[Reader-list] Call for Articles: InfoChange Agenda issue on 'Access to Justice in India'

[OISHIK SIRCAR]

Hello:

As guest-editor of a forthcoming issue of *InfoChange Agenda* themed 'Access
to Justice in India', I am writing to invite contributions to the issue.

*InfoChange Agenda *has been conceived as a quarterly dossier that informs
civil society on crucial issues of sustainable development and social
justice, diversity and pluralism issues that are being pushed into the
margins. It is designed to enable concerned citizens in India/ South Asia to
marshal salient information, facts, figures, perspectives and reportage, so
that they can clarify their ideas and participate in drawing up their own
agenda for a more equitable and sustainable world. You can find more
information on *InfoChange Agenda* and access the previous issues at
www.infochangeindia.org

The innovation of the marvel called ‘Public Interest Litigation’ (PIL) in
the 1980s revolutionized the idea of ‘access to justice’ in India. It marked
a moment in India’s judicial history that recognized the ways in which
marginality adversely impacts on people’s ability to make use of the law to
safeguard their rights. In the last two decades, how has the idea of PILs
generally, and access to justice specifically undergone a transformation, in
the face of an India that opened up to Liberalization, Privatization and
Globalization from 1991 onwards? Have we been able to build on the
innovation, or has it been abused/ subverted in the name of facilitating the
poor and disadvantaged to more effectively engage with the law? Has the
liberalization of the economy broadened the gap between the marginalized and
the law? This issue of *InfoChange Agenda* will attempt to provide a
background to the development of PILs and legal aid in India since the 1980
and then trace the contours of its development post liberalization. It will
document the various strategies that human rights groups, lawyers and
people’s movements have employed to use this tool to address rights concerns
across a whole gamut of issues from prisoner’s rights to the environment. It
will also address the rise of bodies like Khap Panchayat’s as perverse forms
of extra-constitutional adjudication mechanisms that have received both
societal and state sanction.  Finally, the volume will address the question
of the futures of access to justice in India looking at innovations beyond
the PIL like fast-tract to virtual courts, arbitration, jan sunwais, lok
adalats, the RTI and the recent Gram Nyayalay Act.

Indicative themes are as follows:

1.                 1. *Public Interest or Private Interest? PILs today*

   1. *Poverty and Access to Justice: Legal Aid in India*
   2. *Should “Terrorists” be defended?*
   3. *Marketing Justice: The Privatisation of Human Rights*
   4. *Access Denied: Law and Marginality*
   5. *Righting Wrongs: Access to Justice and RTI*
   6. *The Tragedy of Criminal Justice Reforms*
   7. *Whither Judicial Activism? The Crisis in the Courts*
   8. *NHRC: All Bark, No Bite?*
   9. *30 million and counting: How do we climb the mountain of backlogs?
   Innovations in enhancing Access to Justice*
   10. *Death Penalty: Suffocating Access to Justice*
   11. *The Supreme Court’s ‘Conservative Turn’: Supporting the Market,
   Disadvantaging People*
   12. *Tort Law: Is Compensation good enough remedy?*
   13. *Litigating the Environment*
   14. *Post-conflict Justice: Peace, without Rights?*
   15. *SMS Justice: The Use of New Media*
   16. *Good Governance: A panacea to inacess?*
   17. *Indigenous Justice: Primitive or Progressive?*
   18. *Strategy Talk: How to use access legislations like the NREGA or DV
   Act?*
   19. *How to file a PIL: an ordinary person’s guide*

The themes are not limited to these. You are welcome to write on anything
else that is connected with the broader theme of 'Access to Justice in
India'.

Since *InfoChange Agenda* is not an academic journal, I request you to use
minimal footnoting and make the pieces journalistic or feature-like. Please
try and stick to a word limit of 2000-3000. The Centre for Communication and
Development Studies (CCDS) that publishes the journal will be happy to pay
an honorarium of Rs. 2000 for selected contributions.

Please note the following timeline --

*Abstract Submission Deadline: June 30, 2010
Announcement of accepted abstracts: July 30, 2010
Article Submission Deadline: October 30, 2010
Tentative date for publication: February 2011.*

Email your submissions to oishiksircar at gmail.com with 'Agenda: Access to
Justice' in the subject line.  For any clarifications, please feel free to
write to me.

Warmly,

Oishik Sircar



-- 
OISHIK SIRCAR

oishiksircar at gmail.com
oishik.sircar at utoronto.ca