THE INDIA PROJECT

INDIA PROJECT NEWS

Assoc. Dean Susan Karamanian discussed GW's efforts in India in the November 2006 Metropolitan Corporate Counsel.   Full Story

The India Project was featured in the summer 06 special international issue of GW Magazine.  Full Story

Established in 2004, The George Washington University Law School’s India Project uses legal education to help build bridges between the United States and India, two of the world’s largest democracies that share the tradition of the common law. The Law School’s expertise in intellectual property (IP) law, coupled with the recent boom in India’s technology sector, has shaped the Project’s initial work. In this regard, the Project’s principal focus to date has been on the international and domestic dimensions of patent law.

In just two years, the India Project has sponsored four conferences in major Indian cities. Attracting legal scholars, judges, lawyers, business leaders, and government officials from around the world, the conferences have heightened awareness in India of the benefits of a strong IP law regime. The conferences have also led to a better understanding of the legal and other challenges India faces and of the enormous potential for collaborative work between Indian scholars and their foreign counterparts.

The Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law in Kharagpur

Indian Minister of Science & Technology Kapil Sibal and Dean Frederick M. Lawrence during an April, 2006 visit to GW Law.

The India Project has also been the driving force for the Law School’s recent agreement with the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur to assist in the development of the new Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law in Kharagpur, India. Under the agreement, the Law School is lending its faculty and administrative resources to help develop a first-class law school alongside one of the world’s premier technology institutions. India’s legal profession is undergoing considerable change due to the influx of foreign investment. The Rajiv Gandhi School intends to use modern classroom technology and dynamic teaching methods to produce lawyers equipped with the knowledge and skills to handle sophisticated legal matters, including complex commercial transactions and cases.

GW Law and India

Even before the establishment of the India Project, the Law School was involved in activities relating to India. For example, in 2002, the Law School hosted a meeting between the Indian Attorney General and members of the Indian Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Stephen G.  Breyer. GW Law Professors Paul Butler and Jeffrey Rosen made presentations and led a discussion on race relations and affirmative action, issues of great concern to both countries. The Indian and U.S. Supreme Court Justices continued their discussions on issues of mutual concern in 2004 by videoconference, which the Law School sponsored. George Washington University law faculty members have been to India many times in the past decade and made presentations at the Indian Society of International Law in New Delhi and the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal, in addition to speaking at a number of Indian law schools. Further, the George Washington University Law School has been a frequent host to Dr. P.S. Rao, a distinguished Indian international lawyer and member of the United Nations International Law Commission.

Supreme Court Associate Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Stephen G. Breyer speak via videoconference to members of the Indian Supreme Court at GW Law in December, 2004. (Photos by Claire Duggan/GW Law)