C Raj Kumar
What are the best and worst things about your job?
Establishing a new institutional of global excellence in India is the most amazing responsibility that we have undertaken. Our mission is to promote global legal education in the Jindal Global Law School through its curriculum, courses, programmes, faculty, research, collaborations and interaction. The challenge is to develop a global law school in India which is deeply committed to the study and development of law relating to India as well as international and comparative law. Another challenge is to ensure that the institution that we are creating is working within the regulatory framework in India .
Who was the first lawyer you ever worked under? What is the most important lesson that you learnt from him/her?
The first job that undertook as a lawyer was to work for the National Human Rights Commission. I worked at the Research Division of the NHRC and my main responsibility was to undertake research on the issue of prison reforms. Experience of working at NHRC gave me great insights to the nature and extent of human rights violations that take place in India and the great amount of expectations that victims of human rights violations have from institutions like the NHRC to render justice. The biggest lesson I drew from that experience is that as a lawyer, there is nothing more fulfilling than an opportunity to work for achieving justice and for the protection and promotion of human rights.
If a seventeen year old came to you and asked you whether he/she should consider a career in law, what advice would you give?
I would strongly encourage the student to pursue law as a career. There are numerous opportunities after the study of law. Law is a profoundly empowering discipline. The study of law empowers you with the knowledge and experience to work towards protecting rights and achieving justice. Today, lawyers have numerous opportunities in a variety of fields including, but not limited to working for a corporate law firm, a company or corporation, government, litigation practice in courts, NGOs, UN and other inter-governmental organizations, legal process outsourcing (LPO) industry, and also legal academia. All these opportunities for lawyers are available in India and abroad.
What was your first car? When did you buy it?
Toyota RAV 4 and I used it when I was a faculty member at the School of Law of City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong till the end of 2007.
Which is your favourite restaurant?
Saravana Bhavan in New Delhi
What is the best book you read in the past year?
Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.
Where did you go on your last vacation?
Kerala
Which historical figure would you invite for dinner? If you could only ask one question of him/her, what would you ask?
Mahatma Gandhi
Amidst the human ability to pursue violent methods to achieve even legitimate objectives, what does it take for you to steadfastly believe in non-violence as a means to achieve all ends? And how would you apply your belief in non-violence to contemporary challenges facing the world including, international terrorism, genocide and territorial disputes between nations?
What is the most significant change that you would make to the law school curriculum?
A far greater emphasis on international and comparative law is something that is necessary for our law students. Even courses that are largely concerning domestic law should have perspectives drawn from other jurisdictions so that our students get that international exposure. But this is possible only with good faculty members who have sound research aptitude having knowledge of Indian law in addition to law relating to other legal systems as well as international law.
What is the most significant change that you would like to see in the legal industry in the next five years?
Globally, the legal industry has reluctantly embraced globalization. There is still a high degree of protectionism in many jurisdictions including India . There is a need to recognize the huge opportunities that globalization can provide for knowledge creation as well as the development of legal services. Globalisation of legal education and legal profession is a reality that needs to be accepted by both the legal academia as well as the legal profession.
(Professor C Raj Kumar is the Vice Chancellor of O P Jindal Global University and the Dean of Jindal Global Law School.)
