Education without borders: Learning about Indian judicial system firsthand

15:35, March 30, 2021

On March 26, GSEM UrFU hosted a lecture by Ashutosh Kumar Jha, Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Delhi

Professor Jha gave an open lecture on "The legal system of India". The professor joined us via Zoom, and students were in the classroom and listened to lecture in English with a translation into Russian, carried out by the Head of the educational programme, E. V. Kuznetsova.

Indian legal system is unique in its own way. It combines the system of traditional law that existed in ancient India and is based on customs and religion, the system of Anglo-Saxon law introduced by the British colonizers, the system of religious law, as well as elements of the Romano-Germanic system of law. This combination of different legal systems makes it possible to take into account the needs of a multicultural and multi-religious society in India, and also leads to the existence of a special type of laws (Personal Laws) that generalize the rules of conduct in the personal sphere (family, inheritance, succession in the family) for persons who profess the most common religions in India (Hinduism, Islam and Christianity).

During the lecture, Professor Jha also spoke about the judicial system of India, the legal force of the decisions of the Supreme Court of India, and the procedure for considering citizens' appeals to the judicial authorities.

The material presented at the lecture interested the students. They asked questions related to the ratio of the legal force of different sources of law in the Indian legal system, the powers of the Supreme Court, the legal status of representatives of different castes in society.

This format of an open lecture was tested by us for the first time. Now this format is possible thanks to the development of information technologies during the pandemic, it allows you to exchange experience with foreign colleagues and get first-hand information.

We thank Professor Jha for his presentation and look forward to further cooperation with colleagues from the University of Delhi.