National Law Universities (NLU) arepublic law schools inIndia, founded pursuant to the second-generation reforms forlegal education sought to be implemented by theBar Council of India.[1][2] The first NLU was theNational Law School of India University aka NLS/NLU Bangalore which admitted its first batch in 1988. Since then, most of the states in India have NLUs. Currently there are 27 NLUs across the country out of which one is an off-centre campus ofGujarat National Law University,Gandhinagar, GNLU SILVASSA Campus. Since the inception of the NLUs, these law schools have continuously been ranked as some of the most prestigious and premier law schools within India and abroad by various agencies and are also referred as theIITs of Legal Education.[3][4]
The admissions to these universities is conducted through theCommon Law Admission Test (CLAT) except in the case ofNational Law University, Delhi, which admits students through its own entrance examination named as All India Law Entrance Test (AILET). NLU Meghalaya also has its own admission / entrance test named Meghalaya Undergraduate Admission Test (UAT), Postgraduate Admission Test (PAT) and PhD Entrance Test (PET). CLAT which is also known as the main gateway to NLUs has been ranked as one of the top five toughest entrance examinations in India. India International University of Legal Education and Research (IIULER) Goa is the latest entry to Consortium in November 2024 but it is a Private University under Section 2(f) of UGC Act, 1956. Thus, IIULER is not a National Law University (NLU) like other universities in CLAT Consortium since it's not a Public Government Funded University. It is owned and managed by Bar Council of India Trust - PEARL FIRST (BCIT-PF) which is an independent body that is not a part of Bar Council of India (BCI).
NLUs have Chief Justice of India (CJI) and various Chief Justices of Respective High Courts as their Chancellors and visiting professors. Many retired judges and bureaucrats are also here as permanent faculty and Vice-Chancellors.
.jpg)
Traditionallylegal education in India was conducted through the medium of non-specialized universities of India which grantedlaw degrees like any othergraduate degree. These universities referred and taught the curriculum prescribed by the Bar Council of India, but since they were under the overall control and supervision of theUniversity Grants Commission, therefore it was not possible for the Bar Council to effectively pursue reforms in legal education.
This system continued for more than two decades with the overall legal education supervision by the Bar Council, since its establishment in terms of the Advocates Act, 1961.[5] However, there were calls for reforms from all quarters of the country in general because of the falling standards of thebar and there were mounting pressures over the Bar Council of India to change the way legal education was imparted in India.
The first concrete decision to this end was taken in 1984 when various proposals to modernize legal education were considered and approved by the Legal Education Committee of the Bar Council, in an attempt to improve legal education throughout India. One major proposal was the decision to establish specialized institutions to impart legal education in an integrated and diversified manner. The aim was to revitalize the legal profession by making law an attractive profession and making it competitive to attract talent, which was hitherto diverted to other professional areas such asmedicine andengineering.
In contrast with the existing pattern of legal education in India, the proposed autonomous law schools varied in structural design and in various other respects. Some of these can be identified through the characteristics they carry:
