Need of Specialized Legal Education in India

The world is heading towards rapid progress in all fields including law. In this regard, globalization has changed the dynamism of the entire polity and society as a result of which the whole world is giving importance upon knowledge economy.

Law, as the essence of society, regulates human behavior at every micro and macro level and therefore, the functioning of the law is as dynamic as that of the society. As a result, today, the law is not used only to resolve disputes and to maintain an orderly society but has evolved to be used as an effective instrument of socio economic development and justice. Gone are the days when judges used to mechanically apply the law to sort of issues in the society. Today, it is used as a tool intended to discipline the power and empower the powerless.

Gone are the days when the legal professionals were considered the guardian angels standing for the legal order and executing one of the noblest functions of the society. Today, it may very well be argued that all these variables are overlooked in the light of amassing wealth and fame, not only in India but globally.

Today the legal profession has progressed as a branch of education attracting the best minds in the country. The legal service sector has experienced a steady and continuous growth mainly as a consequence of the growth in international trade and investment. Sectors such as corporate restructuring, privatization cross border mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property rights etc. require more sophisticated services, thereby facilitating trade in legal services and creating the essential need of the specialized law professional. Though the legal profession is by and large practiced by individual professionals in most of the countries, modern corporate issues call for collective efforts which in turn have facilitated the growth of larger law firms.

With the emergence of such opportunities, there is a major revamping and growth in the specialized legal education. Specialized learning which would provide a platform for the youth of the country to incentivize them to join the Bar with a fresh perspective and therefore the approach used was to use law as an instrument of sound decision making and problem solving, traits which are of utmost importance in the field of litigation.

In this program, we seeks to provide a correct understanding of the legal education, legal profession and the changing attitudes of the students with the changing scenarios, both at the national level as well as at the international level. 

The individual points of interest contained in a Global Positioning System database were un-copyrightable facts, California District Court USA

The database as a whole is copyrightable as a compilation with at least modicum of creativity, the court said following Feist Publ'ns Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340 (U.S. 1991). But the app maker only asserted that defendant Waze Inc. incorporated individual points of interest into its own database in modified form—not that it copied the app maker's creative selection of data. But the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held on Dec. 14 (PhantomALERT, Inc. v. Google, Inc., N.D. Cal., No. 3:15-cv-03986-JCS, 12/14/15). The individual points of interest contained in a Global Positioning System database were un-copyrightable facts, Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero said the traffic condition and speed trap information in the GPS app consisted of objectively discoverable facts, even to the extent it was intentionally seeded with false data to identify infringers. 

The decision demonstrated a catch-22 for parties seeking to protect data through copyright law. Individual bits of copied data aren't protected under copyright law, but collective data can't receive protection if incorporated into a new, modified compilation by the end user. Plaintiff PhantomALERT Inc. brought copyright infringement claims against Waze and its parent company Google Inc. PhantomALERT provides “Points of Interest” in its GPS database, and it seeds its data with fakes in order to detect infringement. PhantomALERT claimed that its seeded data showed up in Waze's GPS database, and that Google integrated that data into its own mapping program.Google moved to dismiss the claims, arguing the database and the underlying information weren't subject to copyright protection.

The most analogous precedent, the court said, was Assessment Techs. of WI LLC v. Wiredata Inc., 350 F.3d 640 (7th Cir. 2003) (8 ECLR 1121, 12/10/03). In Assessment Technologies, the extraction of raw data from a database for a company to sort differently according to its own needs wasn't found to violate copyrights in the original database. Any intermediate copying done to extract the data was a fair use, the Seventh Circuit held. Similarly, in this case, the court said, copying PhantomALERT's raw data regarding individual points of interest didn't implicate the company's protectable interest in the arrangement of the entire database. The court also found that the seeded data allegations were sufficient to plead that Google had access to PhantomALERT's data. The court gave PhantomALERT the opportunity to replead that Google infringed on one of its protectable interests.

Source: Electronic Commerce and Law Report: http://www.bna.com

Challenges & Reforms in Global Legal Education in the 21st Century

Dr. Tabrez Ahmad was invited to speak on challenges & reforms of legal education in the 21^st century in the Global Legal Education Seminar and the Global Law Firms Conclave orgnaised by The Confederation of Indian Bar in association with Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University, Bhubaneshwar on 8^th,9^th and 10 the August 2015.

Hon’ble Mr. Justice H.L. Dattu, Chief Justice of India was presided over the Inaugural Session of the Global Legal Education Conference on 8^th August and Smt. Pratibha Patil the Ex-President of India presided over the inaugural function of Global Law firms conclave on 10^th August, 2015.  Hon’ble Mr. Justice T.S. Thakur, presided over the Valedictory Session . Hon’ble Mr. Justice A.R. Dave Chaired the Plenary Session. Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, Mr. Naveen Patnaik and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Dipak Misra, Judge, Supreme Court of India had also addressed  the inaugural session.

The seminar attracted around one thousand eminent participants of Who’ who in the legal world from India and foreign countries including the Supreme court and High court judges, eminent lawyers, students and most celebrated law jurists of the present times like Prof. NL Mitra and the father of the modern legal education in India Prof NR Madhava Menon.

UPES (The Law Student's Dilemma: General Vs. Specialized LLB Degree )

All set to begin-5th Dr. Paras Diwan Memorial International ‘Energy Law’ Moot Court Competition, 2nd to 5th April, 2015

The 5th Dr. Paras Diwan Memorial International ‘Energy Law’ Moot Court Competition, 2015 is all set to be held from 2nd to 5th April, 2015. The moot court competition is being organized by the Moot Court Association (MCA) of College of Legal Studies, from 2nd to 5th of April, 2015. This is a good opportunity to interact with legal fraternity of judges and budding lawyers visiting to the campus from different parts of the country. We would be most honored if you could find time from your busy schedule and grace the occasion.

Needless to say that College of Legal Studies, UPES has emerged as a premier law institution of the country. The CoLS offer’s domain specific honors law programs unique in Asian Region towards building a nation by creating skilled law professionals to drive the economy. To further the aim of being distinctive and successful in the Energy Law sector, the College organized 1st Dr. Paras Diwan Memorial Energy Law National Moot Court Competition in the year 2011. This moot court sought to perpetuate the sacred memory of Dr. Paras Diwan, an eminent jurist, a contributor to legal fraternity and a stalwart in the field of law.

This year the competition attracted overwhelming interest to participate from all over the world but it is allowed only 34 best teams on the basis of first memorial round to participate. The moot is going to be judged by 40 eminent legal experts from different law firms like Amarchand Mangaldas, Jyoti Sagar Associates, Luthra & Luthra including the Chief Legal heads of ONGC, GAIL, GMR, lawyers of Supreme Court of India and sitting Judge of Supreme Court of India, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Gopal Gowda.

It is going to be another successful mooting event at UPES.

No Age Bar for CLAT Entrance Examination 2015

To appear in the CLAT entrance test the maximum age limit for a general candidate was 20 years old and for scheduled category candidates 22 years old. But on 4^th March, 2015 the Rajasthan high court chief justice Sunil Ambwani and justice Prakash Gupta ruled that the Legal Education Rules, 2008, not only on the ground that the Bar Council was not competent, but also the Bar Council felt that the Rule is ultra vires the provisions of Section 7(1)H and (i), 24(1)(c)(iii), and (iiia) or 49(1)(af), (ag), and (d) of the Advocates Act, 1961, and also arbitrary, as it introduces invidious classification by dividing the class of students artificially creating a class by prescribing the maximum age limit for admission in Law Courses, and further on the ground that there is no apparent object to be served in prescribing the age of 20 years.  It was also recovered that the statutes of the National Law universities are silent of the max, age limit.

The court also ordered the withdrawal of Clause 28 of Schedule-III appended to Rule 11 of the Rules of the Bar Council of India. Considering the fact that a large population of the country lives in rural areas, which also forms talent bank, from where the students can be drawn for admission, to the top Law Colleges in the country.

The court has asked the CLAT 2015 convenor RMLNLU Lucknow to modify its application software so as not to reject applications of candidates above the current age limit and to upload the high court’s interim order on CLAT’s official website.

Advocate General of Rajasthan RN Mathur who was appearing for CLAT 2015 convenor RMLNLU Lucknow asked the court for time until 12 March to file a reply and to fix a date before CLAT application deadline 31 March to dispose of the matter. 

UPES Recruiting Law Faculty

The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), College of Legal Studies

Professor/Associate Professor /Asstt. Professor in Law

Founded in 2003, the UPES is committed to the highest international standards of excellence in teaching and research, and has been at the international forefront of academic scholarship for many years. The University has a comprehensive range of study programmes and research disciplines spread across 3 Colleges and over 100 academic programs. There are over 7300 undergraduate and postgraduate students who are recruited globally, and more than 400 members of academic and academic-related staff coming from multi-cultural backgrounds, many of whom are internationally renowned.

JOB DESCRIPTION: Applications are invited for appointment as Full time Professor/Associate Professor/ Asstt. Professor in Law in the College of Legal Studies (CoLS), to commence as soon as possible. The CoLS is now seeking to appoint an outstanding candidate to the position of Professor/Associate Professor/ Asstt. Professor in Law, with research and teaching interests in the law.

The successful candidate will be expected to make a leading contribution to the CoLS's research profile, by sustaining high-quality research and active participation in research communities. He/She will also be expected to contribute strongly to the development and delivery of teaching on the CoLS's undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF LEGAL STUDIES: The Faculty of Law plays a leading role in legal education in India, through its various undergraduate, research postgraduate, and taught postgraduate programmes covering a wide range of legal subject areas. It is one of the largest teaching institutions in India, currently running 9 UG, PG and Doctoral programs. Information about the College can be found at http://www.upes.ac.in

FURTHER INFORMATION: A nationally competitive remuneration package commensurate with qualifications and experience will be offered, in addition to annual leave and medical benefits.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Applicants should send a completed application form together with an up-to-date C.V. to msolanki@ddn.upes.ac.in , tahmad@ddn.upes.ac.in . Further details and application forms can be downloaded at http://www.upes.ac.in.

The University thanks applicants for their interest, but advises that only shortlisted applicants will be notified of the application result.