NEW DELHI: Law is crucial for technology, which cannot exist or thrive without any legal system in place, eminent American jurist Eduardo M. Penalver said.

"Without any legal system in place there is no technology. The internet itself was a government project. Law is crucial for technology. It is a soil on which innovation grow," said Penalver, a professor of law and dean at the New York's Cornell Law School while delivering the Jindal Global Law School's distinguished public lecture at the India International Centre here.

In his address on "The role of legal education in protecting the rule of law", he said that although the job markets of law graduates have improved, since 2010, the U.S. has seen nearly 50 percent drop in applications to law schools.

He blamed the shift in public attitude towards the law, the profession and legal institutions for the decline.

"Law schools are necessary for advancing rule of law, attracting new generation of bright young minds to legal profession for society's interest and to ensure work of lawyers, especially the young ones, is interesting, challenging and is inspiring," he said.

Penalver also discussed the formal criteria of rule of law, saying that the law should be accessible, must be public, intelligible, stable, should operate prospectively, must be applied equally and be internally coherent.

O.P. Jindal Global University's founding vice chancellor and Jindal Global Law School's dean C. Raj Kumar highlighted the opportunities that law students have in India, noting that apart from National Law Schools, there are over 1,200 law schools providing quality education and training.

Indian Law Institute director Manoj Kumar Sinha highlighted the availability of affordable education in law schools in India and said work is in progress to develop the infrastructure of established law institutions.

Guests at the function included High Court's Justice Gita Mittal and Indian jurist and former attorney general Soli Sorabjee.