Founded in 2001, as a response to the need for an interdisciplinary understanding of issues related to the study of law and governance, CSLG owes much to the group of people who worked extremely hard to defend the idea of the Centre and build a creative institution. For this a great deal of credit must be scripted to the founding Director of the Centre, Professor Kuldeep Mathur. Initially, five faculty members were recruited, with Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta (of the Centre of Philosophy, JNU) holding a concurrent appointment at the Centre. This team initiated a Doctoral Programme of Study, and a teaching programme comprising of pre-doctoral course modules. It also held a series of wide-ranging conversations, with colleagues across the University, as it designed an M.Phil. programme, and evolved a set of innovative courses.