About CCLELAC, NLUJAA
The Indian Constitution mandates in its preamble the delivery of social, economic and political justice to the citizens of India. It is sought to be achieved through the combination of fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy in respect of equal justice, access to justice and free legal aid. Being a law school, it is our legal and moral responsibility to work in furtherance of these Constitutional goals; to strive to provide legal support to the needy people and to create a just, equitable and dignified society.
The Centre for Clinical Legal Education and Legal Aid Cell (CCLELAC) has been established at the University to help the socially and economically disadvantaged people in the society to access justice. It aspires to become a bridge between the justice seeker and justice giver in the state. The Centre works to provide free legal aid to the needy people, create legal awareness in the society, promote legal literacy among the masses and motivate people towards alternative dispute resolution.
Call for papers
The diversity in the Indian demography reflects not only different socio-cultural background of the masses but also immense socio-economic inequality. Social stratification and exclusion on the ground of caste, gender and income, among others, are pervasive in India. It certainly affects the realization of several Constitutional goals, including the goal of justice. Although, for last quite a few decades, Legal Services Authorities are functioning in the country at Taluka, District, State and National level. However, the target beneficiaries of the legal services still struggle to get legal recourse. The problem gets further aggravated because of illiteracy, gender, caste, poverty, and other forms of social and educational backwardness.
While the Legal Services Authorities and law school based Legal Aid Clinics are striving to bridge the gap, yet there are several structural challenges. The theory and practice of access to justice are poles apart. The statutory provisions establishing Legal Services Authorities and Legal Aid Centers aim at establishing a robust mechanism in furtherance of free legal aid, legal literacy and legal services. However, due implementation of the scheme has been a complex task. The performance and success rate of the free legal service system is not satisfactory. Irrespective of the reasons for their poor performance, the marginalized sections of the society continue to suffer in the system of administration of justice.
View from below
There are two ways of looking at this complex issue: from above and from below. While the former focuses on formal sources, like statutes, rules, policies and judgments; the latter considers the lived experiences of the legal aid seekers and litigants. A view from below gives prime importance to the experiences of and obstacles encountered by those at the bottom rung, while attempting to access justice. This is because certain aspects of workability of a policy and hindrances in its due implementation can be better understood from the view from below. A view from above is often a half-view or no-view. An analysis from below is necessary to have a better and more complete picture of legal aid movement. It also takes into account the role and concerns of legal aid volunteers, civil society organisations and panel advocates, among others.
Under this backdrop, the CCLELAC, NLUJAA invites research papers from academicians, scholars, practitioners and other stake-holders. After the process of review, the selected papers shall be published in the form of an edited book.
Themes
Legal aid and services: Constitutional mandate
Legal Services Authorities: Performance and problems
Lok Adalats: Functioning, principle and practice, evaluation Legal Aid Clinics in law schools
Legal aid volunteers: Role, obstacles and limitations
Panel advocates: Role and problems
Panel advocates and professional ethics
Legal aid and service providers, and issue of sensitivity
Legal aid and problems of illiteracy, lack of awareness, etc Legal aid camps and challenges
Caste, gender and economic dimension of legal aid services Identifying gaps in the statute and rules
Role of non-governmental organisations
Empirical studies
Any other related theme
GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS:
- The themes are broadly suggestive. Author may write on any topic relevant to the theme of the book.
- All the contributions should be the original work of the contributors. All submissions will undergo the plagiarism check.
- The contributions should be ideally above 3000 words.
- All articles, notes and comments should provide a brief abstract of 250-300 words.
- The text shall be in font style Times New Roman, font size 12, spacing 1.5.
- The foot notes shall be in font style Times New Roman, font size 10, spacing 1.
- Kindly use footnotes instead of endnotes. Footnotes should conform to the Bluebook (20th Edition) Style of Footnoting.
- All submissions are to be made at the following email address: [email protected]
- Submission Deadline 30th November, 2023
*The book will be published by National Law University and Judicial Academy Assam with ISBN.