Hi,

I know that there are lots of helpful people on these boards from around the world. I wondered if some of you with familiarity of the Indian undergraduate law system would be able to assist me with a query?

Some of you may already have read some of my posts elsewhere in the forum and know that I work in the University of Edinburgh, School of Law. Part of my job deals with scholarships for the LL.M Innovation, Technology and the Law (distance learning) programme (IP, IT, Medical Ethics modules available).

I have recently commenced writing an application to generate a new scholarship to assist two students (subject to successful application of course) from India to participate on this distance learning programme. I do not have experience of the Indian undergraduate legal education and I wondered if any of the readers of LL.M-guide.com would be kind enough to tell me a little bit about their experiences?

Assume that I know nothing about the system. I am sure the information you could supply will greatly aid my application to create a new scholarship.

I will of course inform the readers of the LL.M-guide.com if the application to create this new scholarship is successful!

Many thanks in advance for your help.

In India there are today two possibilities to complete your legal education, first is a 3 year law course which students can do after they have already completed another 3year graduate course in any subject (like political science or english etc.). Delhi University, Mumbai University are amongst many universities offering this course.
Another option is to do a 5 Year law course right after school. This degree is offered by many law schools including the National Law Schools (NLSIU Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad etc.) and is today preferred by many because of better career options.
Upon completion of the law degree (either 3 year or 5 year) a student may enrol him/herself at the Bar and practice law or find work a law firm or find any other suitable alternative.

India being a common law country, coursework often contains lectures on important judgments of the Privy Council and English courts (which has persuasive value). 3 year degree also offers the option of part-time education though it is generally considered that 5 year degree is more rigorous.

For full time courses classes are held daily and a range of subjects are offered. The curriculum is monitored by the Bar Council of India. Most national law schools also offer a range of seminar and clinic courses and admit students through a national entrance exam. New academic year generally starts after the summer in about June or July and gets over in April-May. Most students supplement their legal education through internships with law firms, lawyers, judges and governmental or non-governmental organisations.

3 year law schools confer a LL.B. degree while 5 year law schools confer a BA.LLB or BA.BL or even BSc.LLB/BBA.LLB (varies) upon completion of the legal education.

Thank you very much astroturf. I also wondered.. is the level of competition for places (postgraduate or undergraduate) very high? I suspect it's difficult to know for sure, but even anecdotal evidence would be useful.

Many thanks again.

its very difficult to get into national law schools like NLSIU, B'lore or Nalsar, Hyderabad and others because they connduct a national level entrance test. For instance about 4-5000 applicants appear in the NLS, Nalsar test for about 80 seats!
But these are undergraduate law schools offerin 5yr courses. Its much easier to get into universities offerin 3 yr courses simply because they admit a higher number of students (i.e. Delhi Univ. admits over 600 students each year).
Its not so difficult to get into post-graduate courses (two year LLM) except those offered by NLS or Nalsar or some other universities and even there there is not much competition simply because not many students apply for an LLM in India.

Is there any provision for foreign-trained common law layers to get equivalency to practise in India? I have a US JD and would quakify as a PIO (Person of Indian Origin)...

Cheers