CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, CURRICULUM B.A., LL.B. (Hons.)

FIRST SEMESTER

1.1 Legal Methods, Research Methodology, English language and Communication Skills : 4 Credits

1.1 Legal Methods

This introductory course aims to familiarize beginners with the methods and materials of law and with the role of law in contemporary society. The course prepares students to think like lawyers. It explores the relevance of the role of law in the contemporary society and allows for juxtaposition of the legal process with the social, economic and political processes in society. The several perspectives from which question of law can be approached are demonstrated by an introduction to the various schools of jurisprudence. Law as an independent discipline has its own materials and methods. Though related to and reflective of social processes, its development is unique in several respects. The character and content of legal knowledge are explained to the student in a systematic fashion. Familiarity with the sources of law and with legal materials and competence to find the law by the use of the law library are major concerns of this course. The ability to appreciate law as a process in the context of other processes in society (political, economic, cultural, social) is one of the goals of this course.

1.1 Research Methodology

The course may help the student to think and act like a lawyer and responds to law studies accordingly. The course also introduces legal research methodology which includes the art of footnoting etc.

1.1 English language and Communication Skills

English will be taught as a compulsory (Non Credit) course as per the requirements of the Bar Council of India. Our colonial past has been held responsible for alienating common people from the justice delivery system. The language and rhetoric of legal discourse continues to tantalize both the legal expert and the layperson. The course addresses the nature and scope of English as the medium of legal discourse in India. Students are also initiated into self-training methods for improving communication skills in English, particularly for legal transactions.

1.2 Law of Torts: 3 Credits

The law of civil liability has been traditionally understood as the law of wrongs against individuals or their property, the remedy for which is damages. In the past, except for some exceptions, the bulk of litigation has been for the redressal of wrongs suffered by individuals at the hands of each other. However, with rapid industrialization, advances in science and technology, globalization and the absence of social security/insurance, tort litigation has assumed greater significance for the redressal of wrongs committed by private enterprises, multinational corporations, manufactures and government monopolies. This course examines the Law of Torts in all its complexity. It familiarises students with the current legal position, explaining in the process dominant intellectual ideas and approaches to the Law of Torts over the years.

1.3 Sociology-I: 3 Credits

The course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to Sociology. Taking off from a common-sense understanding, the course encapsulates a brief history of the discipline, and its relevance to the study of Indian society, focusing specifically on the interface between Sociology and Law. Students are introduced to critical texts on caste, tribe, race, religion and gender, across cultures and foregrounding the socio political and historical contexts within which stratification systems have evolved. This enables the students to understand and problematise the social underpinnings of statutes. The broad aim of the course is to introduce students to Sociology as one of the major academic disciplines within the social sciences. This is done by focusing on the key issues of contemporary society and by analyzing a range of explanations provided by sociologists. By the end of this course, through guidance provided in lectures, video presentations, handouts, comments on the essays and papers, and reading a wide range of articles and books, the students should be familiar with essential principles of sociological approaches, concepts, theories and research methods used in sociological enquiry and will be able to relate these to empirical evidence including statistical data.

1.4 History I: 3 Credits

Legal principles and legal institutions develop in a particular socio-economic context in history. Thus, in this course, the students are introduced to the study of history and its methodology, followed by the socio-economic history of India from the Vedic period of the end of the reign of the Mughals as the background for understanding the concept of justice, the legal systems and judicial administration in India prior to British rule. History, as understood conventionally, is not merely a chronological account of political events nor a study of great men’. History presents the progress of humankind through ages. The course includes a discussion of different processes which the world went through from pre-history to the present. In the evolution of historical processes, socio-economic and cultural factors play a dominant role. A study of these factors, along with administrative apparatuses and laws that conditioned and guided human societies, becomes crucial. The linkages between various facets of society and legal systems and institutions are crucial to the study. Through a critical understanding of cultural heritage, the relevance of present day democratic structures and their function is explored.

1.5 Political Science I: 3 Credits

State, sovereignty, law and liberty, political obligation, equality, constitution, the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and theory of separation of powers, are concepts that are germane to the study of law. This course introduces these basic concepts for students. Political obligation is distinctly a problem in modern democratic theory. In the post-enlightenment period individual consent took the central stage in providing legitimacy to the political authority of the sovereign. Thus the growth of modern democratic theory is related to refinement in the understanding of individual autonomy (liberty), equality and the capacity to give informed consent (will) to the political process. In other words, the legitimate moral basis of “enforcement of law” must move away from coercion to “conscience” of the individual. Political obligation is thus concerned about the process of democratic decision making through substantive participation of the “situated actors” thereby creating a binding moral basis for self-regulation. This course attempts to provide the students critical inputs into these aspects of democratic theory.

Moot Court :

Participation in Moot Courts is compulsory.

PLACEMENT PROGRAMMES

Internships:

The objectives of the University are motivated by the goal of producing socially responsible lawyers. Social responsibility cannot be taught, it has to be learned. The University devises programmes that will bridge the gap between classroom and social reality. The Placement Programme of the University is one such effort. Students of the B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) Course are placed with non-governmental organization, national and international institutions and organizations, lawyers, law firms, the Attorney General of India, New Delhi, Chairman, Bar Council of India, New Delhi, UN Organizations in New Delhi and Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts. The placement is arranged by the University by liaising with these organizations and finding out the requirements of the organizations, the expectations from the students and the extent to which these expectations could be fulfilled. Before placements students are given orientation towards the set up and activities of the organizations. The students are required to prepare a diary of the work undertaken during the placement and appear for viva-voce on re-opening of the University. The diary and the viva-voce are assessed towards the Clinic Course in the final year.

Placement programmes

• 1st year: Library
• 2nd year: NGO/Trial Courts
• 3rd year: Trial Court/High Court
• 4th year: High Court/Supreme Court/Corporate offices
• 5th year: Supreme Court/Law firms.