School of Law and Governance

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDYING LAW AT JAIPUR NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Law as a profession has always attracted young men and women who are in search of an adventurous career where one can make a mark in society, and indeed, one can prosper, even while serving the society. Many of those venerable names that fought and won freedom for our country belonged to the legal profession. Ancient India, in fact, had a tradition of law as a craft. Manu, one of the ancient law-givers in the world, Kautilya, the clever practitioner as well as theoretician of statecraft, Panini, the great grammarian, all strode this ancient land of ours.

 

When Dean Roscoe Pound of the Yale Law School, at the beginning of the twentieth century, proclaimed law as an instrument of social engineering, it was considered to be a blasphemy. However, the world became a different place after the Second World War. Along with the large-scale emergence of newly independent states highlighting the moral authority of human rights, two other factors began challenging the traditional legal systems and even the sense of the state sovereignty. These were: (1) a revolution in conventional science and technology, and (2) globalization. The technological revolution had a snowballing effect as the men of technology today would be masters of the world tomorrow. Globalization overtook most aspects of human life - economics of the marketplace, culture, and even criminality of human behaviour. The traditional perceptions of law and legal institutions, and even sovereignty, were challenged. The role of law as an instrument of social engineering is appreciated better now in the post-war world. New areas of law, such as human rights, environmental law, the interface between law and science and technology, all began pointing to the inadequacies of traditional law, legal thinking, and legal education.
 
Traditional legal education began to crumble down in the face of these intellectual challenges and socio-political changes. The traditional lawyer began to find himself ill-equipped to handle new legal problems being constantly thrown up by the revolution in technology and globalization. Small wonder, since 1970's, there has been a serious introspection, particularly in the West, on the urgent need for reforms in legal education.

 

FIVE-YEAR INTEGRATED LL.B. PROGRAMME

India, however, was a latecomer in this regard. It had to await for a call from the judiciary in the mid-1980's. The legal education in Indian universities, except for a few honourable exceptions, was in shambles. The system failed to attract committed teachers, unlike earlier times; and it carried on largely with the help of some young lawyers doubling as part-timers. Youngsters who opted for the study of law joined the course and the profession, because they had nothing else to do. This reflected on the Bench as well as the Bar. Enough was enough. The judiciary took the initiative and the Bar Council of India and the government also fell in line, and there arose the new five-year integrated Bachelor's Degree programme in legal education.

The five-year integrated system has several advantages. It has made legal education a professional course, like courses at IIMs and IITs. The emphasis is on the applied aspects of law underlining clinical education. The new system allows the introduction of innovative subjects to cater to the challenges of globalization. Most importantly, guidelines have been laid down by the Bar Council of India to ensure maintenance of adequate standards of education. This new system has proved to be a revolutionary success and bright young men and women, determined to take up the challenge and make a lucrative career of the legal profession, have begun flocking the new system.

 

Learning law enables an individual to improve his/her analytical capability, logic, and ability to question the validity, viability, and efficacy of things and actions. It inculcates in him/her ability to correlate to precedents and make his/her arguments persuasive. It helps to interpret the law and legal documents and build up arguments based on such an interpretation. It motivates to look for evidence for every statement, proposition or allegation and thus equips a person to be just, fair and impartial.

Career Prospects
The profession of law throws open at least four avenues of career - as a judge, a lawyer, a legal adviser in a firm or an industry, or a law academician. The profession of a judge makes a person to function independently with a lot of power and prestige. If one prefers to be a lawyer, the world beckons him/her after an initial struggle to establish oneself. One can prosper and earn a status in society. As a legal adviser of a firm or an industry, one can earn a lot of money. As a legal academic, if one becomes an expert in a field, the sky is the limit. So it is for a person to choose what one wants to become in life.

 

School of Law and Governance Having Legal Education with a Difference

The School of Law and Governance at Jaipur National University beckons a person with an innovative experience in legal education. Its Director is a seasoned teacher as well as an internationally known practitioner of law. Faculty members have been very carefully selected, taking into account their experience and the needs of the students. The School assures the students personal guidance in a friendly atmosphere. With the close links that the School is building up with the Bench, the Bar, and the Industry, not only in Rajasthan, but throughout the country, placements and campus recruitments will not be a problem. Also on the anvil are efforts to forge relationships with foreign law schools. The School has launched LL.M. and Ph.D. programmes precisely for this reason. LL.M. is a two year programme with specialisation in Criminal law and Criminology International Law/Intellectual Property Rights.


S.No. Course Duration Intake Eligibility
i

Five Year Integrated B. A., LL.B.

5 yrs 60 10+2
ii LL.M. 2 Yrs 30 Min. 50% Marks in LL.B.
iii Post Graduate Diploma in Business Law (Part-Time) (Banking Laws / Insurance Law / IPR)
 		1 Yr. 30
iv Ph.D. (Law & Governance)
 		2 Yrs Min.
Min. 55%in LL.M.

 

 

B. A., LLB (Hons.) Five yearintegrated Programme Curriculum Outline 2009-10

 

Interdisciplinary Teaching
Unlike other National Law Schools, JNU's School of Law and Governance at Jaipur has one distinction. It can bank upon a large infrastructure and contributions from other Schools. This would pave the way for truly interdisciplinary teaching and research. The School plans to specialize in areas having confluence of law, science and technology and business management. Such a dream will only come true if there are reputed Schools of Science, Technology and Business Administration are within campus, as is the case at the Jaipur National University.

Professor V.S. Mani was formerly Professor of International Space Law, Director of Human Rights Teaching and Research Centre, and Incharge of Jawaharlal Nehru Chair inInternational Environmental Law at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. After his superannuation from there, Professor Mani was appointed founder Director (Vice-Chancellor) of the Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar.

Prof. Mani has written extensively in prestigious international and national journals. He is the author/editor of nine books and over 100 research papers. He has a rare distinction of publishing a paper in “Essays on International Law” by the UN Office of Legal Affairs, New York.

Prof. Mani was Legal Advisor to the Republic of Nauru,Central Pacific. His services in two stints to the Nauru Republic were admired by one and all. Besides, this expert and diplomatic assignment, Professor Mani was a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law and Politics at Tokyo University and a Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany. He has lectured in India and abroad, including at the Hague Academy of International Law, the Netherlands, and is a member of several professional bodies.

He has appeared before the International Court of Justice in two cases, including one on behalf of India against Pakistan, and he is associated with two other cases. Professor Mani is also on the UN panel of experts in Space Law.

Prof. V.S. Mani
Director