The National University of Advanced Legal Studies is a publiclaw school and a National Law University located in Kochi, India. It was the first National Law University established in the State of Kerala. It is one of 23 NLUs in India. Admissions to the university are done on the basis of the Common Law Admission Test. The National University of Advanced Legal Studies was established by a statute passed by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Kerala in 2005. The day-to-day management and administration of the university is undertaken by the Vice-Chancellor. Prof. K.C. Sunny is the current Vice-Chancellor of the university.
History
The NUALS Act of 2005 merged the erstwhile National Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, earlier established and managed by the Bar Council of Kerala and Bar Council of Kerala Trust. NUALS was inaugurated by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan on 7 January 2006. The University was located in Kochi since it was the seat of the High Court of Kerala and Lakshadweep.
Faculty
Since February 2020, seven sitting judges of the High Court of Kerala have been appointed as adjunct professors at NUALS.
Online Classes and Response to COVID-19
NUALS has announced a temporary move to online classes from 1 July 2020 as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The university has announced that preparations had been made for the shift, including over 150 prerecorded online lectures, including from High Court judges, advocates, and other guest faculty. The university also responded by revamping its internal email servers to improve communication and information flow. Additionally, the Vice-Chancellor announced that viva-voce for LLB programmes, open defences for PhDs, and LLM Examinations would be conducted online.
Campus
The University campus is spread over a 10 acre compound, located in Kalamaserry. The campus has a basketball court, a football field, a volleyball court, two badminton courts, two gyms, and a variety of indoor games.
Library
The NUALS Library has over 13,000 books, making it one of the largest law libraries in Kerala, including extensive collections donated by eminent personalities including Justice VR Krishna Iyer, who donated his entire private library. The library also includes extensive online resources including WestLaw, Kluwer, HeinOnline and Manupatra Online.
Student Activities
Law Journal
The University also publishes the , a student-edited, biannual, double-blind, peer-reviewedlaw review. The current Editor-in-Chief is Nikhil D. Mahadeva. The Journal has been published since the inception of the University in 2005. Since 2019, the NLJ has been published biannually online and accepts rolling submissions. The first biannual issue approximately coincided with the inception of the NLJ Blog and the passage of bylaws, codifying the journal's internal process.
At its inception in 2014, the NUALS International Maritime Law Arbitration Competition was the first maritime law moot in India.
International Moots
In 2019, a team from NUALS finished as Runners-Up at the NLS Trilegal International Arbitration Moot, 2019. In 2019, NUALS emerged as semi-finalists at the World Rounds of the 23rd In 2020, NUALS won the World Rounds of the 24th In addition, the NUALS team won awards for Best Memorial, in addition to an individual speaker citation for 2nd Best Oralist.