India’s oldest public law blog, Law and Other Things (“LAOT”) was founded in 2005 by a few enthusiastic, young legal scholars, to blog as well as share posts and articles about India’s constitutional and legal developments. Since 2017, the Blog has been managed by the student team of NALSAR University of Law under the active supervision of the Senior Editorial Board of LAOT, all of whom are well-established scholars/practitioners in public law. (In 2020, we marked our 15th year, you can read more about the history of the blog here).

About The Courts and Constitution Conference

The inaugural edition of the Courts and the Constitution Conference took place on 26-27 January 2019, with the theme “2018: Year in Review”. It was a first-of-its-kind initiative in India and discussed the major legal developments and landmark judgments of the year 2018 in light of their long-term impact on the governance and rights of the Republic. The second edition of the conference, “The Republic at 70: Past, Present and Future Directions” was hosted on 25-26 January 2020. More than 25 legal luminaries participated in multiple panels on Developments in Equality Jurisprudence, Reforming Tribunals, Federalism and the Constitution, and Citizenship, Residency and the Constitution, as well as public guest lectures on capital punishment, among others.

The featured speakers in the past two editions included, inter alia, Arun Thiruvengadam, Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Arvind Narain, Chintan Chandrachud, Nizam Pasha, Suhrith Parthasarathy, Aparna Chandra, Anup Surendranath, Arundhati Katju, Alok Prasanna Kumar, Malavika Prasad, Harish Narsappa, Rohit De, Suchindran Bhaskaran, Ujjwala Uppaluri, as well as N.R. Madhava Menon, M.P. Singh and Indira Jaisingh. Both the editions took place in-person at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. The third edition will be hosted on 26-27 March 2022, in a hybrid model (in-person as well as limited online streaming) in light of the extraordinary circumstances created due to the pandemic.

About the Call for Proposals

This year, along with invited speakers for the various panels, interested students and professionals in the legal and associated fields are invited to submit proposals for presenting their papers during the conference. If accepted, the applicant will get a chance to present their paper/ideas as a part of the panel, and proposals shall also be developed into papers that will be published by the Blog. The proposals should pertain to either of the six themes of the panels.

Themes for the Panels

This year, LAOT is inviting submissions from authors on the themes of each panel. They are:

1. The State of the Judiciary
2. Public Health Crisis and the Constitution
3. Emerging Voices – The Shamnad Basheer Memorial Roundtable
4. Contemporary Issues in Indian Federalism
5. Environmentalism and Governance in South Asia
6. Civil Liberties and Criminal Justice

More details about each panel can be found in the attached concept note here.

Eligibility

Submissions are sought from students and professionals from the legal as well as any connected fields. As the aim of the Call for Proposals is to make the conference more accessible to a younger demographic; students, scholars and practitioners, roughly under the age of 30, will be preferred.

Structure and Rewards

• The authors of the best entry for each panel may be selected for a hybrid conference (allowing for virtual or in-person presentation), subject to a maximum cap of one presentation per panel. Selected authors will be given the opportunity to present their paper’s alongside established scholars.
• Please note that the paper presentation shall be subject to a high quality threshold. The organizers reserve the right to not select any of the entries for presentation if this threshold is not met.
• The participants may adopt any suitable means for presenting the papers including audio-visual aids, such as PowerPoint presentation.

Criteria for Selection

The proposals shall be evaluated on the following grounds: quality of the research question/s, the research methodology (if appropriate/relevant for the author), treatment of the research question/s in the literature, the main argument and structure of arguments, originality of content, and relevance of the proposal (contemporarily as well as vis-a-vis the questions framed in the concept note for that panel).

Participation Guidelines

• Co-authorship of entries (maximum two) among individuals from the same or different institutions is allowed.
• Multiple entries by the same author(s) are not allowed.
• Entries should be original, unpublished, and non-plagiarised.

Submission Guidelines

• Word Limit: The proposal must be 1000-1500 words in length, excluding footnotes.
• Mode: Please fill this google form to apply. We will not entertain any submissions made through any mode other than the google form.
• Font and size for the essay: Times New Roman – 12
• Font and size for footnotes: Times New Roman – 10
• Paper Size: A4
• Line spacing: 1.5
• Margin: 1” from all sides
• Alignment: Justified
• Document Type: Word Document
• Citation Style: Footnotes/Endnotes must be properly cited in a uniform style of your choice. Footnotes are preferred over endnotes.

Miscellaneous Rules

• The copyright for all entries shall vest with the LAOT Committee who herewith reserve the right to modify, postpone or defer the selection indefinitely as and when exigencies of an unforeseen nature may arise.
• Any attempt, direct or indirect, to contact the panel of judges will be met with the immediate disqualification of the relevant entry.
• Any indication of the author’s name or university in the entry shall lead to immediate disqualification from the Competition. Details about the author may only be specified in the body of the mail and the name of the author must not be mentioned in the name or properties of the word document submitted.

Important Dates

Last date for submission of the manuscript is 25 February 2022. Late entries will not be entertained. Authors shall be intimated of the selection of their proposal by 10 March 2022.

How to submit

Submissions can be made by filling the google form available here.

Contact Information

E-Mail id (for queries): courtsandconstitution@gmail.com

Shravani Shendye: 9399736197

Eeshan Sonak: 8380074901

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