Law students and aspiring law candidates have a lot to look forward to this academic year. The institution of the new National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL) in Jharkhand, the 12^th national law university, comes as a boon to aspiring law candidates in India.

Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, the first Chancellor of NUSRL, inaugurated the national law university last week. The university which offers a 5-year integrated course is functioning from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra campus.

Admissions to NUSRL will be based on the Common Law Aptitude Test (CLAT) and the academic year is expected to kick off from July this year. Of the 150 seats on offer, 75 are reserved for students from Jharkhand. The seed for a national university in the state of Jharkhand was first sown by the first Chief Justice of the High Court of Jharkhand, Justice V.K. Gupta back in 2000. After a gestation period of 10 years the State Assembly of Jharkhand passed an Act in 2010.

Autar Krishen Koul, Former Vice Chancellor of the National Law University, Jodhpur and former Dean of Faculty of Law, Delhi University, has been appointed as the first Vice Chancellor of the NUSRL.

Last week also witnessed the launch of a quarterly law review journal by the National Law University of India (NLIU), Bhopal. The student run project intends to inculcate the importance of research among the legal students of the country.

The law review invites cases, papers, articles,essays and book reviews from law students and faculty from across the country on legal topics of relevance. Speaking to Bar & Bench, faculty advisor, Dr. Ghayur Alam, who guides the student committee on administrative and editorial matters said, “Every year the students have to write research papers and submit projects as part of their academic curriculum, so the decision to launch the law review was to encourage research skills of the students which would help them in their academics and also their legal skills.”