Call for Applications | ‘CopyrightX: NLSIU’ – A Copyright Law Course offered by NLSIU in collaboration with Harvard Law School | Mar-Apr 2025
January 6, 2025
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), in collaboration with the Harvard Law School (HLS), is offering a comparative copyright law course titled ‘CopyrightX: NLSIU’ in the upcoming trimester. This eight week hybrid course will start on March 3, 2025 and end by April 30, 2025. This is an affiliate course of the CopyrightX program, offered by Prof. William Fisher and Prof. Ruth Okediji at Harvard Law School, and is open for professionals and students from across South Asia.
About the course
The course will explore diverse legal aspects of copyright and its impact on different fields like art, entertainment and technology. This year, the course will be focusing in detail on the impact of AI on copyright law and creativity. The course will examine the current status of AI related copyright litigations in different jurisdictions across the globe and also introduce debates on reforming copyright law.
What makes the course at NLSIU unique is its equal focus on both the US Copyright law and the Indian Copyright law, aimed also to provide the participants a comparative perspective. The course will also discuss copyright laws in other jurisdictions, wherever relevant. The course outline can be accessed from this link.
The course relies extensively on the case study method to explore the complex concepts in detail. The course follows a unique pedagogical approach of combining recorded lectures of Prof. William Fisher (HLS) and Prof. Ruth Okediji (HLS) with interactive live discussions led by Prof. Arul George Scaria (NLSIU). This may also be supplemented by discussions with copyright experts/ artists.
Course details
There will be three sessions (of two hours) per week. The course will be following a hybrid approach, wherein external candidates (students from outside NLSIU) will be joining the sessions online and NLSIU students will be joining offline on campus. A minimum of 80% attendance is mandatory for the enrolled students to participate in the final examination. Students are required to watch all the recorded videos and are required to attend the live lectures as well. As a fairly rigorous course, the course will have different in-class and take-home assignments for students.
The final examination will be administered primarily by the Harvard Law School. The students who meet all the course requirements and pass the final examination will receive a certificate from the Harvard Law School.
Eligibility
Candidates from any countries in South Asia, who are currently enrolled in or completed an undergraduate, postgraduate, or doctoral research programme are eligible to apply. We particularly welcome applications from professionals including judges, law practitioners, artists, data scientists and software developers, who are interested in learning about copyright law. However, as a course that demands extensive interactions, the enrolment will be limited and highly selective.
How to apply
Candidates interested in enrolling in the course should submit a formal request for enrolment through this link latest by January 31, 2025 (11:59 PM IST) along with the following documents:
1. CV
2. Motivation letter (clearly indicating why and how this course would be helpful for your career)
3. Copy of the student ID (if you are currently enrolled in any full-time academic course in a public funded university in South Asia)
The selection shall be primarily on the basis of the CV, academic and professional background of the candidate, and motivation letter. During the selection process diversity of backgrounds shall be given due consideration.
Fee
The fees for enrolment in this course shall be INR 50,000 + applicable taxes. However, NLSIU and Harvard Law School have decided to offer a complete fee waiver for students currently enrolled in any public funded university in South Asia for any full-time academic course. Please note that this fee waiver is not applicable for candidates who are in employment (for example, candidates who may have taken leave from their job to pursue a full-time Ph.D. programme).
Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding this course, please write to Prof. Arul George Scaria ().
NOTE: Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and it will not be possible to respond to individual queries on application status.