Call for Papers: KLE-JUSTECH 2027, First International Conference on the Future of Justice: Crime, Constitution and Technology [Hybrid, Bengaluru, Jan 22-23, 2027]

KLE Law College, Bengaluru is hosting the First International Conference on the Future of Justice: Crime, Constitution, and Technology (KLE-JUSTECH 2027) on 22 and 23 January 2027 in hybrid mode. The conference is a forum for academics, researchers, judges, legal practitioners, technologists, policymakers, criminal justice professionals and doctoral scholars to present original research on the constitutional and criminal law questions raised by emerging technologies.

The programme examines how artificial intelligence, mass surveillance, facial recognition, predictive policing, digital forensics, deepfakes, algorithmic risk assessment and automated decision-making are reshaping investigation, evidence, adjudication and sentencing, and asks how the guarantees of privacy, due process, equality and free expression can be secured in a rapidly digitising criminal justice system.

KLE Law College, Bengaluru was established in 1975 under the Karnataka Lingayat Education Society. It began with the three-year LL.B. programme, added the five-year B.A. LL.B. in 1996 and the B.B.A. LL.B. in 2011-12. The college is recognised by the Bar Council of India and has been a constituent college of KLE Technological University, Hubballi since 2021, having earlier been affiliated to Karnataka State Law University, Hubballi.

The conference leadership includes Prof. (Dr.) Mallikarjunaiah J. M., Dean, KLE Technological University, as Conference Director and Dr. Manojkumar V. Hiremath, IQAC Head, KLE Law College, as Conference Chair. Prof. Dr. Upendra Baxi and Prof. Dr. Harpreet Kaur are listed among the advisors.

The conference theme is Justice in the Age of Algorithms: Safeguarding Constitutional Guarantees in a Technologically Transformed Criminal Justice System. It is organised around eight interdisciplinary tracks, and the sub-topics listed under each track are illustrative rather than exhaustive.

• Track I: Policing, Surveillance and the Investigative State, covering mass surveillance, facial recognition in law enforcement, predictive policing and algorithmic bias, drone, CCTV and geolocation surveillance, interception, encryption and lawful access, and oversight of surveillance powers.
• Track II: Privacy as a Constitutional Guarantee, covering privacy as a fundamental right, informational self-determination and consent, comparative privacy jurisprudence and proportionality, biometrics and DNA databases, anonymity and the right to erasure, and judicial review of surveillance authorisations.
• Track III: Digital Evidence and Forensics, covering admissibility of digital and AI-generated evidence, deepfakes and evidentiary reliability, chain of custody, authentication, hash verification and metadata integrity, expert testimony and judicial gatekeeping, and comparative electronic evidence rules.
• Track IV: Algorithms in Bail, Sentencing and Adjudication, covering algorithmic risk assessment tools, AI in judicial decision-making, bias in predictive risk scoring, explainability and the black box problem, automation bias, and the claim to a human decision-maker.
• Track V: Cybercrime and Criminal Liability, covering hacking and data breaches, liability for AI-generated harm, ransomware, dark web markets and cryptocurrency offences, platform and corporate criminal liability, online harms, and attribution and mens rea in machine-mediated offending.
• Track VI: Constitutional Rights and Digital Speech, covering due process and algorithmic decision-making, algorithmic bias against marginalised groups, free expression and AI content moderation, chilling effects of surveillance, fair trial rights in technology-driven prosecutions, and the digital divide.
• Track VII: Judicial and Legislative Capacity, covering judicial training for technology-driven cases, legislative gaps in criminal law, court digitisation, e-courts and virtual hearings, institutional design for algorithmic accountability, evidentiary standards, and legal education.
• Track VIII: Data Protection, Cross-Border Cooperation and Emerging Frontiers, covering the DPDP Act and its intersection with criminal law, international cooperation on cybercrime, data localisation, jurisdiction and extraterritorial enforcement, comparative data protection regimes, and other emerging topics.

The organising committee invites original and unpublished research from academics, researchers, judges, legal practitioners, prosecutors, police and investigative officers, technologists, forensic experts, policymakers, regulators, doctoral scholars, postgraduate students and other stakeholders engaged with criminal justice and technology governance.

Interdisciplinary work integrating law, criminology, computer science, artificial intelligence, digital forensics, public policy, human rights, data governance, sociology, science and technology studies and international relations is particularly welcome. Theoretical, empirical, doctrinal, comparative, policy-oriented and practice-based research all fall within the call. A manuscript may have a maximum of four authors, and at least one author must register and present the paper.

Manuscripts are accepted under five categories: full research papers, case studies, policy papers, doctoral research papers and interdisciplinary research papers. Submission is a two-stage process. Authors first submit an abstract; abstracts shortlisted at the preliminary evaluation are invited to submit a full manuscript, and only complete manuscripts are considered for the proceedings.

• Abstract: 300 to 350 words, setting out the research objective, methodology, key findings and contribution, with 4 to 6 mandatory keywords separated by commas.
• Full manuscript: 6,000 to 8,000 words, including abstract, references, tables, figures and appendices.
• Authors must use the official Word template or LaTeX package available on the conference website, without altering the layout or margins, and must not include page numbers, headers, footers or blank pages.
• Review is double-blind. Non-anonymous manuscripts will be returned or desk-rejected; names, affiliations, acknowledgements and identifying metadata must be removed, and author details added only in the camera-ready version.
• Submissions are screened with Turnitin or equivalent software. As a general guideline the overall similarity index should not exceed 10 per cent, excluding the bibliography, quoted material and matches of fewer than 14 consecutive words.
• AI tools may be used for copy editing without disclosure, but generative AI for substantive writing or image generation is discouraged and must be disclosed where significant. AI tools cannot be listed as authors.

All abstracts and manuscripts are submitted only through Microsoft CMT. Authors need a Microsoft CMT account; existing account holders may use the same credentials. The conference operates a rolling review, with similarity screening, editorial screening and peer review beginning on receipt rather than at the deadline, so early submission is encouraged.

Registration opens on notification of abstract acceptance and, per the conference website, must be completed by 20 October to confirm a presentation slot; the important dates table sets the registration deadline for presenters at 10 January 2027. Fees are charged per paper irrespective of the number of authors, and where co-authors fall in different categories the higher category fee applies.

• Indian delegates (in person): Rs 3,000
• International delegates (in person): USD 70
• Delegates from Least Developed Countries (in person): USD 40
• Virtual presenter (Indian): Rs 3,000
• Virtual presenter (international): USD 50
• Audience only (Indian): Rs 1,500
• Audience only (international): USD 25

Publication charges are separate and apply only to papers accepted for the proceedings: Rs 12,000 (approximately USD 126) per accepted paper, open access, payable only after successful peer review and editorial acceptance. A partial or full waiver of the publication fee may be recommended by the Editorial Board, subject to Scientific Committee approval, where the first author is a national of or affiliated to an institution in a Least Developed Country or a region affected by armed conflict, or is a PhD scholar currently enrolled in a doctoral programme. Eligibility must be declared at the time of submission. On-the-spot registration is not available and registration fees are non-transferable and non-refundable.

The conference runs in hybrid mode. Indian participants are strongly encouraged to attend in person at KLE Law College, Bengaluru. International participants are also encouraged to attend in person but may opt for virtual participation on prior intimation to the organising committee.

Registered delegates receive a conference kit and access to all technical sessions, keynote and plenary addresses, along with daily refreshments, breakfast and lunch during the conference, plus a Certificate of Presentation for presenters or a Certificate of Conference Attendance for non-presenting delegates. Virtual participants receive electronic certificates and access to virtual sessions; the conference kit may be couriered on request at the participant's expense. The audience-only category does not include paper presentation or consideration for publication.

Participants are responsible for their own travel, accommodation and local arrangements; the organising committee does not provide accommodation, travel grants, airfare or visa fee reimbursement or any other financial assistance. On request, the Conference Secretariat will issue an official invitation letter to registered international participants solely to support a visa application.

Review runs in two stages. Stage I covers abstract screening for fit and originality, editorial screening of invited full manuscripts for compliance and anonymisation, similarity assessment, and double-blind peer review by at least two subject experts, leading to a decision of accepted for presentation, accepted with minor revisions, major revisions required or rejected. Only papers accepted, registered and presented at the conference proceed to the publication stage.

Stage II covers post-conference evaluation of revised manuscripts, a final editorial decision, and camera-ready submission on the publisher's template. Recommended manuscripts go to Atlantis Press (part of Springer Nature) for final production decisions, and the proceedings volume will subsequently be submitted for evaluation and inclusion in indexing databases, including the Web of Science Conference Proceedings Citation Index or Scopus, subject to the independent criteria of those agencies. The conference states that it follows COPE principles and that payment of registration or publication charges has no bearing on editorial outcomes.