INTRODUCTION
Theoretical physics for long has been intrigued with the idea of ‘dark matter’ a phenomenon which defines there is more gravity to our universe than the observable matter.
Such was the personality of Professor N.R. Madhava Menon, a legal physicist with an un-parallel contribution to legal education and legal profession. It will not be an understatement to say that Professor Menon was a personification of the modern legal education in India; his thoughts and will represents the legal dynamism of the modern India. That is why he is regarded as the father of Modern Indian Legal education.
Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon, a pioneer law teacher who was instrumental in legal educational reforms in India advocated the concept of rural legal law firms and Paralegal movements to reach out to the unreached and ensuring justice accessible to all.
This legal luminary and a tireless institution builder passed away on May 8, 2019, in Kerala. His demise is a big loss to the legal academia. It is hard if not impossible to summarize the contribution of Prof. Menon to few words or pages.
The enigmatic personality and authoritative research are just few of the facets of Prof. Menon. Being an ardent believer in legal aid, he brought in a revolution in the field legal aid across India, with various Universities picking up the cause in his lineage.
He was part of Justice Krishna Iyer led Expert Committee on Legal Aid which observed that “the Rule of Law underlies our entire social, economic and governmental structure as well as constitutional order.
The Indian way of life will lose its soul if social justice ceases to be the dharma holding us together as a nation”. And it is this that we want legality not to be wet with the tears of poverty.
For surely the law of life will outlaw lawyer’s law unless the strategy of bringing law-in-action into rapport with the norms of justice is put into operation and the cost of the legal system is brought into fair concord with the economic conditions of the country.
In this humanist perspective, our concern has been to ·view the welfare-inspired legal services programme not as a professional gratuity but as the juridical arm of Garibi Hatao. For this reason, we have given a social sweep to· our· scheme which exceeds the court room, the lawyer’s chambers, the traditional legal aid and advice thinking, techniques and machinery.”
Keeping the dream of creating ‘social engineers’ who contribute to improving access to justice and the quality of justice for the common person Prof. Menon efficaciously experimented the idea of legal aid clinics in the National Law Schools.
He continued to contribute to the legal profession even after his retirement and was instrumental in training lawyers, judges, judicial officers and law teachers at various National Law Schools. He wrote in the Hindu:
“What the nation needs now is an organised movement involving legal educators, lawyers and judges, not only to learn the practice of law but to transform law and legal institutions to maximise justice in society and to put legal education at the centre for better governance under democracy and the rule of law.”
Prof. Menon is not with us, but his ideology and vision of accessibility of justice to the poorest of the poor are echoing everywhere. Dr Menon has left behind a massive void in the field of law. National Law University Odisha (NLUO) will remain indebted for his gracious presence in the University on several occasions and last on 22nd September 2016 for Inaugurating the National Conference on Criminology.
As a tribute to the legend Professor, NLUO decides to bring a special issue of NLUO Law Journal in the memory of Late Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon.
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
The NLUO Law Journal (ISSN 2348-8913) is the flagship publication of National Law University Odisha. An annual peer-reviewed journal aims to encourage legal scholarship in national and international inter-disciplinary legal issues.
After the first volume in 2013, three consecutive volumes of the journal were formulated as special issues on ‘Access to Justice’, ‘Child Rights’ and ‘Climate Change’.
All three editions focused on topics of substantial contemporary relevance and provided an excellent repository of scholarship in those areas. This edition is a distinctive and special issue in the memory of legendary figure Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon brought forth by the Constitutional Law Society NLUO.
ABOUT Constitutional Law Society NLUO
CLS NLUO was established with the vision to provide an accessible forum for intellectual discourse and to shape the discussion of the most important and relevant issues pertaining to Constitutional law through meticulous scholarship.
THEMES FOR SUBMISSION
We request you to write an article on any of the following themes and send us positively by 20th August 2019 to enable us to bring out the special issue:
- Socially Relevant Legal Education
- Continuing Legal Education
- Clinical Legal Education and Functioning of Legal Aid Clinics in Law Schools
- Community Dispute Resolution Mechanism
Note: Authors are free to choose any sub-topics under these themes and areas. Submissions should demonstrate the strong methodological approach, high writing quality, robust analysis, and adherence to the topic.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- Submissions can be in the form of long articles, short notes, book reviews. The acceptable word limit should not exceed:
- Long Articles: 8000-10000 words
- Short Notes: 4000-8000 words
- Book Review: 2000-3000 words
- All the word limits mentioned above are exclusive of footnotes. Kindly note that the word limits will be strictly enforced.
- All the submissions must consist of an Abstract of not more than 300 words, main contribution and a declaration of originality. The abstract will not be included in the word limit.
- A submission can be co-authored by a maximum of two people. Submissions are invited from undergraduate and graduate students, academicians, practitioners and research scholars.
Note: The last date for submission is 20th August 2019.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
- Authors are requested to send their original, unpublished submissions in .doc/.docx format to nluojournal@nluo.ac.in
- The name of the file must contain Name of the Author(s) + Title of the Submission.
- The submissions must be accompanied by a covering letter bearing the following information:
Full Name of the Author(s)
Position / Year of Study
Institutional Affiliations (if any)
Contact Details of the Author(s)
FOR ANY QUERY AND CLARIFICATIONS, KINDLY CONTACT:
Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Yogesh Pratap Singh Email: nluojournal@nluo.ac.in +91 8392939345
Editors
Mr. Ashit Kumar Srivastava Email: ashit@nluo.ac.in; +91 8009708888
Ms. Rishika Khare; Email: rishika.khare@nluo.ac.in
Ms. Nikita Pattajoshi Email: nikita@nluo.ac.in
Tags :
