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Book Talk | ‘Ordinary Indians, Extraordinary Democracy: How Citizens Forged India’s Constitutional Foundations’

Authors Rohit De and Ornit Shani discussed their recently released book, Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History, with panellists Arvind Narrain and Arun Thiruvengadam, at the Bangalore Internation Centre on December 16, 2025.

About the Discussion

The Preamble of the Indian Constitution begins with “We, the people of India,” but do we really know how true that rings?

In popular memory, the Constitution often appears as the work of a few eminent figures. Assembling India’s Constitution reveals a more layered story; one in which citizens, communities, labour groups, women’s organisations, and emerging political movements actively influenced constitutional ideas. Across the country, people petitioned, campaigned, debated rights, and pushed the Assembly to consider questions of citizenship, minority protections, gender equality, land reform, labour, and democratic participation. And crucially, the Assembly listened.

Drawing on years of archival research, authors Ornit Shani and Rohit De illuminate how debates unfolding outside the Constituent Assembly; sometimes in distant or overlooked regions, filtered into its deliberations, shaping decisions that continue to define India’s democracy. They sought to make constitutional history accessible, grounded, and alive, inviting readers to see the Constitution not as a static text but as a living achievement of millions.

The authors offer a short presentation of the book, followed by reflections from panellists Arvind Narrain and Arun Thiruvengadam. The event concludes with an audience Q&A.

Watch The Full Discussion

About The Speakers

Ornit Shani
Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of Haifa
Ornit Shani is Associate Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Haifa and the author of How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise, winner of the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay New India Foundation Prize (2019). Her research explores citizenship, bureaucracy, and the making of democratic institutions in India, with particular focus on archival histories of political processes.

Rohit De
Associate Professor of History, Yale University
Rohit De is Associate Professor of History at Yale University and the author of A People’s Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic (2018), which won the Willard J. Hurst Prize (2019). His work examines how ordinary citizens shape constitutional life, with research spanning legal history, political culture, and the lived experience of law in modern South Asia.

Arvind Narrain
Lawyer & Author
Arvind Narrain is a lawyer and writer, currently visiting faculty at the National Law School. He is the author of India’s Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance, and co-editor of Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India and Law Like Love: Queer Perspectives on Law. As part of the legal team challenging Section 377 from the High Court to the Supreme Court, he has been a key voice in India’s queer rights movement.

Arun Thiruvengadam
Professor of Law, NLSIU, Bangalore
Arun Thiruvengadam is Professor of Law at the National Law School, Bangalore, with degrees from NLS and New York University School of Law. His teaching and research span Indian constitutional and regulatory law, comparative constitutional law, South Asian law and politics, and welfare rights. He is the author of The Constitution of India: A Contextual Analysis (2017) and co-editor of five other books. He has held academic positions at the National University of Singapore and Azim Premji University and has taught as visiting faculty at institutions across the world, including the University of Zurich, Central European University, City University of Hong Kong, and the University of Toronto.

Reflections from the ‘PPEL in the Global South’ Conference | Dec 11-14, 2025

The annual conference ‘PPEL in the Global South,’ focussed on Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law, was held from December 11-14, 2025, at the NLSIU campus. The primary objective of the conference was to provide a visible platform for scholars from India and other regions of the Global South to engage in sustained dialogue with peers from across the world. It also aimed to contribute to building a coherent intellectual community in India across philosophy, law, political theory, economics, and related disciplines.

About the Conference

The conference brought together 65 participants from universities across India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, North America, Europe, the UK, and Australia. A total of 59 papers were presented across 22 thematically organised panels. Panel themes included, among others, AI and Ethics, Free Speech, Structural Wrongs and Power, New Directions in Law, Constitutional Law in the Global South, Economic Competition and Exploitation, and Rethinking Political Theory in India.

Reflecting the objectives of the conference, participants represented diverse career stages as well as institutional and disciplinary backgrounds. The conference included 15 PhD scholars and participants from 23 Indian universities and 28 universities abroad, spanning the Global North and South. In addition, two special sessions were organised for NLSIU students on Navigating Academic Careers and Writing and Publishing in philosophy, the social sciences, and law. Several NLSIU faculty members participated as presenters and moderators, alongside students, particularly from the NLS BA (Hons.) and BA LL.B. (Hons.) programmes, who were actively involved as student organisers.

The final day of the conference featured an open roundtable discussion on the outcomes and future directions of the PPEL network. Participants agreed to establish a formal mailing list to sustain the network, organise a series of smaller workshops in both online and offline formats, and initiate a mentorship programme involving early-career and senior scholars. The possibility of special journal issues based on thematic groupings of conference papers was also discussed.

Overall, the philosophical anchoring of the conference enabled dialogue among participants from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and affirmed the importance of collaborative and interdisciplinary research across philosophy, politics, economics, and law.

Here is the full schedule.

Reflections from the Organisers

Kritika Maheshwari
Assistant Professor, TU Delft

The idea of the PPEL in the Global South Conference stemmed from a form of frustration that I felt while having an academic career in Europe for more than 10 years now, where I felt there was a missing space for people to talk about real philosophical and political issues about the Global South with Global South scholars. And I transferred my frustration to many of my other colleagues, including Bastian, and pitched this idea of hosting a conference of this nature somewhere in India.

I would like to thank our main collaborators at NLS, Dr. Dayal Paleri and Sidharth Chauhan, who have been our biggest support in helping us not just plan the entire conference, but also help us so smoothly execute over the last couple of months together.

And besides that, we also managed to find a lot of support outside of India with institutions like International Network for Economic Method (INEM), the University of Hong Kong and Purdue University. They supported us financially, ensuring that we were able to help scholars and students from across India to come here and participate.

Bastian Steuwer
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Ashoka University

I’ve found that often when I talk to people in Europe, people are interested in talking about issues of the Global South and they’re interested to learn more. There is goodwill but there aren’t many opportunities for people to engage and to learn and to understand more about issues as they would arise from the Global South. And so, we were hoping to get some of the people that have the goodwill and that are interested in trying to change the status quo a little bit and facilitate a step forward in those conversations for those people who are interested and willing.

One of the things we quickly agreed upon was that we wanted to make it about a 50-50 split between people from outside of India and people from within India, and that worked out quite well. We also tried to find a good mix between more established and junior academics. The idea was to have early career academics along with those with more established careers and reputations, so that they could connect and learn from each other.

We decided to focus on PPEL to look at disciplines that engage in some form of normative reasoning. We had a lot of moral and political philosophy talks. We also had political theory talks, talks about Indian political theory, and what it means to do Indian political theory in the first place. We had talks by normative economists. We also obviously, at a law university, had talks by legal scholars.

Reflections from Participants

David Estlund
Lombardo Family Professor of Philosophy, Brown University

I was delighted to attend the PPEL conference. I gave a talk which led to a fantastic discussion which was very useful to me. The title of my talk was ‘Is Purely Structural Wrong an Illusion?’ The basic problem that I talked about was this somewhat mysterious idea that’s very influential. That social structure itself can be wrong, irrespective of any individual wrongdoing. On one hand, that’s a little bit of an obscure idea, but on the other hand, there’s something funny about the cases that we’re invited to think are ‘wrong’ in this way. Even though the ‘wrong’ is not supposed to be by agents, the cases that look a lot like cases would look if they were by agents. And so, I argued that’s why they seem ‘wrong.’ And it was a very useful discussion, and the whole conference has been extremely useful with fascinating discussions. And I’ve always wanted to get to India, and this is the perfect way to do it, so I’m glad to have been here.

Heng Ying
PhD Fellow, University of Hong Kong

It was a great honour to be here and present at the first PPEL Global South Conference. My talk was on ‘Moral Progress as a Discourse.’ I challenge how philosophers prescribe how we should make progress from this perspective of thinking. I think the kind of style philosophers promote in their works has some problems that we should be aware of. So that’s a part of my ongoing research. I think what matters more is how we preserve our ethical freedom, the freedom to think about alternative forms of society and be able to pursue that. I really enjoyed the conversation at the session. People raised great questions, some which really helped me think about the image I had in my head about improving society. The people here were really nice and supportive. I really enjoyed being here and thank you so much.

Jaya Ray
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Lakshmibai College, University of Delhi

I discussed my paper ‘Too Many People: Ethics of Procreation and Population Control.’ In my paper, I try to see the problem of overpopulation and over consumption as an ethical issue in population ethics. I base my argument on the ethics of procreation, and I try to give a philosophical foundation for the debate between procreative autonomy and intergenerational justice. I explore how they interplay with each other with a lot of philosophical arguments as both are very strong, intuitive fundamental values. I ask: is there any solution we can reach?

Nicole Hassoun
Professor, Indiana University

I was excited to be at the PPEL Conference in Bengaluru. I presented on inequality measurement in a talk titled ‘Measuring and Mitigating Inequality: A New Sufficiency and Equity Based Approach.’ I have a new measure that looks at how much people have over an income distribution and how inequalities matter more when people are less well-off below some threshold. And so, I’m hoping it’ll be useful to other academics, researchers. I had a great time at the conference meeting all kinds of interesting people doing really good work. So, thanks for having me!

Tarun Menon
Faculty, Azim Premji University

I presented my work related to power, trying to understand how power structures work and how one can use empirical data to infer whether or not there’s a power structure in some part of society. I was very happy with the response to the talk, the questions and the way people talked about it. It’s really great to have people from a variety of disciplines, to get feedback on your work from them. I really think the way the conference has been shaping up has been extremely encouraging. It’s been extremely successful so far. All of the talks have been really insightful and I’m grateful to the University and to the organisers for putting together such a smooth and intellectually stimulating conference.

Hin Sing Yuen
PhD Candidate, TU Delft

I was very happy to be here at the PPEL Conference in Bengaluru. My presentation was titled ‘Becoming Humanity: Reconceiving Humanity and Existential Risk through a Buddhist Lens.’ In this talk, I explored the concept of humanity in the context of extinction ethics and population ethics. I really enjoyed my time here in Bengaluru. The arrangements were amazing. Everything ran very smoothly. The lunch here was amazing and yeah, I’m enjoying some tea and snacks here. Thank you so much for organising this.

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Call for Applications | Research Position – Criminal Justice Projects (1 Vacancy)

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) invites applications for one Research position to work on Criminal Justice Projects. This is a full time role on contractual basis for a period of one year, based in Bengaluru.

About the Project

NLSIU is undertaking research projects which involve empirical analysis of criminal justice issues. The projects will use public legal data to study the process and decision-making of judicial institutions. One of the projects will utilise natural language processing tools to mine data embedded in judgements and orders, addressing major research questions related to criminal justice system outcomes in India. In particular, the study will examine sentencing patterns, undertrial incarceration, bail decisions, and the influence of social groups and regional disparities on these outcomes. By creating a new, publicly accessible dataset that includes the full text of case decisions and hearings, the project aims to facilitate a broad spectrum of research on various legal and social issues, potentially benefiting a wide range of stakeholders interested in legal reforms in India.

Role Description

The Researcher will work under the supervision of faculty members leading these projects – Prof. Mrinal Satish, Prof. Aparna Chandra, Prof. Rahul Hemrajani and Prof. Nikita Ahalyan. The projects involve desk, as well as field research and will be responsible for the following tasks:

Navigate the eCourts platform to identify and document important structural elements of the Indian legal system.
Hand-code cases from the eCourts website to develop a robust training dataset.
Analyse judicial decisions to extract and synthesise data.
Assist in the development of the legal database and open data portal.
Conduct detailed research on judicial performance metrics, including sentencing patterns and bail decisions.
Help prepare documentation, reports, and presentations for dissemination among legal scholars and policy-makers.
Engage in regular project meetings with the team and collaborate across different segments of the project.
Handling administrative responsibilities under the project.
Working with project leads in writing reports/papers relating to the project.

A. Qualifications

Essential

LL.B degree OR Masters Degree in an allied discipline, with demonstrated training and experience in coding and analysing large government datasets.

Desirable

Candidates with relevant research experience will be preferred.
Candidates who have experience in undertaking empirical research will be preferred.
Prior experience with coding or statistical analysis is desirable.

B. Experience

Essential

0-5 years of work experience in an academic or professional setting with demonstrable evidence of research and writing ability.

How to Apply?

Please use the Google form here, and include the following documents:

An up-to-date CV
A statement of purpose indicating, for instance, why you have applied for this role, how it fits in your career trajectory, and why you are a good fit for the role (not more than 500 words)
Contact details and designation of two referees
A sole-authored writing sample (published or unpublished)

Compensation

Salary will be commensurate with qualification and experience and will be in the range of Rs. 50,000-Rs.80,000 per month.

For any queries, please write to

Deadline

The last date for submission of applications is January 9, 2026 (5 PM IST).

Live Information Sessions | NLSAT Programmes | January 2026

NLSIU is conducting live information sessions during January 2026 on the NLS BA (Hons.), the 3-Year LL.B. (Hons.), the Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP) and the PhD programmes. These online sessions will provide information about the University, the structure of the respective programmes and the application process.

Here are the details of the sessions (in order of the upcoming events):

Master’s Programme in Public Policy (MPP)

January 7, 2026 | 6 PM – 7 PM | Webinar on Careers in Public Policy
Speakers:
1. Dr. Srikrishna Ayyangar, MPP Chair and Associate Professor, Social Science, NLSIU
2. Dr. Devyani Pande, MPP Vice-Chair and Assistant Professor, Public Policy. NLSIU

Register for the Webinar

PhD Programmes

January 8, 2026 | 6 PM – 7 PM
Speakers:
1. Dr. Arul Scaria, PhD Chair and Professor of Law
2. Dr. Shiuli Vanaja, PhD Vice-Chair and Assistant Professor, Social Science

Register for the Webinar

Admissions Open

Admissions are currently open for the above-mentioned programmes. To apply, visit nlsatadmissions.nls.ac.in.

For any queries regarding NLSAT, write to .

We look forward to meeting you at these sessions!

Dr. Sony Pellissery Participates At The Second World Summit for Social Development | Nov 2025

Dr. Sony Pellissery, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for the Study of Social Inclusion (CSSI) at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, spoke at a virtual solution session at the Second World Summit for Social Development, held between November 4-6, 2025. The session was titled ‘Universal Social Protection for a Just, Sustainable and Inclusive Future- Financing, Implementation, and Intergenerational Solidarity.’

Session on Universal Social Protection

Prof. Sony spoke on why finance alone does not address the challenge of universalising social protection in South Asia. He spoke on four sectors where universalisation of social protection has been a challenge — construction workers, gig workers, domestic workers and scheme workers with the government. Both in the segments of construction workers (builders paying a premium as social security contribution for workers in order to gain approval of building plans) and gig workers (those who receive service paying a fraction of service fee through apps) finance has not been a challenge. But, in the segment of domestic workers, collection of contributions from employers has been a challenge. A positive element in that segment is mobilisation of women to resist violences they have been subjected to, and bargaining capacity for wages when they are organised. The case of scheme workers with the government faces another set of challenges, particularly with minimum wage. The positive aspect in this segment has been access to several benefits like insurance for healthcare. These comparative cases show how sectors are widely divergent when the question of universalisation in the informal sector is addressed.

For the panel, Prof Sony was joined by:

Moderator: Paul Ladd, former Head of UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) and currently Director of Sustainable Development for the UNECE Region

Speakers

Isabel Ortiz, Director, Global Social Justice – “Advancing Global Social Justice: Solutions to Tackle Inequality and Finance Universal, Inclusive Social Protection” Background and Rationale
UN Deputy Secretary-General or other high-level UN representative – Global leadership and multilateral commitments
Lok Bahadur Thapa, Ambassador of Nepal to the UN – “Regional Leadership and Multilateral Support for Social Protection in LDCs”
Government Representative from Tanzania – “National Pathways to Achieving Universal Social Protection: Policy, Practice, and Political Commitment”
Christina Behrendt, Head, Social Policy Unit, ILO Universal Social Protection Department – “The role of the ILO in advancing the implementation and monitoring of social protection systems, including floors”
Gray Panthers – “Social Protection Across Generations: Dignity for Older Persons and Intergenerational Solidarity”
Beena Pallical, Co-Chair, Global Forum on Communities Discriminated by Work and Descent (GFoD) – “Innovative and Ethical Financing: Towards a Global Fund for the Most Marginalised”

About the Summit

The first World Summit for Social Development was held in Copenhagen in 1995, following which 177 nation-states adopted a political resolution to fight poverty.

30 years later, the second social development summit was held in Doha. More than 40 Heads of State and Government, over 230 ministers and senior officials, and nearly 14,000 attendees took part in the summit.

Takeaway

The 3-day summit ended with the adoption of the Doha Declaration.

The Doha Political Declaration of the Second World Summit for Social Development (2025) reaffirms global commitments to the Copenhagen Declaration, the 2030 Agenda, human rights, and inclusive multilateralism, acknowledging that progress on poverty eradication, decent work, and social inclusion has been too slow and uneven. Leaders highlighted persistent and emerging challenges – including rising poverty and inequality, informal and precarious work, gender gaps, youth unemployment, weak social protection, digital divides, climate change, conflicts, demographic shifts, and strained global financing. The Declaration commits countries to accelerate poverty eradication through social protection floors, quality education, decent work policies, support for small enterprises, gender equality, and targeted investments in health, food security, resilient infrastructure, and sustainable agriculture. It emphasised universal health coverage, digital inclusion, safe use of emerging technologies like AI, strengthened labour rights, and inclusive policies for children, women, older persons, migrants, Indigenous Peoples, and persons with disabilities. The text stresses the need for major reforms to the international financial architecture, expanded development financing, fairer tax cooperation, and stronger support for developing countries. It concludes with a pledge to strengthen follow-up mechanisms, enhance multilateral cooperation, and conduct a five-year review from 2031 to assess progress and renew commitments toward achieving social development for all.

Click here to know more.

Invitation for Expression of Interest | DPIIT Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Chair

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) invites expressions of interest for the position of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Chair established at NLSIU by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, also know as the DPIIT Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Chair.

Intellectual Property Rights Chair, NLSIU

The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Chair established at NLSIU by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, under the Scheme for Pedagogy & Research in IPRs for Holistic Education & Academia (SPRIHA) seeks to promote the study of, education in, research on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) as well as outreach on Intellectual Property matters. The Chair supports specialised courses on IPR with the aim of inculcating a nuanced understanding of Intellectual Property among students. It holds seminars, workshops and special lectures with the aim of producing high quality research, strengthening pedagogy, engaging in public policy dialogue and attracting world class researchers and academicians to the University in the field of intellectual property rights.

Role of the Chair Professor

The Chair Professor will promote teaching and research on Intellectual Property (IP) related subjects at the University. The Chair Professor will expand IP knowledge base including through research on global best practices, foster collaborations with other academic institutions in India and abroad, and build engagement with industry and other stakeholders. The Chair Professor will publish regularly on various public platforms including NLS Scholarship Repository on topical issues.

Read the official notification.

Express your Interest

Expressions of interest are invited from interested candidates. Candidates can send in their updated resume and an 800-word Statement of Purpose to .

The last date for submission of applications has been extended to December 31, 2025 (5 pm). (View corrigendum)

Invitation to teach Elective Courses at NLSIU | March 2026 Trimester

NLSIU invites interested persons to offer Elective Courses at the University in the third trimester (March 02, 2026 to May 26, 2026) of the Academic Year 2025-26.

An elective course at NLSIU requires 40 hours of classroom engagement (40 hours of classroom engagement spread across 10 weeks (March 02, 2026 to May 26, 2026) and two office hours every week for consultation and discussion with students.

All classes of full-term elective courses shall be conducted in-person on campus.

On request and availability, the University may support Visiting Faculty with an Academic Associate to assist with the delivery of the course.

Elective Courses vary in their focus and pedagogy. Three types of Elective Courses are common at NLSIU:

Taught Course (predominantly lecture/discussion-based, with an exam);
Research Course (focussed on review of primary and secondary research leading to a Term Paper);
Practice or Clinical Course (focused on field work, simulation, drafting or litigation exercises taught and examined through the clinical methods).

All classes shall be held between 9 am and 7 pm on weekdays only. Most elective courses are usually scheduled between 2 pm and 7 pm. For some courses, on a special basis, classes may be scheduled on Saturday.

The University will reimburse one economy-class airfare, to-and-fro from Bengaluru for domestic flights only. The University will not be able to provide any reimbursement for international flights.

The University will make necessary arrangements for accommodation in an off-campus facility arranged for postgraduate students, research scholars, visiting faculty and research staff for individuals selected to teach electives after mutual discussion for an initial 10 days from the commencement of the trimester only. Based on availability, the University may be able to make arrangements on a paid basis for the whole trimester.

Individuals who are desirous of teaching elective courses at NLSIU must invariably possess a graduate and post-graduate degree in law or the social sciences. Post-qualification experience of 3 years or more will be preferred. Alternatively, they may have at least 7-10 years of post-qualification experience in legal practice. Individuals who have published widely in their fields of expertise, shall be preferred.

To apply, kindly fill out the form here. The deadline for form submission has been extended up to January 10, 2026.

Your proposal shall be reviewed by the Academic Review Committee (ARC) of the University. The course shall be finalised after registration of choices by students. Please note that a course is offered only if it meets: (1) the approval of the ARC, and (2) a minimum number of students as required by the University’s Academic Regulations subscribe for the course.

For any academic queries, please contact Dr. Saurabh Bhattacharjee at or Dr. Atreyee Majumder at . For any other queries, please contact Mr. Shailendra Pratap Singh at .

FAQs

Here are some FAQs that will help you gain a better understanding of the electives courses and the process for applying to teach these courses. To know more, please click here.

NLSIU Conducts Management Development Programme for Indian Army Officers under MoU with ARTRAC, Shimla

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, successfully conducted a six-day Management Development Programme (MDP) on “Legal Framework Affecting Procurement of Goods and Services” for officers of the Indian Army from November 10–15 , 2025 at the University. The programme was organised under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NLSIU and the Army Training Command (ARTRAC), Shimla, marking the fourth consecutive year of collaboration.

Designed to strengthen legal, administrative, and procurement-related decision-making capacity within defence leadership, the programme covered key thematic areas including:

Indian Judicial and Legal System
Fundamentals of Public Procurement and Government e-Marketplace (GeM)
Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020
Competition Law and Fair Procurement Mechanisms
Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Transfer
Taxation and Financial Aspects of Government Procurement
Oversight, Monitoring, and Administrative Discretion

The sessions combined expert-led lectures, case-based discussions, drafting exercises, and structured assessments, enabling practical application to real-world procurement and governance challenges.

The programme concluded with a valedictory ceremony, during which certificates were presented to all participating officers.

NLSIU acknowledges the longstanding partnership with ARTRAC and the Indian Army and remains committed to advancing capacity-building initiatives that contribute to strengthening institutional governance and national service. This initiative reflects NLSIU’s ongoing commitment to industry–academia collaboration, and to supporting the evolving needs of public sector institutions through specialised legal education and training.

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NLSIU Successfully Concludes 11th Accreditation Programme on Legal Systems & Commercial Laws for L&T Executives

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, has successfully concluded the 11th edition of the Accreditation Programme on Legal Systems & Commercial Laws (APCL), conducted in partnership with Larsen & Toubro (L&T). Designed for mid-career professionals across L&T, the programme aimed to strengthen legal literacy, enhance commercial law competencies, and build practical legal decision-making skills aligned with business operations.

The six-month certification programme was delivered in a modular format spanning 17 days of intensive learning, including three academic modules and a final Moot Court module held at the NLSIU campus. Instructional sessions were conducted both at NLSIU, Bengaluru and the L&T Leadership Development Academy (LDA), Lonavala, where NLSIU faculty, industry practitioners, and senior leaders engaged participants through case-based pedagogy, expert lectures, research assignments, and interactive legal discussions.

Programme Structure

• Module 1: Introduction to Law & Legal Systems; Law of Contracts
• Module 2: Corporate Law, Financial Regulations & Allied Commercial Laws
• Module 3: Labour & Industrial Laws, Intellectual Property Rights & Alternate Dispute Resolution
• Module 4: Moot Court Module — Two-day practical courtroom simulation at NLSIU

The Moot Court served as the capstone of the programme, providing participants with practical courtroom exposure, real-time argumentation experience, and the opportunity to apply legal reasoning and analytical skills developed throughout the course.

Legacy & Impact

Launched in 2012, the APCL programme has successfully completed 11 cohorts, training 353 L&T professionals to date. The curriculum is specifically designed for executives who manage commercial and legal responsibilities within business operations but do not possess formal legal training.

Participants underwent continuous evaluation through written examinations, group presentations, individual research work, and performance in the Moot Court exercise. The programme concluded with a Convocation Ceremony at the University, where outstanding performers were awarded gold, silver, and bronze distinctions, along with special recognition for the Moot Court topper.

Reflections

Speaking at the closing ceremony, representatives from NLSIU Executive Education emphasised the significance of the collaboration, describing APCL as “a flagship programme that equips industry leaders to navigate complex legal and regulatory environments with confidence, accuracy, and ethical clarity.”

Representatives from L&T commended the programme’s transformative approach, noting that participants were now better prepared to manage business contracts, compliance, dispute resolution, and organisational risk management with greater competence and insight.

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Reflections | Teaching Criminal Law: Curriculum, Syllabus & Pedagogy | By NLSIU & NUS

At NLSIU, we believe that the strength of a nation’s legal education begins in the classroom—and with the teachers who shape it every day. As an institution that recognises its responsibility to give back and uplift the wider academic community, we are committed to fostering collaboration, shared learning, and reflective pedagogy across law schools in India.

With this spirit, we have launched the Faculty Development Workshop Series, an initiative to support faculty in enhancing teaching practice and building a stronger, more connected academic ecosystem.

The inaugural workshop, Teaching Criminal Law: Curriculum, Syllabus & Pedagogy, was held on November 15–16, 2025 in collaboration with the Centre for Asian Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS). The two-day programme brought together leading criminal law academics — Mrinal Satish, Stanley Yeo, Wing-Cheong Chan, Michael Hor, Ronnakorn Bunmee and Kunal Ambasta, and faculty participants from universities across India. Structured across nine thematic sessions, the workshop integrated panel discussions, expert lectures, and collaborative breakout reflections. Subject-focussed sessions covered Fault and Physical Elements of Crime, Extensions of Criminal Liability, Defences, and Selected Offences. The programme also developed a proposed syllabus framework for teaching substantive criminal law and generated contributions to the NLSIU Textbook Companion Project.

In his concluding remarks, Prof. (Dr.) Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, National Law School of India University (NLSIU) highlighted the importance of strengthening faculty development to shape the future of legal education, noting that this workshop marks the first chapter of a long-term initiative to connect and support multiple teaching communities nationwide. The series will expand into other foundational areas of law in the chapters ahead.