The National Law School Of India University (NLSIU), invites applications for one Archival Project Assistant position for its Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) project. This position will be based in Bengaluru. It is till March 2025 and may be extended subject to extension of the project and availability of funds.
About the Department
QAMRA Archival Project at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru is Asia’s first multimedia queer archive. Located at the NLSIU, a significant part of the collection includes archival material related to the law. It also houses and continues to acquire and preserve archival material related to Queer history. The impetus is to contextualize law within a social and political context, as was the case in the Section 377 litigation. QAMRA aims to document queer history and material. Apart from the extensive legal archive, The collections include newspaper cuttings, video and audio interviews, Pride march documentation as well as archives of conferences held, going back to the first gay rights conference held in the National Law School of India way back in 1997.
About the Role
This is a full-time position based out of the NLSIU campus in Bengaluru. This role will enable the candidate to learn the skills of archiving multimedia material, will have an opportunity to develop their skill in using archival software and build a socio-legal understanding of queer lives in India. The candidate will have the opportunity to hone their communication skill as they help build and maintain QAMRA’s presence both on campus and off campus. The candidate will assist and work closely with the Archival Project Associate in implementing QAMRA’s vision.
Responsibilities
Support the development of end-to-end archival processes including acquisition, sorting, cataloguing, curating and digitising collections, under the supervision of the Project Associate, and the leadership of the Director.
Assist in, sorting through and categorising materials, and related work.
Support the Project Associate in developing and organising public engagement activities, including designing posters, maintaining and updating QAMRA’s social media.
Facilitate researcher and visitors access in the archives.
Who Should Apply?
Qualifications
Essential
A Bachelors’ degree in social sciences, informational sciences, communications, or law from a recognised university.
Demonstrated interest in queer histories and mobilisation in India.
Be willing to acquire new skills in archiving, including software programmes like Archives Space.
This role requires good communication and time management skills, and an organisational mindset.
Experience
Essential: Candidates with a minimum of 1 year of work experience.
Desirable: Previous internship or related experience in working with an archive is a plus.
Skills and competencies
Essential
Candidates must have the ability to write and communicate, clearly and concisely.
Candidates with an ability to work within tight deadlines.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team environment.
Candidates with an ability to think and work logically and work precisely with attention to detail.
Desirable
Excellent planning and prioritization skills.
Creative individual with basic multimedia design skills for posters, videos, and social media.
How to Apply?
Please use the Google form available here, and include the following documents:
An updated CV
A statement of purpose (500 – 800 words)
Details of two professional references
For any queries, please write to
Deadline
The last date for submission of applications is 5 pm, November 5 (Tuesday), 2024.
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) is hosting a workshop from December 2-6, 2024, aimed at doctoral students, post-doctoral and early career scholars in collaboration with the University of Zurich Law School at its Bengaluru campus. The idea is to have a small group of scholars interacting intensively to improve the content of their individual projects both in substance and in the writing, and to build collaborative links for ongoing and future research. Papers presented at the workshop are expected to show that extensive work has been put into them already; research proposals or outlines of research to be conducted will not be accepted.
To this end, a total of not more than 12-15 scholars will work together over two full days to present papers and act as discussants and commentators for other papers. To maintain a broad thematic coherence, all papers will be on the topic of ‘Equality and the Law,’ interpreted broadly. Individual presentations can be from any substantive area of the law, but must engage with the theme of Equality in some discernible manner.
NLS invites interested participants from the NLS community who meet the criteria set out below to apply for the workshop by 5 pm on November 12, 2024. We are inviting applications for 6 slots in the workshop.
The relevant details are below:
Theme
‘Equality as a legal concept’ (for more details, see below). Note: applications on private and commercial law, or those dealing with any branch of law and politics are welcome. This is not an event focusing only on public law.
Application Deadline
5 pm on 12 November 2024. This is an outer deadline. Applications can be sent in as soon as possible. Sending in your application early is preferable as this will help with planning. Final decisions will be made by November 15, 2024.
Requirements
1. A draft paper not exceeding 8,000 words, with an abstract that identifies the connection to the theme of Equality.
2. A single page long Statement of Purpose setting out why the applicant is interested in being part of the event.
Eligibility
PhD students, and
Early career scholars affiliated to NLSIU are eligible to apply. For the purposes of this call, the following categories of people are defined as early career scholars:
1. Academic fellows and others holding a research position at NLSIU who have completed their Master’s degree or PhD within the last 7 years;
2. Faculty members who have completed their Master’s degree or PhD within the last 7 years.
Where to submit
Submit applications/queries through email to
Main Theme
Equality is a foundational concept of legal systems. It is a bedrock principle of the rule of law. Equality before the law and the equal application of law are centerpieces of legal systems. The legal means to do so are manifold and differentiated.
There is wide ranging and, in many aspects, controversial discussion about what equality means within this general legal framework and in the practice of law. It certainly encompasses formal equality, but it is usually understood to demand more than this formal equality, namely some form of substantive equality. What this means in detail is far from clear and is constantly renegotiated in legal systems. These questions are not only questions affecting legal systems but concern problems that have deep roots in the long reflection about what justice in ethics and politics actually means.
Aim of the workshop
The aim of the collaborative workshop is to deepen the participants’ understanding of problems of equality in a theoretical, doctrinal, sociological and political sense. Furthermore, the workshop and its successors will serve to establish a fruitful research dialogue between junior and senior scholars of the participating institutions. This could be the basis for an informal network of scholars.
Format of Workshop
Selected applicants will participate in a two-day workshop to be held between 3rd and 4th December at NLSIU. Events associated with the workshop will be held for the Swiss participants also on December 4 and 5, 2024, and the Indian participants are encouraged to attend them if possible.
While the exact details of the format of the workshop will be communicated to the selected applicants at a later date, it will see active participation and presentations from all the participants, with a view to facilitating deeper exchanges between them as a collective. In addition to presenting/responding to comments on their own work, participants will comment on and discuss the papers of the others. Participants will be expected to be present throughout the two-day workshop (attendance at other events is not mandatory) and will be expected to both read all 15 papers and participate in each session. Members of the faculty of both NLSIU and the Facutly of Law of the University of Zurich will also contribute with introductory remarks, and participation in the discussion as commentators or respondents.
Funding
The expectation is that presenters will be ordinarily resident in Bangalore and are regular attendees at the campus. [If you are a PhD scholar or faculty member who is not in Bangalore on the dates of the event, please emphasise this]. The meals during the days of the workshop will be served at the venue of the workshop itself. The event will also consist of day trips to legal NGOs in Bangalore and perhaps a day trip to Mysore. All expenses related to these events will be covered for all participants by the event organisers.
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to solicit proposals from qualified bidders for a “Technical and Commercial Tender for Design and Installation of a Tensile Structure for Library Terrace”
Date of Issue of Tender: 09.10.2024 Last Date for Submission of Technical and Commercial Bids: Up to 5.00 PM on 22.10.2024
For more details along with the terms and conditions, please refer to the following documents:
In recognition of its mission to promote excellence in legal education, and to broaden access to the highest standards of learning in the law for all, NLSIU’s Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) Team provides a post-graduate master’s degree, and several post-graduate diplomas for students from all backgrounds. The PACE team designs and delivers training programmes for several leading organizations and government agencies. These programmes blend a deep understanding of the theoretical aspects of the law, practical know-how, and applications and examples from the field.
The University, accordingly, invites online applications from dynamic and accomplished professionals who have experience in online and offline learning and training programmes for professionals at all levels of experience, for the position of Director – Professional and Continuing Education (PACE). This is a full-time position, based out of the NLSIU campus in Bangalore involving field and desk work and will report to the Vice Chancellor, NLSIU.
The Director – Professional and Continuing Education (PACE), will be responsible for undertaking the following tasks:
Overall strategic responsibility of the department;
Overall end-to-end administration of PACE programmes – degree, diploma, certificate and training programmes as well as academic administration of the on-campus programmes;
Handling end-to-end compliance and regulatory issues;
Responsible for the preparation of proposals and the communication of proposals to external organizations
Administering and drafting rules and regulations for all the programmes;
Managing deliverables with regard to training programmes;
Responsible for the management of MOU deliverables;
Appointing or engaging faculty and resource persons for a seamless delivery of programmes;
Overall financial responsibility of PACE and exercise of prudent decisions in financial matters;
Analysis of feedback from various programmes;
Creating and administering coherency of academic criteria across programmes. Ensuring academic rigor and integrity is not compromised in the programmes;
Designing and managing course delivery pedagogy;
Managing and resolving student, staff, academic fellows and faculty grievances;
Ensuring a seamless conduct of exams and assessments;
Managing delegation and work allocation within the department;
Any other work assigned by the Vice Chancellor or Registrar
The deadline for the submission of the application has been extended to 5 pm, November 5, 2024. (View corrigendum)
For more details, view the official notification here.
To apply, click here.
What was your vision or inspiration behind this book?
I hail from the Alappuzha District in South Kerala, which is bordered by the Vembanad Lake on one side and the Arabian Sea on the other. I have never encountered water issues (quality and quantity) in my home town, Cherthala, where water was plenty. However, reading about the Plachimada struggle in early 2000s that happened in Palakkad District in North Kerala, where indigenous community members fought against the MNC giant, Coco-Cola for their uncontrolled exploitation of groundwater and consequent legal battle in the High Court of Kerala was a turning point for me. The two divergent approaches of the same High Court applying two different legal principles in this case that addressed groundwater regulation led me to research groundwater regulation in India and international water law during my LLM days at the South Asian University (SAU). This journey from SAU ended at SOAS, University of London. At SOAS, for my PhD, I studied the intersections of two determining factors in groundwater access, allocations and regulations in India- subsidies and the land-water nexus-based allocation mechanisms.
This book is an edited version of my PhD thesis, where I examined the intersections and implications of water-related subsidies on groundwater access, allocations and regulations in India. I was inspired to examine this aspect in the light of right-to-water jurisprudence in India developed by the judicial decisions reflecting a rights-duty paradigm in drinking water and the States’ welfarist approach to ensuring food security by promoting equitable and inclusive water access for irrigation.
What are the primary focus areas in the book? Are there any specific issues or challenges that the book addresses?
This book focuses on the need to reconceptualise groundwater regulation in India. The current regulatory framework based on the land-water nexus evolved from the common law during the British era. This perpetuates the socially and historically inherited social and economic inequity in access and allocations.
This book argues that adopting a water justice framework is essential to ensure equitable and sustainable access to and regulation of groundwater by balancing anthropogenic and ecological water needs. The inherent inequity resulting from property rights-controlled groundwater access gets widened by the social, political, and economic factors determining the subsidy beneficiaries.
Arguing for a shift to a new paradigm in water governance, the book critically examines the feasibility of the public trust doctrine and rights of nature discourse to analyse the best suitable regulatory framework that can balance the human right to water and ecological sustainability in groundwater resources. It demonstrates the feasibility of adopting various environmental law principles that balance human rights to water and nature. It argues that the current public trust doctrine cannot address these inequities due to its anthropogenic bias and property rights link. This book examines the applicability of the rights of nature discourse instead of these property rights-based regulations to incorporate and mainstream the concerns of aquifer protection in water governance.
Who do you think should read the book?
This book will interest students, scholars, and practitioners of water law and policy, environmental law, water and social justice, development studies, and political ecology.
Do you think there is a need for more such books in this field? If yes, why?
Yes, I feel there is a need for more books in this field, especially on legal scholarship in the groundwater sector. Currently, most works focusing on groundwater and subsidies are from political ecology, developmental studies, and economics. We need more scholarship from Indian scholars working in this sector to drive law and policy framework changes where equity and inclusiveness in access and allocations get attention over proprietary rights.
NLSIU invites applications for the position of Project Manager under the HUPA Chair for Urban Poor and the Law for the specific purpose of managing the Writing Urban India Collective project for the year 2024-25. This is a full-time contractual assignment for a duration of 12 months.
The Collective
Writing Urban India is a collective of academic researchers and practitioners, anchored by HUPA Chair for Urban Poor and the Law at National Law School of India University working to develop a set of resources, models and knowledge artifacts that can eventually lead to the creation of a more ambitious network of scholars and practitioners. This future network is envisaged to build on the specificity of Indian urban experience to create credible opportunities for early career scholars and practitioners. Towards this end, building on existing collaborations and networks, the collective is setting up a fellowship for PhD scholars and practitioners interested in publishing on a pilot basis as well as curating a selection of thematic research outputs on Indian urban studies.
Writing Urban India is a collective effort funded by the Urban Studies Foundation, UK geared towards mentoring senior PhD candidates and recent PhDs towards writing their first journal article. This project involves two five day long in-person residential workshops housed at NLS Bangalore and smaller online workshops, sessions and other events in between.
The Job
Writing Urban India is seeking a Project Manager who will assist the collective in managing the fellowship program for PhD scholars and practitioners.
Specific tasks of this position will include:
Preparing and managing a process, timeline and workflow for the fellowship in conjunction with the Steering Committee.
Setting up and managing a system of communication including digital mechanisms for sharing resources and outputs, having discussions in small and large groups.
Being the interface between the fellows and their mentors.
Anchoring logistics for two physical in-person workshops at Bangalore.
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), invites applications for one full-time role at the Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) based out of the University campus for a period of one year. This position will be based in Bengaluru.
About the Department
QAMRA is a physical, multimedia archive that chronicles the lives of persons marginalised on the basis of gender and sexuality in India. It is hosted at the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru. QAMRA’s activities span archival processes, research and public engagement.
Responsibilities
This is a full-time position based out of the NLSIU campus in Bengaluru. The Archival Project Associate will report to the Project Director, QAMRA.
Supervise end-to-end archival processes including acquisition, sorting, cataloguing, curating and digitising collections.
Contribute to research projects, the oral history collection, and take on teaching roles when necessary.
Develop and organise public engagement activities, and contribute to the QAMRA Blog.
Identify funding opportunities that align with QAMRA’s priorities. Develop compelling grant proposals, including project descriptions, objectives, methods and outcomes that meet funders’ expectations.
Facilitate researcher access in the archives.
Qualifications & Skills
Essential
A Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, information sciences, communications, law or a related field.
Familiarity with queer histories and mobilisation in India.
Demonstrated interest in working with physical material in the archive.
Be willing to acquire new skills in archiving, including software programmes.
Good communication and prior organisational experience.
Desirable
Candidates who have experience working in archives and with archival software.
Experience
Essential: Candidates with a minimum of 2 years of work experience.
How to Apply?
Please use the Google form available here, and include the following documents:
An updated CV
A statement of purpose (500 – 800 words).
Contact details and designation of one professional reference
For any queries, please write to
Deadline
The last date for submission of applications is 5 pm, October 15 (Tuesday), 2024.
The University invites online applications from accomplished professionals for the position of Director – Communications and External Relations. The role will help shape and amplify the University brand, lead the communications strategy, identify and strengthen partnerships, and work cross-functionally with other key teams across the University to build messaging resonance across channels. This is a full-time position, based out of the NLSIU campus in Bangalore involving field and desk work.
The Director – Communications and External Relations will report to the Registrar and will be responsible for the following:
Develop, implement, and enhance strategies and internal processes across the following functions:
– Communications
– Alumni Relations
– Careers and Placement
– Development/Fundraising
– Admissions
Develop and deliver a communications strategy (including branding) taking into account priorities, audience requirements, channels, timescales and resources;
Review all internal and external communication of the University;
Support and advise senior management on the delivery of internal communications;
Responsible for developing and implementing the University’s Alumni Relations strategy; Drive alumni engagement;
Responsible for developing the strategic fundraising plans of the University including programme development and grant management across all research and University development projects;
Responsible for developing and implementing the University’s Admissions strategy;
Responsible for the delivery of internships and placements at the University;
Plan and deliver effective and timely activity in line with each sub-function;
Build strong professional relationships with key stakeholders- internally and externally;
Ensure compliance with university policies and legislation in regard to digital technologies (e.g., web policy, social media guidelines, using e-newsletters etc.);
Coach students with career advice, runs workshops and seminars for groups of undergraduates and postgraduates, and devises new and innovative programmes that provide hands-on experiences for students.
The deadline for the submission of the application is 5 pm, October 8 (Tuesday), 2024.
For more details, view the official notification here.
To apply, click here.
Corrigendum
The last date for submission of applications is extended to 5 pm, October 14 (Monday), 2024.
The official notification can be accessed here.
The first edition of the NLSIU-SAM-FinTech Moot Court Competition & Conference was held on September 14 and 15, 2024, at the NLSIU campus in Bengaluru. A total of 36 teams registered for the first edition of this competition, with 24 teams advancing to the oral rounds. We congratulate the teams from NALSAR, Hyderabad, and Jindal Global Law School who emerged as winners and runners-up respectively.
The moot problem was drafted by Dr. Ananth Padmanabhan, and focused on critical issues within the rapidly evolving fintech ecosystem. The event brought together leaders from the fintech industry to engage in a broader dialogue on the legal frameworks governing these upcoming technologies. Issues that took centre stage revolved around virtual digital assets, fractional ownership, and regulatory frameworks.
The competition’s final bench comprised distinguished persons from the legal community. Senior Advocates Sajan Poovayya, Jayna Kothari and Madhavi Divan, Dr. Ananth Padmanabhan, Dean of Vinayaka Mission’s Law School, and Shilpa Mankar Ahluwalia, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, were the judges.
Commenting on the competition, Shilpa Mankar Ahluwalia said,
“We are delighted to have concluded the inaugural NLSIU-SAM FinTech Moot Court Competition & Conference, which provided a platform for bright young legal minds to engage with some of the regulatory challenges of the fintech ecosystem. It has been a pleasure to see the lawyers of tomorrow demonstrate such creativity and insight when addressing challenges of using rapidly evolving technology to deliver financial services. The Fintech Conference brought together thought leaders from the regulator and fintech industry to discuss how best to address some of these legal challenges. We look forward to a continued engagement with NLSIU in the evolution of fintech law.”
Speaking on the competition, NLSIU Vice-Chancellor Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy said,
“This collaboration with SAM for the FinTech Moot Court Competition created an outstanding opportunity for students to engage with some of the most complex regulatory challenges in the fintech ecosystem. We are glad that we’ve brought academia, the legal profession and fintech industry pioneers together at this event and we look forward to collaborating further. Together we aim to engage with frontier law, technology and regulation issues in this rapidly evolving sector.”
SAM & Co. offered an internship to each member of the winning team. Internships are also offered to the runner-up (Jindal Global University), at SAM & Co. offices.
The Institute of Public Policy and Centre for the Study of Social Inclusion, at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), and the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) and its Young Scholars Initiative (YSI), are organising the “2nd Edition of Inclusive Development Conference: Housing and Urban Land Management in an Unequal World”, on March 6th and 7th, 2025, at the NLSIU campus in Bengaluru.
The first edition of the Inclusive Development Conference was held in March 2023 on the theme of Employment and Environment. These conferences are held every two years and jointly organised by NLSIU and INET. These conferences are designed as interactions between early career scholars and senior scholars.
About the Conference
Housing affordability and urban land management have become a tumultuous challenge for countries that are rapidly urbanising. These challenges are reshaping the question of urban property. Established instruments of land management, such as zoning, tenure management, building obligations, taxation, expropriation, incentives and subsidies, land readjustment, land redistribution and reform, environmental and conservation regulation, different ownership models, financialisation of land and housing, and public land management have their scope and limits. In response, new innovations are emerging in both formal and informal land management. Hybrid spaces, technology-assisted cartographies and property registries, collective property ownership, and informal property regimes are among the approaches seeking to address the dual goals of equitable access and efficient management. The convergence of law, economics, and policy is critical in shaping the future of urban development. Yet, scholarship on the interface of law and spatial dimensions of the city is scant. Where such scholarship does exist, it is often confined to isolated case studies from the Global South, which are frequently dismissed as exceptions rather than being integrated into the broader global discourse on urban studies.
In many regions, in the Global North and the Global South, the expansion of urban centres has been marked by the commodification of land and housing, further deepening the divide between the wealthy and marginalised communities. Public policies and legal frameworks often struggle to keep pace with the complexities of this expanding urban fabric, leading to gaps in affordable housing provision and sustainable land management. While innovative solutions like collective ownership models and inclusive zoning regulations have shown promise, the questions remain are (1) how can these innovations be effectively scaled in a world marked by deep economic and social inequalities? (2) What governance changes are desirable to design a responsive urban land management?
Call for Papers
The conference aims to examine the complex interplay of housing, law, economics, and spatial justice in an unequal world, and we welcome scholars and practitioners to participate. Applicants may choose to focus on one or more of the following prompts while developing their abstracts:
What are the recent developments in the discourse of housing rights? What are the socio-economic drivers behind the shift in these discourses?
What are the spatial dimensions of the expansion of capitalist markets in real estate that lead to specific forms of housing projects? What are the innovations in land management on the ground mediated by technology as well as financial instruments?
The rise of condominiums as patterns of human settlements are simultaneously marked by urban vacancy. Are the existing regulatory frameworks sufficient to contain inequality contributed by financialised housing markets?
As urbanisation is intensifying, there is a growing demand for public services. Yet, the liveability of these cities is not improving. Rather, patterns of gentrification are visible in spite of interventions for urban services. What are the good practices across the globe to make urban property valuation more inclusive?
Informal housing has frequently, albeit wrongly, been equated with illegal housing. How has law played an active role in the politics of dispossession?
How has the accumulative logic of neoliberal governance aggravated spatial inequality? In what ways has this neoliberal logic disproportionately impacted the lives of marginalised populations?
The themes we have identified and will be listed on the call for abstracts/papers, including but not restricted to, are as follows:
Housing Rights, Social Justice, and Economic Policy
Housing as a human right and its intersections with law and economic policies.
Legal and economic frameworks promoting or hindering housing justice.
Focus on marginalised communities and global perspectives on housing rights.
Capitalism, Real Estate, and Urban Governance
Impact of financialisation and real estate speculation on housing markets.
Role of neoliberal governance in shaping urban inequality.
Legal and economic governance mechanisms affecting urban development
Innovations in Land Management and Urban Sustainability
Emerging models in land management, including hybrid spaces and collective ownership.
Technology-driven tools and their role in equitable urban development.
Legal and economic frameworks promoting sustainable urban growth and environmental justice.
Gentrification, Urban Vacancy, and Inclusive Development
Spatial inequalities caused by gentrification and urban redevelopment.
Addressing urban vacancy through legal and economic policies.
Best practices for promoting inclusive urban growth and equitable public service distribution.
Informal Housing, Dispossession, and the Politics of Space
Legal and economic dimensions of informal housing and dispossession.
The politics of identity, space and inequality in urban development.
Comparative perspectives on marginalised communities and their housing challenges.
Law, Finance, Technology, and Urban Inequality
Intersection of legal frameworks, financial instruments, and technology in urban land management.
Effects of financialisation and technological advancements on urban (in)equality.
Impact on marginalised populations and spatial inequality in cities.
Instructions for abstract submission
Submit an abstract within 1,000 words. The abstract should ideally fall under one of the themes. When reviewing the abstracts, we will look for theoretical considerations/ assumptions, research questions, methodology, nature of evidence used to draw conclusions, and findings.
We encourage PhD scholars in the final year of writing up their doctoral work, postdoctoral scholars, and early career scholars (within 5 years of their PhD) to submit their abstracts for consideration.
In order to submit your abstracts, please visit the following announcement by the Institute of New Economic Thinking – Young Scholars Initiative (YSI).
The last date to submit your abstracts is November 5, 2024.
Important dates:
Last Date for abstract submission: November 5, 2024
Notification of selected Abstract: November 15, 2024
Full paper submission deadline: December 30, 2024
Notification of paper acceptance: January 25, 2025
Notification for the panel: February 15, 2025
Conference: March 6-7, 2025
Financial Support
A limited number of scholars will get financial support to cover travel and accommodation expenses.
We congratulate our faculty member 
or challenges that the book addresses?
