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Research

Committed to reforming legal education and the pursuit of academic excellence, NLSIU places significant emphasis on legal and policy research. Research at NLSIU is primarily carried out through its Centres, Chairs, multi-year research projects, and through individual faculty initiatives. The University’s specialised research centres have been repeatedly called upon to shape laws and improve implementation in intellectual property, child rights, and environmental laws, among many others. The Research Policy of the University is available here.

In 2020, NLSIU identified five focus areas where it will develop new interdisciplinary research clusters:

  • Labour and Work
  • Climate Justice
  • State Capacity and Reform
  • Access to Justice & Legal System Reform
  • Law, Technology and Society

In Focus

Health Law

While NLS has a research centre dedicated to Health Law and Ethics, the University has entered into a slew of collaborations in this domain. Some of our recent research initiatives are listed below. Project on...

Working Lives: Documenting Labour Histories

The QAMRA Archival Project is concerned with the nature of record-keeping in postcolonial India. Records in the postcolonial state archives from the 1980s onward will determine what future historians will base their studies on for...

Enquiring into India’s state capacity

India’s COVID-19 crisis has resulted in unprecedented levels of demand on its public institutions, demands they have comprehensively failed to meet. Scholars have generally been in agreement when characterising India’s state capacity, or its ability...

Research Entities

Centres

NLSIU’s research centres anchor original and deep research on a broad range of critical areas. They also form nodes through which faculty, students and scholars publicly engage on these issues to inform, educate and help shape reform measures. From human rights and gender equality to leading environmental law research and emerging issues on law and technology, NLSIU’s research centres continue to engage with and impact key societal concerns in every decade.

Chairs

Research Chairs at NLS aim to advance knowledge in their respective fields through original inquiry, promotion of academic debate and dissemination of the latest research and findings. They play a critical role in strengthening the teaching, research and training capabilities of the University as a whole.

Projects & Grants

Continuing our research efforts, NLSIU has entered into a slew of collaborations both at the local and international level. This is in addition to the various projects undertaken by our research Centres and Chairs. We hope to initiate more such collaborations in the coming months and bring together scholars and researchers from across India and around the world to produce innovative and relevant outcomes through our research.

Journals

NLS is home to several interdisciplinary journals that have carried articles by leading scholars and experts over the years, and been cited by the Supreme Court on several occasions. The journals have a commitment to open access and the promotion of legal writing, and occupy an important space in legal academia in India.

Publications

Article

Bihar SIR threatens the credibility of elections

Dr. Swati Narayan

July 9, 2025

Any arbitrary disenfranchisement of voters in the upcoming Bihar Assembly Elections will cast a shadow over the sanctity of elections in India. Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do…

Article

An Insincere Attempt At Hollow Reforms

Dr. Ashna Singh

July 4, 2025

Co-Author: Mrudula Vanangamudi The Karnataka government’s move to enact the Karnataka Rohith Vemula (Prevention of Exclusion or Injustice) (Right to Education and Dignity) Act, 2025, is a welcome step forward, responding to long-standing demands for such…

Article

Equitable Redistribution And Inefficiency Under Credit Rationing

Dr. Suryaprakash Mishra

July 2, 2025

Co-authors: Hamid Beladi, Sugata Marjit, Reza Oladi It has been argued in many policy circles that lack of access to credit by the poor may be a source of inefficiency in developing economies. Then, conventional…

Article

Cost Structures and Innovation Incentives

Dr. Suryaprakash Mishra

June 29, 2025

In a Cournot oligopoly set up with constant marginal cost and linear demand, innovation is rewarding, i.e., profit enhancing. We show that the same may not be true when marginal costs are increasing. In contrast…