Call for Chapters: The Weight of Choice - Consumers, Competition and the Contours of Protection (Edited Book with ISBN, No Fee)

The National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi was established by the Government of Jharkhand under the National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi Act, 2010, and offers B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), LL.M., Ph.D. in law and postgraduate diploma courses.

The call is issued by the university's Chair on Consumer Research and Policy (CCRP), set up at NUSRL in October 2024 by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, to promote research, teaching and training in consumer law. The book will be published under the aegis of the Chair.

The Weight of Choice: Consumers, Competition and the Contours of Protection is an edited volume that treats consumer law not as a settled doctrine but as a discipline still finding its boundaries. It looks at consumer protection where it meets competition law, contract law, environmental regulation, insurance and real estate law and digital design, and at categories of consumers who fall outside the law's default assumptions. Original and unpublished contributions that examine these contours critically and propose a more accountable and inclusive consumer law regime are invited.

• Jurisdictional overlap between the CCPA and the CCI: predatory and personalised pricing as both competition and consumer harm; platform self-preferencing as deception and market abuse; merger review through a consumer-welfare lens.
• Greenwashing and the limits of consumer trust: deceptive sustainability claims and the gap between disclosure and verification; eco-labelling standards and the absence of independent certification; corporate environmental claims and enforcement under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
• Vulnerable consumers, protection beyond the default adult: children and loot-box or in-app purchase design in gaming and edtech apps; elderly consumers and UPI or digital lending fraud; consumers with disabilities and accessibility as an unaddressed consumer right.
• Gig workers as consumers, not just labour: platform dependency and missing consumer-side protections for delivery and ride-share workers; algorithmic deactivation and due process as a consumer-contract question; insurance and welfare gaps framed through consumer law.
• Consumer law beyond e-commerce: health insurance claim denials and the contract-law overlap; RERA versus the CPA, 2019 and overlapping forums for real estate consumers; consumer protection in edtech and the coaching-industry boom.
• Class actions and the underused Section 35(1)(c): structural barriers to collective consumer litigation in India; comparative lessons from US and EU class-action and representative-action models; funding, notice and coordination problems in consumer class suits.

Authors may choose any other topic that reasonably falls within the ambit of these themes.

The call is open to academicians and faculty members, legal practitioners and policy professionals, research scholars and doctoral candidates, and undergraduate and postgraduate students from recognised universities and institutions. Interdisciplinary contributions from law, economics, public policy, business and technology are encouraged if they engage with consumer protection, market regulation or consumer rights. A maximum of two authors is permitted per submission.

• Articles: 5,000 - 6,000 words
• Short articles: 2,500 - 4,000 words
• Legislative comments: 1,500 - 2,500 words
• Book reviews: 1,000 - 2,500 words

Word limits are inclusive of footnotes.

• Submissions must be original, unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
• Times New Roman: 16/14 point for headings and sub-headings, 12 point for main text, 10 point for footnotes. Line spacing 1.5 for main text and single for footnotes; text justified.
• Citations must follow The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (21st edition).
• Manuscripts go in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx).
• A separate cover page must give the author name(s), institutional affiliation and designation, and contact email and phone number. It must not form part of the chapter file.
• All submissions undergo blind peer review, so nothing in the manuscript should reveal the author's name or institution.
• Submissions must be free from plagiarism. Using generative AI tools to draft substantive portions is discouraged, and authors remain responsible for accuracy, originality and integrity.

Selected papers will be published as chapters in an accredited book bearing an ISBN. Submission and publication are entirely free of cost, and each author receives one complimentary copy of the published volume.

Upload the manuscript (.doc/.docx) and the separate cover page through the official Google Form linked on this page by 15 November 2026. The form may ask you to sign in to a Google account to upload files.

The organisers state that all the listed dates, including the submission deadline, are tentative and may change at the discretion of the organising body.

• Patron cum Chief Editor: Prof. (Dr.) Ashok R. Patil, Vice-Chancellor, NUSRL Ranchi
• Faculty Convenor cum Editor: Mr. Abhinav Gupta, Chair on Consumer Research and Policy, NUSRL Ranchi
• Student Editor-in-Chief: Ms. Aditi Vivek Singh (4th year, B.A. LL.B.)
• Co-Editors-in-Chief: Ms Akshara and Ms Fatima (3rd year, B.A. LL.B.)

For any other queries, write to ccrp@nusrlranchi.ac.in.