NUJS Kolkata is offering a 45-hour degree course for up to a total of 40 fourth- and fifth-year law students about the law and judicial system in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter universe.
The course will start this upcoming winter term, held by assistant professor (and 2010 NUJS alum) Shouvik Kr Guha, who specialises in competition , banking and finance, corporate, international trade and intellectual property law (besides magical laws).
The course is called “An Interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special Focus on Rowling’s Potterverse”.
Although career opportunities with the Ministry of Magic’s Department of Magical Law Enforcement may be slim these days, one doesn’t need to be Professor Trelawney to foresee the course will be more popular than even the Yule Ball.
However, stiff entry requirements means ignorant Muggles should not apply: all students are “expected [to] have already read all the books at least twice, if not more” (though the Warner Brothers movies are apparently optional).
While the truest of Potterheads may want to read the full 8-page PDF course outline rife with Potter references below (or perhaps transfer to NUJS immediately), the more Squib-like may be satisfied by perusing some of the topics that will be covered in the course, such as:
- Legal Traditions and Institutions in Potterverse (including role of law and rule of law in a magical society, moral choice and liberty in Potterverse and the role of bureaucracy in the Ministry of Magic)
• Crimes and Punishments in Potterverse (including Unforgivable Curses, Wizengamot Trials, Innocence of Sirius Black and Persecution of Tom Riddle)
- Morality, Social Values, Identity and Class Rights in Potterverse (including (human?) dignity and enslavement of House Elves, marginalization of Werewolves, Giants, Centaurs and Merpeople, Mudbloods and Squibs, militant literacy and misuse of texts)
• The Potterverse Economy (including Gringotts, magic of money and economic growth and entrepreneurship)
• Politics in Potterverse (including bases of authority, terror and counterterror, resistance, intelligence and secret societies)
• Contracts and Agency in Potterverse (including Unbreakable Vows, Agents of Good or Servants of Evil, express will and loyalty, Snape and the Order of Phoenix, Dumbledore’s Man through and through)
• Family in Potterverse (including blood relationship, familial ties, testamentary law)
• Miscellaneous (including Quidditch and sports law, religion and destiny, Rowling’s legal battles and reflections, philosophical significance of Potterverse characters, technological anarchism & the hi-tech, low-tech wizarding world, archetypes and stereotypes, from ‘Mars is Bright Tonight’ to Horcruxes in Faerie Land and ‘Just behind the Veil’: Influences of Dante, Edmund Spenser and George MacDonald on Potterverse)
There won’t be any OWLs, but students will have to pass an end-of-semester exam, a written essay assignment on a topic selected by them, as well as a 15-minute presentation of the essay (“or in the alternative, students can perform magic tricks for 15 minutes and no, disappearance does not count”, according to the course outline).
Unsurprisingly this is not the first time the juggernaut Harry Potter franchise has faced academic attention, even in the legal field, with the course outline listing 17 Potter-related academic papers as references (a 2005 paper from the US called Harry Potter and the Law is available on SSRN, for instance, and there are several other ones available online along similar lines).
And in 2012, JGLS Sonepat assistant professor Danish Sheikh had delivered a guest lecture entitled “Hogwarts School of Legal Education: What Harry Potter can teach us about the Law”.
Update 17 October 2018, 15:45: We have reached out to Guha for comment about why he started the course, and he wrote:
This elective course is primarily meant to be an experiment more than anything else. I am sure a whole lot of people would think that there are several courses NUJS should rather offer to its students, especially courses relating to financial laws that would make their lives easier in law firms or other jobs later.
I completely agree with them about there being a huge dearth of capable and qualified people to offer such courses at NUJS and probably all other National Law Universities today. I have tried to address that in whatever small way I can over the past five years, by offering courses like Project Finance, Banking Law, International Investment Law, Insurance Law, Antitrust, Technology & Innovation etc. That is one of the main reasons I myself have returned to my alma mater, to help in whatever way I can. I am currently teaching Corporate Law I every alternate semester. How much help these courses have been are really for the students to decide, especially after they graduate.
However, I also believe that a teacher should always push the boundaries, instead of growing too comfortable or complacent. As should every student. This course is partly meant to do exactly that. Hopefully, it should make students think a little and be creative in the application of the legal principle that they know or will learn, to literary scenarios they are personally fond of and interested in.
I could have used multiple fictional universes for that, but I am preferring to start small. If we manage to come up with sufficient quality original literature in the form of student essays, we can even perhaps consider publishing a volume like Thomas Jefferson School of Law has done in the past, but let us not get ahead of ourselves at this stage. The course seems to have got way too much attention before it can even begin, something I would have liked to avoid! I don’t even know how many people if any would sign up for the course, because contrary to what an outsider may think about the course, I do not have a reputation for giving away ‘easy grades’ in any course that I offer.
I would actually be offering Project Finance as another elective course during this very semester, though to a different batch. It should prove to be a challenging exercise, given how antipodal the courses may appear and the different mindsets that teaching those would require, but hopefully I can live up to that challenge.
Finally, to every person who believes that we should offer more industry-oriented courses, please understand that I am fully on your side and would love to accept any kind of contribution from your end, in the form of course ideas, feedback, suggestions, and most of all, you all going back to your respective alma maters whenever time permits and help out with the courses.
This is an open and standing invitation for alumni including non-NUJS alumni.
I know that there are multiple administrative challenges, but we cannot really give up in the face of those, can we? To those who think that law schools should offer this kind of course too, to encourage diversity in thought process and the like among students, thank you for your vote of confidence in the course. I hope I would be able to live up to such confidence as a teacher too, and would of course love to receive any kind of feedback on how to make it better. In short, all help is welcome, from supporters and critics alike. We are all in this together, not against each other.
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This course will teach those interested to see questions of law, legal system and morality etc. in fiction and fiction they love. This course will help them understand the centrality of these ideas not just to our society but to all societies. A worthwhile endeavour.
I am not a clerk at a law firm. I teach at a law school. I have vision that janaab lacks.
- Godric Gryffindor: Madhava Menon
- Albus Dumbledore: MP Singh
- Voldemort: P[...]
- Crabbe and Goyle: [...] and [...]
- Dolores Umbridge: A[...]
- Bellatrix Lestrange: L[...]
- Gilderoy Lockhart: B[...]
- Peter Pettigrew: A[...]
- Cornelius Fudge: J[...]
- Draco Malfoy: [...]
- Dobby the House Elf: [...]
Furthermore, it's not very nice to even call professors Bellatrix LeStrange, Voldemort, etc :)
- Godric Gryffindor: Madhava Menon
- Albus Dumbledore: MP Singh
- Voldemort: Uh Uh Uh
- Crabbe and Goyle: Two young chelas of Uh Uh Uh, fellow countrymen
- Dolores Umbridge: Lady who overnight got a lot of authority
- Bellatrix Lestrange: Slapgate
- Gilderoy Lockhart: Graduate of elite university who likes telling BS stories. Mediocre guy riding on dad's achievements.
- Peter Pettigrew: Joker who went from crying in his first class to become Mr Bigshot Book Reviewer
- Cornelius Fudge: Lord T'nath
- Draco Malfoy: Another Uh Uh Uh gang member, senior rank
- Dobby the House Elf: Very loyal to Uh Uh Uh
Disappointed that LI is giving this publicity instead of useful electives offers by eminent professors at other law schools.
The law school spoken about above, offering two range of courses, isn't NUJS.
The great degree of difference in acumen could come from a whole range of factors.
- People going to law school in their mid to late twenties, unlike the eighteen year old greenhorns in our country.
- People paying for their own education as adults who have mostly worked in the market and know the value of that hard earned dollar, as opposed to parents paying for an education not many care for while in school.
- People working in the firms caring to give back to their school, in terms of financial assistance that builds the school's ability to engage better people on higher salaries. People working at law firms also chipping in as adjunct faculty offering market relevant courses that can only be taught well with market experience.
Stop telling us how successful you are or how good your times were. If you are either, bloody support your law school in one of the way noted above or find another of your own choice.
Squibs won't understand.
Yes, I am a Potterhead.
Very noble reasoning you have given but comparison can be done only between equals. How can curriculum of Harvard / Oxford (which are top 10 law schools worldwide) be suddenly put into NUJS which is not even top 10 in Beliaghata.
I am not against the course and respect your reasons which are all correct but in the context of NUJS it makes no sense. Neither the faculty nor the students nor the university is right now fit to teach these courses. Before Hogwarts and Dumbledore there should first be a course on Law and Literature.
As for your question about the huge difference in the standards of the university compared to Harvard etc., your point betrays such a callous prejudice that it doesn't merit an answer, but probably you have forgotten that the country's top legal recruiters still obviously consider the students of this university worth doing their work. You seem to be one of those who would require a foreign stamp on everything before you can pronounce it fit for your liking. Then people may as well start their basic legal studies at Harvard only, why go to the trouble of having Indian universities teach law at all? Incidentally, how many credits of law and literature courses have you taken that makes you such an expert on the subject?
Further, as far as student ability is concerned, I can cite an example from people I know. My former schoolmates with similar marks, background, and interests were accepted by top ivy league schools as well as top national law schools, as undergraduates. Did the former have better opportunities abroad? Indubitably. But they are by no means brighter or more hardworking than their peers who went to NLUs, or to any other college for that matter.
Indeed, with a teacher introducing a course like this, my estimation of the faculty at NUJS has gone up ten-fold, as well.
Also, if you are under the impression that top 10 schools have quality students, I suggest you try to read Chanakya's Chant, written by a Yale alumnus.
This, however, should be obligatory viewing for all 1st year sci-fi lawyers :)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Measure_of_a_Man_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)
A big time Trekkie, here.
Star Trek and its various progeny have always been a very fertile area for looking law from various angles. Be it, how in TNG, Picard is always focused on maintaining the Prime Directive or how overall the series looks at issues like racism, colonisation - all under the garb of Science Fiction.
For far many nights, Star Trek has kept me awake and made me corelate the realities of our world with the 'situation' being depicted in ST or ST-TNG.
I would love to see how/ when an Indian law school looks at the various issues addressed in the Star Trek universe and makes students to interpret them from our current history (so to speak).
Thank you my man, for bringing Star Trek here.
Regards,
SKR
www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=21794
I seriously doubt this course has any benefit. The need of the hour is to get the basic subjects right (like Consti law, Criminal Law). One can indulge in fanciful courses when NUJS becomes an Oxford and when Souvik Guha is more qualified. Until that time this looks like a rather particular attention-seeking gimmick that deserves to be condemned.
Finally, who cares about your anonymous condemnation? Go and do all the kadhi ninda you like.
Candidate (Responds with a sense of Glee and excitement:) - Well I attended the Potterhead course. It was groundbreaking.
Interviewer (Rolling eyes): Don't call us. We will call you. And please don't bug me or my partners on LinkedIn or Facebook.
"This elective course is primarily meant to be an experiment more than anything else. I am sure a whole lot of people would think that there are several courses NUJS should rather offer to its students, especially courses relating to financial laws that would make their lives easier in law firms or other jobs later.
I completely agree with them about there being a huge dearth of capable and qualified people to offer such courses at NUJS and probably all other National Law Universities today. I have tried to address that in whatever small way I can over the past five years, by offering courses like Project Finance, Banking Law, International Investment Law, Insurance Law, Antitrust, Technology & Innovation etc. That is one of the main reasons I myself have returned to my alma mater, to help in whatever way I can. I am currently teaching Corporate Law I every alternate semester. How much help these courses have been are really for the students to decide, especially after they graduate.
However, I also believe that a teacher should always push the boundaries, instead of growing too comfortable or complacent. As should every student. This course is partly meant to do exactly that. Hopefully, it should make students think a little and be creative in the application of the legal principle that they know or will learn, to literary scenarios they are personally fond of and interested in.
I could have used multiple fictional universes for that, but I am preferring to start small. If we manage to come up with sufficient quality original literature in the form of student essays, we can even perhaps consider publishing a volume like Thomas Jefferson School of Law has done in the past, but let us not get ahead of ourselves at this stage. The course seems to have got way too much attention before it can even begin, something I would have liked to avoid! I don't even know how many people if any would sign up for the course, because contrary to what an outsider may think about the course, I do not have a reputation for giving away 'easy grades' in any course that I offer.
I would actually be offering Project Finance as another elective course during this very semester, though to a different batch. It should prove to be a challenging exercise, given how antipodal the courses may appear and the different mindsets that teaching those would require, but hopefully I can live up to that challenge.
Finally, to every person who believes that we should offer more industry-oriented courses, please understand that I am fully on your side and would love to accept any kind of contribution from your end, in the form of course ideas, feedback, suggestions, and most of all, you all going back to your respective alma maters whenever time permits and help out with the courses.
This is an open and standing invitation for alumni including non-NUJS alumni.
I know that there are multiple administrative challenges, but we cannot really give up in the face of those, can we? To those who think that law schools should offer this kind of course too, to encourage diversity in thought process and the like among students, thank you for your vote of confidence in the course. I hope I would be able to live up to such confidence as a teacher too, and would of course love to receive any kind of feedback on how to make it better. In short, all help is welcome, from supporters and critics alike. We are all in this together, not against each other."
on Evidentiary Approaches !!
I would argue that the potter course actually allows students to think creatively and encourage problem solving abilities.
JGLS already did a 4 credit course over 2 years ago- Harry Potter and the Power of Imagination.
The functional part is concerned with the law as it is and attempts to provide an understanding of the prevailing law as a set of fundamental and logically demonstrable principles and their interpretation as part of an internally valid, autonomous and self-justifying system. For example, the determination of insider trading with respect to the prevailing law.
The theoretical part on the other hand is concerned with the study of its conceptual framework and attempts to borrow principles from neighbouring fields or the Social Sciences. For example, the demolition of the justifications of racial superiority by way of sociological research brought about a concomitant change in law, resulting in the abolition of slavery.
Thus, any course taught in a law school, in an ideal case, should be with the objective of justifying both or either of the above two parts.
The discussion on the desirability of a Law and Harry Potter course, however quite strangely, has centred around the factual examination of whether courses of similar nature are being offered in other law schools. This is a fundamentally flawed scheme of argumentation, for if one were to extend that logic, no course can ever be discontinued in a law school because such a course may at that point exist in some law school or the other, and similarly, no new course can ever be started because it would not exist in any other law school.
Therefore, the efficacy and as such a course’s need has to be, perforce, judged on the objects it avows to achieve and whether those objects are in line with the objectives of the academic study of Law. Accordingly, academic honesty would demand that professors designing courses place at the outset the objects that are envisaged to be achieved by way of a course, and whether the same are in consonance with the objectives of the academic study of Law.
In line with the above, it would be worthwhile to compare the two ‘Law and…’ courses that have been offered at Indian law Schools, namely, Law and Poverty and Law and Pop Culture.
The Law and Poverty course examines the legislative/legal interventions and their consequence in either entrenching impoverishment or alleviating impoverishment. For example, a study of the promulgation of the Forest Rights Act and the spurt in per capita income in areas where the same was applied; or the debate regarding the incorporation of cultural erosion as a consideration in the compensation for migration in cases involving the Land Acquisition Act. It in that sense, the course addresses two essential considerations, the utility of a law as a tool of social/economic engineering and upon the findings, a necessary theoretical basis for any change or betterment of that law.
Contrary to the above, the Law and Pop Culture course, as per an article on how to design a Law and Pop Culture course available at docs.manupatra.in/newsline/articles/Upload/71871DF4-1CFA-4754-929B-9E4D6A4E6F14.pdf is “one that holds great potential in transforming the law classroom into a more accessible, democratic, and vibrant space.” This well could just be the intent of any course under the sun and not specifically the Law and Pop Culture course.
The sixteen page document goes on to provide the path and sources that can be used to offer the Law and Pop Culture course. Summarised, the paper essentially posits the use of characters and narratives in popular culture to understand the principles of law. The paper ,one must acknowledge, is fairly well written. However, it falls short of convincing you as a field of independent study in a law school.
In principle, there is no problem in understanding concepts through the use of characters or narratives. This is something akin to the use of parables for making kids understand moral principles, which taught to them independently would be difficult for them to grasp. In such a case, the parable is the 'tool' and the principle is what is 'taught'.
However, a course like Law and Pop Culture in effect becomes a 'treasure hunt', where a potpourri of cultural references are placed before the students and they are required to glean or examine legal principles. This is a superfluous exercise as the students are already well acquainted with the legal principles and hence, there is no addition to the students' understanding of law. Also, as Pop Culture is an apparent reflection of how prevailing law is perceived generally (sometimes quite inaccurately), it holds no value for any enrichment of the theoretical foregrounding of law. This is a great burden on the time and money that a student invests by coming to law school.
The Law and Harry Porter course sits in a similar pigeonhole. It may, perhaps, remodelled as ‘Law as a Leitmotif in Harry Porter Novels’ prove to be a paper for a cultural studies or literary review journal, but putting it as a course in law school curriculum is just indulgence at the cost of the students.
Moral choice
Crime and punishment, persecution of Tom Riddle and unforgivable curses
Enslavement of house elf
Contracts in Pottterverse
Fmily relationships
You can simply open the source article from papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=829344 and do a search.
[...]
[...]
'Representations of the Indian Emergency in Popular Fiction', Socio-Legal Review, Vol. 5 (2009).
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3094213
I would appreciate it if others can share similar work in the Indian context.
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