E-mail:ccl@nls.ac.in
     Ph: (080) 321 1156

Established on 1st April 1996, the Centre for Child and the Law is one of the give specialized research centres within the National Law School of India University. It was set up with the support of the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India. It is currently staffed by seven Research Officers and a Faculty Co-ordinator.

The Centre undertakes research in various aspects of childhood, problems faced by children and the rights of the child. The focus is on building the linkages between the globalization process and the violation of child rights as well as between root causes (social, economic, political and cultural) and the deteriorating quality of life of children. The Centre aims to enable the development of a south based jurisprudence, which centres on the use of education as a strategy to combat the exploitation of children.

The Centre has been guided by a keen and conscious desire to understand the social reality in which deprived children of India are placed. It is engaged in an ongoing search for innovative research methods and tools in the area of academic research to bridge the gap between theory and practice. There is a conscious attempt to promote Participatory Action Research (PAR) with relevant actors and stakeholders on matters pertaining to Child Rights, so as to collectively construct knowledge and develop responsive programmes, policies and law. This has been effectuated with our direct involvement with actors on the field, including activists, civil society organizations, Government functionaries and children as well as our effort to initiate context specific PAR processes. This is in tune with a deep belief in the democratic process as the guiding principle for all new policy formulation and law reform related to the child as against the prevailing top down approach.

The Centre is also engaged in Training as well as Documentation in order to create and sustain space and processes aimed at information sharing and mutual dialogue. Relevant documentation on child and the law is being made available to civil society organizations, NGO's academics, Government functionaries and other interested people. Consultancy and legal drafting services on child rights issues is also offered. In addition, the Centre actively networks with Government, Non-Government Organisations and other Peoples' Movements, advocating for policy change to bring justice to children, including law reform. The use of law as a strategy to combat the violation of children's rights is used constructively while building solidarity with campaigns and other civil society processes.

The Centre integrates teaching on child rights, especially using field based learning methods, into the curriculum of NLSIU and various professional courses.

The key actors through whom this form of interaction has been carried out includes concerned Departments of the Government of India- Department of Social Welfare and Empowerment, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of Karnataka - Department of Education, Department of Labour, Department of Women and Child Development, Department of Social Welfare and Coaliations such as CACL, (National Alliance for the Fundamental Right to Educaion) NAFRE, Azim Premji Foundation, Jeevika, Vikasa, Magadi Makkala Dwani (MMD), etc. In addition, we have greatly benefited through consultations with professionals like Dr. Shekhar Seshadri of NIMHANS and Fr. George Kollashany from the Salesians of Don Bosco among others.

The Centre is engaged in the following areas of work:

• The Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Child Labour and Universalization of School Education
• Juvenile Justice - falling broadly into two categories; children in conflict with the law, and children in need of care and protection.
• Children in situations of armed conflict (especially children from Manipur)
• Root causes including - poverty, marginalisation, proletarianisation, impoverishment, collapse of traditional employment generating sectors like - agriculture, textiles, fisheries, forests (uprooting tribals and causing ephochal violence) artisans.
• Experimental learning in the area of Child Rights.

The activities of the Centre are founded primarily by Humanistic Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries (HIVOS), Child Relief and You (CRY) and UNICEF.

The CWL endeavours to look at law and the legal process from the perspective of gender justice and administer programmes directed towards equal justice for women in Indian society. The CWL works with the Legal Services Clinic of the NLSIU as and when circumstances require. Its programmes and activities are coordinated by a co-ordinator, who is one of the faculty members together with one or two Research Associates.

In association with social activities and women's organizations CWL undertakes various programmes focusing on legal literacy for women, social auditing of welfare legislations affecting women, legal aid and assistance and the development of a Uniform Civil Code for the country.

Being a research and service unit of the NLSIU, CWL can well act as a Co-ordination Centre and research support agency for women's organizations in general and for official bodies concerned with implementation of law affecting women. The Centre is supported by grants from governmental and non-governmental sources.

Among the programmes organized by the Centre during the past years are legal literacy course for women, development of an action plan for implementation of the recommendations of the National Committee on Custodial Justice for Women Prisoners, a scheme for preparing a handbook on Family Relations Law and a series of projects on "gender justice".

Students are associated with the programmes of the Centre in a number of ways extending support services and field assistance. Selected students are allowed to take their project assignments in different courses on topics related to women's issue in law and society.

An annual journal, The Gender Justice Reporter, is brought out by the CWL to provide information on the development of law through judicial decisions and statutes for those agencies working on women's issues and for the empowerment of women. The centre completed a Research project on "Patterns and Trends in Domestic Violence - An Examination of Court Records". It was a pilot study aimed at developing the meaning and methodology for understanding the problem of domestic violence through a study of the court records in the District of Bangalore.

With the object of consolidating the existing efforts on and to pay focused attention to the ever-evolving frontier area of environmental law discipline, CEERA was brought into existence in the academic year 1997-98. This centre for excellence in Environmental Law signifies the second phase of evolution of the NLSIU.

Teaching has acquired a new meaning at CEERA. Being interactive and inter disciplinary in nature, the teaching here offers abundant scope for participatory learning. A foundation course in environmental law; optional seminar courses in Natural Resources and Energy Law and International Environmental Law and an optional clinical course in Environmental Advocacy for the students of B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) is offered. At the Post Graduate level, a course specially designed for students of Business Law is offered in the Distance Education programme. Commencing from the academic year 1999-2000 CEERA is poised to offer specialisation in Environmental Law for the students of LL.M. A number of doctoral research work is being carried out at the centre and field-oriented research work, in different parts of India, are being undertaken.

As an ongoing process, Teaching, Training and Capacity-Building in Environmental Law, is being offered to the managers of environmental in India. Government functionaries, Industrial Managers, Judges, Law Practitioners, NGO's representatives of local self-government, besides others are availing this facility of the centre. Organisation of seminars and workshops and different thrust areas of the year. The outcome of the deliberations that are published have richly contributed to the corpus of Environmental Jurisprudence in India. These are being made use of as policy papers basic reading materials on the subject.

CEERA comes out regularly with a quarterly News Letter and a number of Research Publications every year. It has already published basic National and International instruments and two case books. The centre has published December 2001 issue of Annual Research Journal entitled "Journal of Indian Environmental Law" and has published Environmental Law Handbook for Law Practitioners during the previous academic year 2002.

The centre has undertaken a major project, entitled "Environment Management Capacity Building Project (Law Component)" on behalf of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Spread over a period of five years and assisted by the World Bank, the project is expected to produce competent leaders to manage the destiny of India's environment. It has also performed a short assignment for Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai on "Review and Reform of Indian Environmental Laws", as part of a project of UNDP.

Working in close co-operation with UNEP, UNITAR, IUCN and APCEL, the centre, with its rich resource base and documentation, has plans of developing into the Environmental Law Academy for the entire SAARC Region, in the years to come.

E-mail : cipra@nls.ac.in

The Center for Intellectual property Research and Advocacy (CIPRA) was created with the objective of enhancing the intellectual property knowledge base and research capabilities of the country in general and the National Law School of India University in particular. The Center attempts to achieve these aims through a two pronged strategy.

Firstly, it attempts to disseminate information on intellectual property rights with a view to create awareness to the public in general.

Secondly, it initiates research into relatively unexplored and novel areas.

The method used to achieve the former is primarily through the law shops of the National Law School and through the Internet. Other than this, the Center also publishes research papers, provides consultancy services, publishes teaching material, course outlines, textbooks and guides to enable the understanding of the laws and the issues that are prevalent in this area of law.

The Web Site is an effort by CIPRA to provide the students, the researchers, the law commission members and such other interested parties an opportunity to partake of its resource base, acquire information and guidance, and keep track of new developments in intellectual property.

The Site contains judicial decisions of Indian and foreign Courts, (along with relevant head notes), a number of well-researched and innovative articles, highlighting recent trends and developments in intellectual property. It also provides links to a number of web sites on the Internet dealing with intellectual property, along with a short summary briefing the contents of these sites and also enabling the to access a worldwide database on intellectual property. Yet another useful feature of the site is the provision for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) which deals with common queries that arises in the area of intellectual property. The discussion forums enables the users to post discussion issues and get them clarified in the Site itself. Thee is also a provision by which the law school can be contacted for consultancy and queries can be posted.

CIPRA seeks to highlight issues to focus on the IPR needs of developing countries. It also seeks to enhance the country's knowledge base in areas where there is little interest at present, but which are likely to emerge at the forefront of controversy in the future. In order to ensure that the country is not found lacking then, CIPRA plans to provide the country with the tools for responding to the future. These include, at the moment, areas such as information Technology (IT), biotechnology, breeder's rights, traditional knowledge, trade secrets, etc.

The Centre for outreach programmes conducts Lawshops around the year on various aspects of Business Law. The Lawshop series is conducted at various cities in India on various segments of Law. This includes Information Technology, Insurance, Engineering, Pharmaceuticals, Medicine, International Trade Law etc. The Lawshops are aimed at senior level lawyers, professionals and consultants. The Centre also conducts cyber literacy programmes for legal fraternity.

From the inception, NLSIU has laid firm foundation in the sphere of Continuing Legal Education Programmes. The International Bar Association (IBA) has established an Endowment Chair in this regard. The NLSIU has conducted series of Continuing Legal Education Programmes for Lawyers, Judges, Administrators and Executives of Corporate establishments on identified subject-areas. Besides, a variety of para-legal and public legal education programmes are part of the teaching and research agenda of NLSIU and the CLE Unit. In addition to this, IBA-CLE Unit undertakes conduct of Continuing Legal Education Programmes on agreed terms.

The NIHR has been established in NLSIU recognising the growing demands of the human rights education and research at the national level, in 1998. During 1991-1998 it functioned under the name of Human Rights Centre.

The NIHR has three main wings:

- The Academy.

- Research and Publication.

- Documentation Centre.

NIHR has recently published a Handbook for Judicial Officers in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

The National Law School of India University, Bangalore has started teaching Alternate Dispute Resolution methods from 1992 for its under graduate students as a compulsory course. In about three years it has stabilized the curriculum and teaching of ADR. At present the Institution is offering advanced courses as Seminar courses in Negotiation, Conciliation and Arbitration. This successful effort of the NLSIU influenced the Bar Council of India to make the teaching of ADR as a compulsory course in all the law schools in India and had the far-sight to retain the same as a necessary condition to have the Recognition of the Bar Council of India for the award of law degree.

NIADR is a specialized centre in NLSIU for promoting alternative dispute resolution. The purposes for setting up of such an Institute is conducting training and developing skills and aptitude for ADR amongst students of law, legal academics and lawyers in the conduct of actual resolution of disputes. It intends to develop curriculum for under-graduate and post-graduate studies in NLSIU. One of the major objectives of the institute would be to standardize and strengthen the ADR component of teaching, research and practice as well as creating a culture of ADR among the Teachers, students and other consumers of justice.

The NIADR shall have the following four wings:-

• Research and Teaching
• Training and Services
• Documentation and Publication
• Establishment of fora/court for amicable settlement of disputes.

Creation of Model Institutions for the purpose resolving disputes amicably using ADR methods, both in the campus as well as outside.

TILEM has been established mainly with a view to generate and promote inter-disciplinary discourse of issues falling within the broad ambit of the interface of Law, Ethics and Medicine. TILEM undertakes curriculum planning and development, consultancy, publication, advocacy of community interests and specific research projects. TILEM also actively involves in conduct of Continuing Legal Education Workshops for the benefit of judges, consumer court presiding officers, lawyers, policy makers, development thinkers, medical and health professionals, para-legals, para-medicos, NGOs, activists. TILEM publishes half yearly journal Health Care: Policy, Law and Ethics.

TILEM of NLSIU has been identified by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi) as a modal agency for Technical Resource Group (TRG) on Legal and Ethical Issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS. The TRG after intensive deliberations in two consecutive meetings, has finalised the 'Best Practices' document.

TILEM has been invited to co-ordinate South-South West (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) Research Project sponsored by UNDP on HIV/AIDS: Legal, Ethical and Human Rights concerns.

The NLSIU is striving to promote excellence in imparting legal education and research. In pursuance on this objective, the NLSIU has established a Legal Services Clinic in the premises where legal and Para Legal Services are offered by the faculty members, students, retired judges, public-spirited lawyers and social action organisations. Members of the Faculty administer the activities of the Clinic.

Clinical Legal Education constitutes an important tool for getting practical training on lawyering skills, for students of the NLSIU. Hence, the NLSIU Legal Services Clinic is not merely an agency for legal services to the people but also a Centre for professional education for the law students. It works in co-ordination with other social work and legal organisations in the city and in conjunction with the Karnataka Legal Services Authority. The Clinic is funded by the grants from Central Legal Services Authority, New Delhi, Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, Bangalore and National Law School of India University, Bangalore.

Students depending upon their interest and aptitude may involve themselves under close faculty supervision in one or more of the programmes. The mediation centres of the Clinic in the city and rural areas are extremely popular. Besides the general legal service programmes of the clinic, the NLSIU curriculum provides for clinical courses on specialised areas of legal practice wherein the students can gather, expertise on different branches of law requiring multiple approaches and knowledge form different disciplines. The Clinic also organises Legal Intership Programme during vacations for students with law offices in different places in the country.

A new centre, the Centre for the Study of Casteism, Communalism and Law (CSCCL) has been established by the National Law School of India University. It was inaugurated by Justice J.S. Verma, the chairperson, National Human Right Commission, New Delhi, on 18th May 2002. The centre is co-ordinated by Prof. S. Japhet.

CThe vision and objective of the CSCCL is to institutionally attempt to meet legal needs of the historically disadvantaged sections of our society specially the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward castes and minorities. Through teaching, research, training, seminars, publications etc., the CSCCL would facilitated for the realizations of the constitutional goals related to the eradication of untouchability practices removal of the disabilities of the caste system, promotion of social justice and the value of secularism.

The CSCCL has been instrumental in organizing some of the major National level Seminar and Workshop. It has been offering a seminar course titled 'Casteism Communism and Law' to the final year LLB and LLM students at the NLSIU some of the major research projects, workshops and seminars are on the anvil.