1st CFL-NLUJ Inter-College Essay Writing Competition 2026 on Reproductive Rights and Bodily Autonomy [Cash Prizes Rs 10,000 + CaseMine AI Pro]

The Centre for Family Law (CFL), National Law University, Jodhpur, presents the first edition of its Inter-College Essay Writing Competition on the theme “Reproductive Rights & Bodily Autonomy”.

Examining the intersection of family law with questions of reproductive choice, bodily integrity and evolving family structures is essential to understanding how legal systems shape and regulate intimate spheres of life. Exploring the ways in which reproductive rights and familial relationships interact with factors such as class, culture, gender and access to healthcare reveals the nuanced ways in which inequality, exclusion and control remain obscured in narrower legal analyses.

Through this competition, CFL seeks to provide a platform for participants to engage critically with contemporary issues at the forefront of family law discourse. The competition aims to foster thoughtful and nuanced discussion on the evolving contours of family law, particularly in relation to reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, and diverse forms of family and kinship.

National Law University, Jodhpur is one of India's leading law schools, situated in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Since its establishment in 1999, NLU Jodhpur has worked to produce lawyers and legal scholars who push and challenge the existing boundaries of knowledge. The University is known for its rigorous academic curriculum, its faculty of experienced legal scholars, its commitment to social justice and human rights, and its focus on practical skills training.

The Centre for Family Law (CFL) was established in 2023 at NLU Jodhpur to foster open and informed discussion in the arena of Family Law. It functions under the guidance of Ms. Preeti Badola, Executive Director of CFL. The Centre recognises that Family Law is no longer confined to traditional norms but extends into gender equality, civil rights and progressive perspectives, and it has organised discussions and sessions on contentious topics such as marriage equality and the Uniform Civil Code.

The Centre's flagship initiative is its blog, The Family Law Chronicle (the CFL Blog), which seeks to foster critical dialogue on emerging and contemporary issues in Family Law through original, analytical and interdisciplinary submissions from students, academicians and practitioners.

CaseMine is the Knowledge Partner for this Essay Writing Competition. Founded in India in 2013, CaseMine is an AI-powered legal research platform that combines engineering with legal data infrastructure to build research tools for legal professionals, academics and students. Its suite of tools includes AMICUS, an AI-powered legal assistant, along with document review and contextual search capabilities.

As part of this collaboration, CaseMine has sponsored complimentary one-year subscriptions to CaseMine AI Pro, which will be awarded to the authors of the top three winning entries.

The theme “Reproductive Rights and Bodily Autonomy” encompasses a wide range of legal, social and ethical issues that shape individual agency and family relationships. The following indicative sub-themes are provided to guide participants:

• Abortion: Reproductive Choice and State Control
• Female Genital Mutilation: Bodily Integrity
• Surrogacy and Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021: A Critical Analysis of the Regulatory Framework
• Maternal Health and Post-Partum Care: Rights, Access and Challenges
• Child Marriage and Reproductive Autonomy

Participants are encouraged to explore these themes from interdisciplinary and critical perspectives. The list above is merely indicative and not exhaustive.

The competition is an inter-college essay writing competition and is aimed at students, providing them a platform to examine the legal, social and ethical dimensions of the theme through rigorous, original and interdisciplinary scholarship.

• Co-authorship of up to two (2) authors is permitted.
• Where a submission is co-authored, payment for both co-authors is to be made by one person.

The brochure does not set out a separate eligibility clause beyond the inter-college, student-focused framing above. Participants who are unsure whether they qualify should write to the Centre at familylawcentre@nlujodhpur.ac.in before registering.

• Format: Submissions must be made in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx), on a Google Form link that the Centre will circulate later.
• Word limit: 2,500 to 3,000 words.
• Co-authorship: Up to two (2) authors permitted.
• Anonymity: Disclosure of information regarding the identity of the author or authors, including but not limited to name, institutional affiliation or professional details, is prohibited in the manuscript.
• Originality: Submissions must be the original and unpublished work of the author or authors, who are solely responsible for the accuracy of the facts, authorities and opinions expressed.
• Plagiarism: All submissions will be screened. Manuscripts with a similarity index exceeding 15% will be summarily rejected.
• Referencing: References must be incorporated through hyperlinks within the text wherever possible. Where an online source is unavailable, footnotes may be used, and all footnotes must conform to the OSCOLA citation style.
• Formatting: Garamond font; size 12 for the main text and size 10 for footnotes; justified alignment; 1.5 line spacing for the main text and single spacing for endnotes.
• Quotations: Verbatim quotations must be enclosed within double quotation marks and appropriately italicised.

Participants are required to complete the registration process before making a submission. The registration fee is as follows:

• Submissions by a single author: Rs 300
• Co-authored submissions (maximum 2 authors): Rs 600

Payment is to be made through the NLU Jodhpur ERP “Other Payments” portal. Payment for both co-authors is to be made by one person. After completing payment, a clear screenshot or photograph of the payment receipt must be uploaded, along with the relevant details, on the official registration form.

The last date to register is 24 August 2026.

To ensure fairness, transparency and academic rigour, all submissions will undergo a multi-stage review process.

• Stage I – Technical Screening: All entries received through the designated Google Form undergo an initial compliance review for adherence to formatting requirements, anonymity standards, plagiarism thresholds and originality requirements. Entries with a plagiarism score exceeding 15%, or any detectable use of generative artificial intelligence tools, will be disqualified and will not proceed to substantive evaluation.
• Stage II – Editorial Review: Submissions that clear technical screening are evaluated by the Editorial Board of the Family Law Chronicle on parameters including originality, quality of research, depth of analysis, structure, coherence and contribution to contemporary discourse on family law. Based on cumulative Stage II scores, the top ten submissions are shortlisted for the final round.
• Stage III – Faculty Review and Final Adjudication: Shortlisted submissions are forwarded to an independent panel of faculty reviewers with expertise in family law, constitutional law, gender studies and allied disciplines, who independently evaluate the entries and determine the final rankings for the First, Second and Third positions. The decision of the reviewers is final and binding.

Stages I and II are scheduled for September 2026, Stage III for the first week of October 2026, and results are expected in mid-October 2026. In addition to the winning entries, the Review Board may at its discretion consider entries for publication in the Family Law Chronicle, subject to editorial review and publication standards.

The final round of evaluation will be conducted by a panel of faculty members from NLU Jodhpur whose scholarship spans family law, constitutional law, gender studies and socio-legal research:

• Dr. Asha Bhandari, Associate Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, NLUJ. Academic interests include Gender Studies, Legal Reasoning, and interdisciplinary approaches to law and society.
• Dr. Sayantani Bagchi, Assistant Professor of Law, NLUJ. Research and teaching focus on Constitutional Law, with particular interest in rights-based jurisprudence and contemporary constitutional developments.
• Dr. Rashmi Mathur, Associate Professor of English, NLUJ. Areas of interest include Language of Law, Modern Feminism, Post-colonial writing and Intersectionality.

Ms. Preeti Badola, Director of the Centre for Family Law, will determine any tie-breaker.

The Centre for Family Law recognises scholarly excellence through a combination of monetary awards and publication opportunities. The First, Second and Third position winners receive cash prizes of Rs 5,000, Rs 3,000 and Rs 2,000 respectively, each along with a Certificate of Achievement and publication of the essay on the CFL Blog. CaseMine will provide complimentary one-year CaseMine AI Pro subscriptions to the authors of the top three winning entries.

• Certificate of Merit for the other top ten shortlisted entries.
• Publication opportunities for select high-quality entries, irrespective of final ranking, subject to editorial review.
• Participation Certificates for all eligible participants whose submissions successfully complete the review process.

Publication decisions remain subject to editorial review and compliance with publication standards.