Dr. V. Vijayakumar obtained B.A. (Political Science, 1972), M.A. (Political Science, 1975), B.L. (1978), M.Phil. (Political Science, 1984), M.L. (International Law and Constitutional Law, 1986) and Ph.D. (International Law and Constitutional Law, 1996) all from the University of Madras and M.A. (Public Administration, 1984) from Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupati.
He was appointed as Assistant Professor of Law at the NLSIU in 1988, as Associate Professor in 1992 and Professor of Law in 1997. Prior to joining NLSIU he was Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Presidency College, Madras between September 1978 and May 1988. He was the Registrar of NLSIU between 2005 and 2008. He holds the UNHCR Chair on Refugee Law since April 1997.
He was awarded Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship at the Salzburg Seminar in 1993. He was a Visiting Scholar with York University, Toronto, Canada at its Centre for Refugee Studies during 2000-2003 and was Exchange Visitor at National University of Singapore during November 2004 to February 2005 under the Asian Law Institute programme. He visited U.S.A in 1988 under the International Visitor’s Programme of the USIS on ‘The Living Constitution’. Representing the Law School, he was a Member of the Board of Governors of the Asian Law Institute located in Singapore National University till 2009.
He has published more than 35 articles in national and international journals and has contributed to a couple of books as well. He was Chairman, Under-Graduate Council between 1997 and 1999 and of the Post-Graduate Council between 2003 and 2005 at NLSIU. His areas of specialization include Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Human Rights Law, Law of Elections, Refugee and Humanitarian Law.
He was the Vice-Chancellor of Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai between 29th July 2010 and 28th July 2013. He was conferred the ‘Amity Academic Excellence Award’ during February 2011 by the Amity International Business School of the Amity University, Noida. For the ‘Best Performance’ in respect of the Youth Red Cross Movement, he received an award from the Indian Red Cross Society, Tamil Nadu branch on the World Red Cross Day in 2012. Again the same Indian Red Cross Society presented the ‘Best Vice Chancellor Award 2011 – 2012’ at the 63rd Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions Day on 23rd August 2012.