At the moment, there are no credible LL.M. or postgraduate courses offered within India which Indians might turn to. As a result, many of them go either to the US, UK, or to Singapore. This presents a financial hurdle for those with insufficient means, and creates a barrier for entrants to this area of law. It’s in India’s national interest that a few universities offer these courses domestically.
The universities could also partner with credible foreign universities and offer joint degrees. So, immediately they get both the talent pool of expertise as well as the credibility. It benefits India too, because not only will your students be able to get the experience within India at lower cost, it may, over time, even attract people from outside India. There should be an ambition, that you develop thought leaders, in the many diverse fields of international arbitration. It may take 10 to 20 years, but in the larger time continuum, this is a very short space of time. In a smaller country, in cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, it is of course much easier to execute these ideas. But in India, because your policy makers change, sometimes there’s no consistent application in implementing these plans. This is why I emphasized that it’s important to have a structure. Once you have that structure, of the Arbitration Council and or some other umbrella body that oversees the ecosystem, you can ensure that progress is being consistently and continuously made. I think that it is critical you also create guardrails to ensure you progress purposefully on the chosen path even when personalities change.
Source: Barandbench
