Being what is increasingly being referred to as a “third generation law university”, NLUO is ideally placed to learn from other law schools – both from their strengths and their drawbacks. Drawing from these experiences it has embarked upon a well-defined course of action to achieve the levels of excellence it aspires to. The approach we have chosen is three pronged:
1. TEACHING
NLUO has designed its undergraduate programme keeping in mind certain specific objectives. Our endeavour is to achieve concert between the teaching of theory and imparting of practical skills essential to lawyering. We also acknowledge the need for instilling in students a sense of social and ethical responsibility. We believe that class lectures, apart from relaying information and imparting skills, should help students develop critical faculties for thinking out of the box. Furthermore, NLUO strives to ensure that students' education is multidimensional. To this end, we have right from inception adhered to an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach. At present we offer B.A. LL.B (Hons) and B.B.A. LL.B (Hons) courses. We have, however, made several optional courses freely available to all students; meaning that a student from the Social Sciences stream is free to opt for a few management-related courses and vice versa.
The University is, as aforementioned, conscious of the fact that most graduates of other national law universities tend to avoid a career in litigation (as either practising advocates or judges), and instead seek employment in law firms and corporate houses. We seek to reverse this trend of “soft lawyering” by actively encouraging students to opt for “hard law” career options.
NLUO regards continuing education as an essential part of its pedagogical programme. To this end it intends to regularly organise orientation and training programmes for legal academics, judicial officers, practising advocates, social activists and so on.
2. RESEARCH
The dearth of quality legal research, both theoretical and applied, is another major challenge confronting legal education. In this respect, it is also to be noted that legal research is perceptibly distancing itself from socially relevant issues. To address this, the University proposes to establish a number of specialised centres, such as the Centre of Mining Law, Centre of Water Law, Centre of Agriculture and Food Law, and the Centre of Energy Law.
At a more general level, it proposes to nurture quality legal research by establishing conditions most appropriate for incubating scholarly activity. Foremost among them is a library comparable to best anywhere. This can be achieved only over a reasonable span of time, but already the library can be considered adequate to meet the basic needs of students, despite the acute shortage of space in the present location. This situation will be remedied once we move to the new campus at Naraj where space will no longer remain constraint. At present, however, we have acquired the best online repositories and databases, relating to not only law but also other areas such as Management and the Social Sciences.
Any significant research initiative can be sustained only through the involvement of the best minds. Accordingly, assembling a world-class faculty remains one of NLUO’s topmost priorities. Even at this early stage, the young and dynamic faculty includes products of the best national and international universities. The process of handpicking the best from different parts of India will continue.
3. DISSEMINATION
Research is generally considered worthwhile when made relevant to existing needs, whether of individuals or society at large. To achieve this, it is necessary to unshackle scholarly output from its isolation in academia, and disseminate it amongst those who may derive practical benefit from it. NLUO has adopted a multi-pronged strategy for this purpose.
To begin with, this includes organising quality lectures, seminars and conferences to promote legal scholarship, propagation of legal knowledge, bridging the law and society divide, and also using the legal process as an effective means of social reform and evolution. And the second aspect is to generate publications, intended for scholars, non-legal specialists as well as the general public.