Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of O.P. Jindal Global University and Cornell Law School have signed an Agreement of Cooperation and a Memorandum of Understanding to promote international perspectives on legal education and research in both the countries.

JGLS and Cornell through this Agreement plan to promote a range of collaborative initiatives including faculty and student exchange programs, and joint teaching and research initiatives.

Speaking to Bar & Bench, Professor C. Raj Kumar Dean of JGLS said, “The objective behind signing this Agreement of Cooperation with Cornell Law School is to promote global legal education in India and USA. It will give opportunities for the students of JGLS to go to Cornell and spend a semester just as the students of Cornell will be spending a semester at JGLS. There are other areas of collaboration including the visit of a faculty member from Cornell who will spend an entire semester teaching at JGLS as a Fulbright Scholar”.

This arrangement will be implemented in January 2012 and 2 to 3 students from each school will be selected to get this opportunity.

Prof Raj Kumar further added, “There is interest among both our law schools in offering continuing legal education programmes and custom made executive education programmes. A course will be offered at both the law school in which a Cornell faculty member will be teaching in collaboration with JGLS faculty where students from JGLS and Cornell will be interacting through a global classroom experience that JGLS has created at its campus”.

Kumar further said, “The greatest benefit is for the students and faculty of JGLS.  Cornell is one of the most reputed law schools of the world. Our students and faculty will have an opportunity to engage and interact with faculty and student at Cornell on a range of issues”.

According to the Press Release, as the first joint effort of this relationship, the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School, and the Centre for Women, Law and Social Change, and Centre for Human Rights Studies at JGLS are organizing a joint conference on ‘Gender-Based Violence and Justice’ in South Asia in October 2011.

Stewart J. Schwab, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law at Cornell Law School in a statement said, “We believe that this alliance will greatly benefit faculty and students from both schools and further enhance Cornell’s international programs. We look forward to building a longstanding relationship with Jindal”.

Earlier this year, JGLS and the University of Michigan Law School had inaugurated their Joint Centre on Global Corporate & Financial Law and Policy.

According to Kumar, “As a global law school, JGLS is committed to promoting global legal education through global curriculum, global courses, global programmes, global research through global faculty and global interaction. This will be achieved through these collaborations”.