[Reader-list] Socio-Legal Review, NLSIU

[slr at nls.ac.in]

Creating Student-Centric Space for Socio-Legal Writing

The Law and Society Committee is an Activity-Based Committee, run by
students of the National Law School and funded by the University. The
Committee’s area of interest is activity relating to the convergence of
legal and social forces.  Pursuant to this mandate, it includes reading
groups, film screenings, talks and discussions as a means of academic
engagement.

‘Socio-Legal Review’ is an initiative of the Committee that hopes to
inspire socio-legal writing among members of the legal and social science
community. It aims at exploring themes relating to the interface of law
and society and providing a platform for students and young scholars. The
Committee is keen to give ‘law and society’ an expansive interpretation,
thereby keeping its basic criteria for contributions simply that of high
academic merit, as long as there is a perceivable link. This would include
not just writing about the role played by law in social change, or the
role played by social dynamics in the formulation and implementation of
law, but also writing that simply takes cognizance of legal institutions/
institutions of governance/administration, power structures in social
commentary and so on. Through this effort, the journal also hopes to fill
the lacunae relating to academic debate on socio-legal matters among law
students. Socio-Legal Review has recently received a generous grant from
Modern Law Review, United Kingdom to carry on its efforts, in spite of
this being only its third year of publication.

The first year issue of ‘Socio-Legal Review’, published in 2005, carried
the theme ‘Law and Marginalisation’. The first issue included
contributions from Shail Mayaram (Senior Fellow, Centre for Study of
Developing Societies, Delhi), Sivamohan Sumathy (University of Peradeniya,
Sri Lanka), apart from contributions from within the National Law School.
Themes ranged from ‘Poverty, Migration and Memory in the Mega-City’,
‘Migration and ‘Displacement of Sri Lankan Tamil Women’, ‘Globalisation
and the City-zen’ to ‘Reservation Policy of India and Rawls’ Theory of
Justice’ and ‘Contours of the Dalit Movement’. The second volume,
published in 2006, has articles by W. T. Murphy (London School of
Economics) and Rajeev Dhavan (Advocate, Supreme Court). As a theme was not
imposed on contribution, writing ranged from subjects as varied as the
pharmaceutical industry and patents to the impact of genetics on theories
of crime and punishment. This year’s Editorial Board has decided to
continue with the policy of not dictating themes. A contribution is
eligible as long as fits in with the general mandate of the journal. The
third volume of the journal will be released in July 2007.

To contribute an article / comment / note from the field for 'Socio-Legal
Review, please write in to slr at nls.ac.in for guidelines for authors. We
accept submissions on a rolling basis.