles that have propelled it to the top spot require me to maintain a healthy scepticism of its achievement. It is a matter of considerable regret, not only for NLS, but also for India, that despite being India’s premier law school, it is not anywhere close to being the world’s best. Its journals are good without being great, publications by its faculty are limited and its students are still largely focused on landing highpaying corporate jobs instead of charting new frontiers. It is time NLS stops resting on its laurels of being India’s best law school and aspires to be one of the world’s top five law schools. I set this target advisedly since, having spent five years after NLS at the University of Oxford, truly one of the world’s best universities, I am confident this is achievable.
For this to happen, NLS must start with four fundamental changes. Though some might be provocative, I firmly believe true greatness requires swallowing some bitter pills. First, the government must declare NLS as an institution of national importance. The leading law school in the country must be constantly engaged in furthering its quest for research excellence, and not get bogged down by petty politics over state and regional quotas.
Second, it must exit the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). Though CLAT does a great job of reducing the number of examinations for students, the level of testing aptitude and reasoning in it is simply not good enough to attract the world’s best future lawyers. A more concise, carefully prepared, reasoningbased test must be considered for NLS to attract the best talent.
Third, no institution has achieved greatness without welcoming its alumni back as faculty. NLS has a mixed record in this respect—while many wonderful students have taught and now teach at NLS, their number could be far more. Every great law school in the world is built on the strength of its students who later become its professors. NLS must do better in this regard.
Fourth, to be among the world’s best, there is a constant need to publish highquality journal articles. This culture must be led by the faculty. Not only is there a need to attract good faculty from the world over but also to free up time for them to publish and not just teach and mark papers and projects. Calibrating student body size and having an optimal facultystudent ratio is critical to this.
At the same time, as a former editor of the National Law School of India Review, I am aware of the tremendous potential we have in producing a highquality law review. However, the nature of the legal profession in India is such that, with a few notable exceptions, academic publications scarcely have realworld impact. NLS must be at the forefront of changing this status quo by not only bringing out high quality law reviews but also translating
AMONG THE POSTGRADUATE COURSES NLSIU-BANGALORE OFFERS ARE A 1-YEAR LLM COURSE, 1-YEAR MPHIL, PhD, 4-YEAR LLD RESEARCH DEGREE, 2-YEAR MASTERS IN PUBLIC POLICY, DISTANCE EDUCATION IN MASTERS OF BUSINESS LAW
such research into real-world impact by intervening in courts, filing public interest litigations etc.
As a proud alumnus, I am cognizant that the vision I’ve laid out for my alma mater, particularly regarding fostering a culture of research excellence, can equally be a realistic vision for any law school in India. To propel this, the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, where I am research director, is currently in the process of establishing a Vidhi Society in each law school to inculcate the ethos of law and public policy research in law students.
I end on a personal note. During my time at NLS, we were accustomed to hearing that the school considered itself a ‘Harvard of the East’. Nothing irked me more than this. When Professor Madhava Menon started NLS, there was a vision of creating lawyers as social engineers. It was an original vision, true to what India needed of its lawyers and legal academics, not a faithful copy of a great American institution. It is time to return to that original vision and make it real for the 21st century. That can only happen when the vision we lay out for ourselves is an original one, derived from our own de facto anthem at NLS—‘Where Knowledge is Free’. Free knowledge will not only make NLS a Harvard of the East, but the pride of India and a model for other universities in the global South to follow.