The National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata, has introduced a Harry Potter elective course, titled – An Interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special Focus on Rowling’s Potterverse – for the students of the 4th and the 5th year of the BA LLB (Hons) programme in the winter semester (2018-19). The course aims to encourage students to explore legal aspects of J K Rowling’s fictional world and its many real life lessons.
“I could have designed the course based on our real political situation but it is not necessary that all my students will share my political leanings,” said the faculty member Shouvik Kumar Guha.
Guha decided instead to turn to a fictional universe, which would not create political controversies but help students learn to apply their legal knowledge to a completely alien set of scenarios.
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The course will be aiming to cover the 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) and crimes and punishments in Potterverse (including Unforgivable Curses, Wizengamot Trials, Innocence of Sirius Black and Persecution of Tom Riddle.
This is not the first time in India that a professor has turned to the magical world of Harry Potter to pique student interest.
Rashmi Raman, a former student of NUJS, first started a Potterverse-centric elective law course at the Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat in 2012.
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