This University In Kolkata Offers A Harry Potter-Based Law Course

The course, which aims at encouraging students to tap into the legal aspects of the Potterworld, is the first of its kind in India.

The course has been designed by Assistant Professor Shouvik Kumar Guha for the winter semester, to serve as a breather from the rigid law curriculum. Titled ‘An interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special focus on Rowling’s Potterverse’, it will be offered as an elective to 4th and 5th-year students of the B.A LL.B (Hons) programme at NUJS. The course will commence this December.

“This course is meant to be more of an experiment. It will take both me and the students out of our comfort zones,” Guha told PTI. “In law schools, people get a very specific set of subjects. The curriculum revolves around the hard letter of the law, case laws etc. Given the fact that this course lasts about five years, students also get bored,” he added.

He said that students will learn to apply legal principles to different scenarios, and understand how things will work through insights into the world of witchcraft and wizardry constantly under government surveillance. 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 Guha.

The course aims to cover legal traditions and institutions, crimes and punishments, economy, politics, contracts in the Potterverse. Guha says his assignments will encourage students’ creativity, and also hopes that some of the works can eventually be published.

Guha himself is a Potterhead, having read each book several times. He also quips that he knows Harry Potter literature better than company law itself!