Nalsar University of Law

NALSAR University of Law
The NALSAR Academic Block from afar
Motto	Dharme Sarvam Pratishthitham
Established	1998
Type	National University
Chancellor	Chief Justice of A.P. High Court
Vice-Chancellor	Veer Singh
Undergraduates	400
Postgraduates	120
Location	Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Affiliations	UGC
Website	www.nalsar.ac.in

The Nalsar University of Law, or officially the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), is a legal studies institution located in Shamirpet, Hyderabad, India. It was established in 1998 as a state university in an Act of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Act 34 of 1998). The University is fully residential and conducts teaching in law and allied disciplines.

Academics

NALSAR offers a five year undergraduate (UG) B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) program. Admission is through the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), where 70 seats are offered. Ten additional seats are allocated to foreign nationals.^[1] In 2010, 80 students were selected from 16,350 applicants making NALSAR one of the most difficult Law Universities to get admitted to.^[2]

NALSAR also offers a two year postgraduate LL.M. program. 50 students are admitted through CLAT with ten more allocated to foreign nationals. About ten areas of specialization are offered, and the program requirements include a dissertation.^[3] Additionally, a one year Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) is offered, open to candidate with an LL.M. degree,^[4] and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D).^[5]

Rankings

NALSAR was ranked the best law school in India by India Today in 2008,^[6] and 2011.^[7]

Infrastructure

The law school is currently divided into five distinct precincts. The first is the Administrative Block which is adjoining the Academic Block. The Academic Block broadly consists of the classrooms, conference halls, the library, the internet center, a full fledged moot court hall and various research centres. The residential block consists of four separate hostels for boys and girls each; all of them are internet enabled through wifi and LAN. The sports complex including the 'stadium' forms the fourth while the law school dining hall forms the fifth.

Miscellaneous structures include the commemorative 'Keerthi Stambh' and a copy of 'The Thinker' by Auguste Rodin.

Construction is on to build a 800 seater centrally air-conditioned auditorium, while the Teachers Convention Centre for conducting various training and orientation programs for faculty, with a capacity of 30 rooms, has been completed.

Library

It has more than 500,000 volumes of books. The Law Resource Center is the hub of all library activities and aims at fulfilling the research and academic objectives of the University. Its rich collection of primary and secondary legal resources is accessible to all the users in the campus.

The web (OPAC) Online Public Access Catalogue is accessible from any terminal in and out of the campus. It is designed to provide online information on availability of titles, and to allow the patrons to request for items that are on loan, renewal of books, access to patron accounts and other information services.

Students can register themselves to become a member of the library and avail its services. Unlike the traditional OPACS which stimulate serendipity, each record is designed to provide extensive bibliographic information with hot links to table of contents pages, reviews, publishers' notes, and peer driven reviews and ratings.

The centre is also a depository of UN collections. A separate section houses all the proceedings of the significant organs of the United Nations. The print collection is augmented by online access.

Research centres

The SAARClaw Centre at NALSAR

NALSAR currently houses six exclusive research centres

1. M.K. Nambiyar SAARC Law Research Centre
2. Dr. N.C. Banerjee Centre for Intellectual Property Law Studies
3. Dr. S.P. Chatterjee Centre for Environmental Law Studies
4. Centre for Disability Studies
5. Centre for Corporate Law and Governance
6. Centre for Air and Space Law

As a part of a memorandum of understanding entered between the NALSAR and Microsoft India in September 2005, it is proposed to create the Microsoft Intellectual Property Scholarship programme, where three students, focussing on fundamental research in Intellectual Property, would be awarded scholarships. NALSAR is one of the select few Universities in the world where Microsoft has established such a scholarship program.

Extracurricular activities

NALSAR promotes a healthy and vibrant extracurricular atmosphere. The SBC regularly conducts various quizzes, writing competitions, debates and other cultural activities. Students also conduct various cultural festivals throughout the year.

The University has excelled in mooting as well debating at the national level by being a consistent top-performer and winner.

Early in 2007, the young team of Third Year students were placed among the top 8 teams in the world, at the prestigious Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. The team also performed exceedingly well in the terms of the written memorial ranking (Ranked 3rd in the world). In addition to this, one oralist from the team was adjudged the best speaker from a country other than United States and was also awarded a summer scholarship to Georgetown University.

This has followed the blistering start in 2006 with a previous team having got top honours at the national round of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition and the ILS Surana Moot. Most recently, NALSAR made it to the top 12 teams and competed in the International Finals of the 11th Annual Stetson Environmental Moot Court Competition held at Stetson University College of Law, Texas in November 2006.

The university has student and faculty exchanges with 17 universities in Europe, Asia and North America and its students have bagged scholarships to pursue higher studies in universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and London School of Economics. Students of NALSAR made their presence felt in international moot courts competitions, which considered as traditional play turfs for students from European and North American law schools. "Our students won some of the most prestigious international moot competitions such as the International Criminal Court Trail Moot and Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, Washington D.C., by defeating peers from the likes of Harvard, Yale law schools," the Vice-Chancellor tells Education Plus.

In February 2006, NALSAR was also placed second at the DM Harish Moot Court Competition and bagged the 'best-speaker' and 'second best speaker' prizes. NALSAR was ranked amongst the top four in the world at the international rounds of the Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition 2006 at Washington D.C.^[8]

NALSAR has also made its impact felt in the debating circuit. It won India's oldest and most prestigious Parliamentary Debate at St. Stephens College, Delhi in December 2005. This was followed by victories at the prestigious Annual Parliamentary Debate held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in January 2007 and 2009 and at the Debate conducted by the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad in February 2007. NALSAR further cemented its reputation on the debating circuit by winning the inaugural IIM Bangalore Parliamentary Debating Championship 'Cicero' in January 2009.^[9]

Two cultural festivals are organised in a year. The intra-college festival known as Carpe Diem has a host of competitions spread over a three-day period and is generally held in the month of March. The immensely successful inter-collegiate cultural festival 'The Summons' attracts participants from all parts of the country to take part in a literary-cultural-sport extravanganza. This is generally held in the month of September. In 2006 and 2007 'Summons' Indian band 'Indian Ocean' and Pakistani band 'Jal' were invited to perform. 'Jal' came as messengers of peace, friendship and to promote cultural relations between the two nations.

References

1. ^ "Academic Programmes". nalsar.ac.in. http://www.nalsar.ac.in/academic_programes.html. Retrieved 19 August 2011. 
2. ^ "CLAT Results: Conversation with the Topper, NLSIU favourites, LST continues their top performance". Barandbench.com. http://barandbench.com/brief/2/761/clat-results-conversation-with-the-topper-nlsiu-favourites-lst-continues-their-top-performance. Retrieved 2011-08-19. 
3. ^ "Academic Programmes - LL.M". nalsar.ac.in. http://www.nalsar.ac.in/pg_programme.html. Retrieved 19 August 2011. 
4. ^ "Academic Programmes -M.Phil". nalsar.ac.in. http://www.nalsar.ac.in/mphil.html. Retrieved 19 August 2011. 
5. ^ "Academic Programmes -M.Phil". nalsar.ac.in. http://www.nalsar.ac.in/phd_programme.html. Retrieved 19 August 2011. 
6. ^ Amarnath K. Menon (2008-05-22). "Most sought after law colleges". Indiatoday.intoday.in. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/8690/Cover%20Story/Most+sought+after+law+colleges.html. Retrieved 2011-08-19. 
7. ^ http://barandbench.com/brief/2/1589/india-today-rankings-out-statistics-raise-concerns-nalsar-1-nlsiu-2-nliu-bhopal-3-du-law-faculty-4-symbiosis-5-wbnujs-6-updated
8. ^ "NALSAR tops Asia Pacific in Jessup competition". The Hindu Business Line. 2006. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/04/18/stories/2006041801870900.htm. Retrieved April 26, 2006. 
9. ^ "NALSAR, Hyderabad Wins IIM Bangalore's Parliamentary Debating Championship 2009". Coolavenues.com. 2009-01-01. http://www.coolavenues.com/bschools/090101/iimb-nalsar-1.php. Retrieved 2011-08-19. 

External links

• NALSAR Website

Coordinates: 17°36′16″N 78°32′49″E / 17.60444°N 78.54694°E / 17.60444; 78.54694