NLIU Law Review, Volume XVI Issue I (ISSN 2229-7952, Double-Blind Peer-Reviewed)

The NLIU Law Review is the flagship journal of the National Law Institute University, Bhopal. It is a double-blind peer-reviewed academic law journal, published biannually by the University, and it aims to promote a culture of scholarly research and academic writing by bringing to the forefront articles on subjects of interest to the legal profession and academia.

• Title: NLIU Law Review
• ISSN: 2229-7952
• Subject area: Law and Related Disciplines
• Publication frequency: Bi-annual (May and December)
• Review process: Double-blind peer review
• Plagiarism software: Turnitin (or equivalent)
• Plagiarism limit stated on the Journal's About page: up to 15 per cent. Note that the Journal's Plagiarism Policy separately states that no fixed similarity percentage is applied as a threshold and that overlap is assessed qualitatively.
• Open access: Yes, no subscription and no article processing charges
• Digital archiving: institutional repository and long-term digital preservation
• Publishing body: National Law Institute University, Bhopal
• Address: National Law Institute University, Kerwa Dam Road, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 462044
• Editor-in-Chief: Aditi Shreya. Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Gauri Agarwal

As of the year 2025 the Law Review has completed fifteen successful years, with twenty-four editions in publication. It has been recognised by and indexed on several databases including Manupatra, SCC and HeinOnline. A majority of the editing, managerial and organisational work is undertaken by the student body of the journal.

The NLIU Law Review is now accepting submissions of manuscripts for publication in Volume XVI, Issue I of the Journal. Submissions must be made on or before 23:59 hours on 16 August 2026.

On theme, the NLIU Law Review does not restrict itself to any particular area of law and welcomes contributions from all branches of law, as long as the work is relevant, up to date and original. There is no restrictive sub-theme list for this issue, and manuscripts on any topic of contemporary legal relevance are considered.

The call states no eligibility restriction: it does not limit submissions by degree, year of study, profession or institution. The one exclusion the Journal does state is in its Publication Ethics and Malpractice Policy, clause A(d), under which submissions from members of the editorial team will not be considered for publication in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

Authors shall receive an email acknowledging the receipt of their manuscript within ten days of the entry being received. If the acknowledgement is not received, authors can write to lawreview@nliu.ac.in.

• Articles: 4,000 to 10,000 words. Comprehensive legal research papers on a topic, question of law or legal grey area; either a neutral analytical stance or an argumentative stance that engages with counter-arguments. Expectations: comprehensiveness, analytical rigour, research quality and a clear structure covering abstract, introduction, objective, methodology or analytical framework, discussion and conclusion.
• Case Notes: 2,000 to 5,000 words. An extended interpretative commentary on a specific judicial decision, not a summary. Expectations: comprehensive description of background, parties, facts, issues, procedural history and judgment with ratio decidendi and obiter dicta; critical analysis; socio-political context; and page or paragraph number references to the judgment.
• Legislative Comments: 1,000 to 3,000 words. Analysis of statutes, bills or other law-making instruments. Expectations: concise description of provisions, critical analysis engaging with the previous state of the law, socio-political context including comparative perspectives, and analytical depth including suggestions on re-drafting, amendment or repeal.
• Book Reviews: 1,000 to 3,000 words. A critical assessment of a legal publication. Expectations: summary of the original author's objectives, structural overview, critical evaluation, evidence-based analysis with examples from the text, and contextualisation within broader legal scholarship.

The word limit is exclusive of the abstract and the footnotes. Every manuscript must include an abstract of 250 to 300 words highlighting the structure and the essence of the manuscript.

The Review Policy allows a stated margin of tolerance on both sides of the prescribed limits at the Preliminary Check stage. Manuscripts falling outside these margins are rejected at that stage.

• Upper deviation: manuscripts exceeding the prescribed upper word limit by less than 10 per cent shall be accepted. Articles: up to 11,000 words. Case Notes: up to 5,500 words. Legislative Comments and Book Reviews: up to 3,300 words.
• Lower deviation: manuscripts falling short of the lower limit by less than 2.5 per cent shall be accepted. Articles: down to 3,900 words. Case Notes: down to 1,950 words. Legislative Comments and Book Reviews: down to 975 words.

• Manuscripts must not be co-authored by more than two persons. Joint authorship beyond two persons is not entertained.
• Authors are permitted to send only one submission per author or per team of co-authors.
• Contributions are accepted only if genuine and original; manuscripts must not have been previously published or simultaneously submitted elsewhere, in any language.
• The order of authorship is determined by the authors themselves based on relative contributions. The first author is ordinarily treated as the corresponding author.
• Authorship shall not be attributed to Artificial Intelligence tools, including ChatGPT or similar programs. AI tools cannot be credited as authors or co-authors because they lack accountability and cannot approve the final manuscript.
• Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, no addition, deletion or change in the order of authors is permitted. Requests before acceptance must be supported by a written request from all concerned authors and are subject to the Editorial Board's discretion.
• Authors must provide complete details including full name, institutional affiliation, postal address, email ID and mobile number at the time of submission.
• Authorship criteria under the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Policy: an author must have made a significant intellectual contribution to the conception of the work, participated in drafting or substantial revision, approved the final version, and agreed to be accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the entire work. Others should be acknowledged with their permission, and the corresponding author must certify these details on submission.
• Authors must disclose all potential conflicts of interest, whether financial, personal or professional, that are likely to bias the work or its review.
• The Journal reserves the right to reject submissions from authors involved in misconduct, including violations of publication ethics, criminal convictions, ongoing legal or disciplinary proceedings, sexual harassment, bullying or ragging. Authors must proactively disclose any such issues.
• Submissions from members of the NLIU Law Review editorial team are not considered for publication, to avoid conflicts of interest.
• Authors are informed of the status of their manuscripts after every stage of review. Requests for expedited review are not entertained.
• Manuscripts not in conformity with the guidelines may be rejected at the sole discretion of the Editorial Board, or sent back for modification at any stage. The Editorial Board may waive or amend any rule, and its decision is final and binding in case of dispute or ambiguity.

Citations must strictly conform to the Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA), 4th edition, 2012. Only footnotes are accepted as a form of citation, speaking or substantive footnotes are prohibited, and SCC citations for cases must be preferred wherever available.

• Title: Times New Roman, 14 pt, 1.5 line spacing, bold, all caps, centre aligned
• Abstract: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.15 line spacing, italics, justified, 2 cm indent on both sides
• Heading Level 1: Times New Roman, 14 pt, 1.5 line spacing, bold, capitalise each word and small caps, centre aligned, numbered I, II, III
• Heading Level 2: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.5 line spacing, italics, sentence case, centre aligned, numbered A, B, C
• Heading Level 3: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.5 line spacing, italics and underlined, sentence case, left aligned, numbered a), b), c)
• Heading Level 4: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.5 line spacing, italics, sentence case, left aligned, numbered i., ii., iii.
• Main body: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.15 line spacing, justified, 1 inch margins on all sides
• Footnotes: Times New Roman, 10 pt, 1.0 line spacing, justified

Acronyms and short forms must be spelt out in parentheses on first use and followed thereafter, and the abbreviation used must be consistent throughout the manuscript. Names of cases, publications, books, emphasised words and uncommon foreign words are italicised. Numbers are written in words and percentages are denoted by the % symbol. Contractions must be avoided, capitalisation must be uniform, and British English conventions are applied at the pre-publication stage.

On tables, images and graphical components, the Review Policy states that these must have analytical content or be integral to the argument and must not be included for aesthetic or supplementary purposes. If an image is taken from an external source it must carry a caption, and the caption must be footnoted with a reference to the source. An image that does not appear to be hand-drawn or computer-drawn by the author and is not referenced must be removed, or the author will be asked to reference it where the manuscript is otherwise fit for publication. Tables, images and graphical components are to be attached only as an annexure at the end of the manuscript, and no derivation is permitted unless it affects the essence and purpose of the inclusion.

All submissions must be original, unpublished and not under consideration at another journal, and any overlap with an author's prior work must be explicitly disclosed and appropriately cited. Plagiarism, paraphrasing without attribution, text-recycling (self-plagiarism) and copyright infringement are strictly prohibited.

• All manuscripts are subjected to similarity testing using recognised tools such as Turnitin, iThenticate or equivalents, followed by a manual plagiarism check in two stages by the Technical Review committee.
• The Journal does not apply a fixed similarity percentage as a threshold. The Technical Review board evaluates the nature and context of the overlap, focusing on instances of plagiarism or paraphrasing that materially affect the originality, analysis or essence of the manuscript.
• References, quotations, common legal phrases, statutory text and generic terminology are not counted in the similarity score to the extent possible, in line with the exclusions recognised under UGC guidelines.
• The Review Policy identifies eight types of plagiarism that editors examine: direct plagiarism, paraphrasing, accidental plagiarism, secondary plagiarism, self-plagiarism, reordering clauses or idea paraphrasing, patch-working, and translation plagiarism.
• A manuscript having no footnotes is rejected at Stage I of the plagiarism check. Any instance of plagiarism in the abstract or conclusion is a ground for immediate disqualification.
• Secondary plagiarism, that is plagiarism of the sources relied upon, where the author cites the secondary source alone while failing to credit the primary source it drew from, is expressly a ground for immediate disqualification of the manuscript.
• Plagiarism that undermines the essence of the manuscript is assessed through three parameters: problem identification, analysis, and conclusion and suggestions. If the conclusion or recommendations are found to be substantially plagiarised, the manuscript is immediately and directly rejected irrespective of the overall similarity percentage.
• Where plagiarism is determined, the Journal may reject the manuscript at any stage, request revisions, notify the author's affiliated institution, department or oversight bodies, or bar the author from future submissions (blacklisting). Repeated or egregious plagiarism after a request for revisions may attract stricter sanctions along with legal action.

Required declaration. Under section G of the Plagiarism Policy (Author Obligations and Declarations), the author must guarantee that the manuscript is their own original work, cite every source used including ideas, text, data and tables in full compliance with the Journal's citation style, obtain the necessary permissions for reproducing copyrighted material and include appropriate credit lines, cooperate with any editorial inquiry into suspected plagiarism, and submit a declaration affirming originality, the absence of prior or concurrent submission, and disclosure of any AI usage. The Policy supplies a sample declaration in which the author declares that the manuscript is original, has not been published previously in whole or in part and is not under consideration elsewhere, that all sources have been duly acknowledged, that no portion has been generated or substantially assisted by artificial intelligence tools (and that any limited non-substantive use such as grammar checks or citation formatting has been transparently disclosed), and that the author accepts full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity and authenticity of the content. The declaration carries the name of the author or authors, designation or institution, and date.

The submission of content drafted by artificial intelligence tools is strongly discouraged. Where any portion of the manuscript is aided by AI, the author must state this clearly in the declaration and ensure the content is original, properly attributed and free from errors or misrepresentations.

The Review Policy states that the review process consists of five key stages: Preliminary Check, Technical Review, Content Review, Peer Review (double-blind) and Pre-Publication Review. Peer Review is not the last stage; the Pre-Publication Review follows it.

• 1. Preliminary Check. A manuscript is preliminarily rejected for fundamental non-compliance with the Submission Guidelines or a lack of substantive legal engagement, so that the Technical, Editorial and Peer Review teams work only on manuscripts meeting the minimum academic and procedural standards. The principal grounds for preliminary rejection are: (i) non-compliance with the word limit, outside the upper and lower deviation margins set out above; (ii) absence of a legal question or analysis, where a manuscript addresses purely social, economic, environmental or political themes without engaging with any question of law, legal framework or interpretative issue (the Policy gives the example of a paper on an environmental issue that does not examine the statutory or judicial dimensions of environmental law); and (iii) submission of academic projects, that is manuscripts clearly identifiable as coursework, typically marked by hypotheses, methodology sections, literature reviews or excessive formatting resembling academic assignments. The Editorial Board may exercise limited discretion in cases involving submissions from reputed academicians or professionals, where minor procedural deviations may be excused in view of substantive merit.
• 2. Technical Review (Stage I and Stage II). Conducted after preliminary screening and before the content and peer review stages. It checks compliance with the submission guidelines, plagiarism standards and citation format, and assesses the originality of the manuscript against existing scholarly literature. The plagiarism percentage is calculated as the number of plagiarised words divided by the total word count, but the Turnitin report is manually evaluated by the concerned editors, who distinguish legitimate overlaps from substantive plagiarism.
• 3. Content Review. Manuscripts passing the Technical Review proceed to Content Review, which evaluates scholarly merit, analytical rigour and contemporary relevance. The Content Review is two-staged, and only after acceptance at Stage II of the Content Review does a manuscript proceed to Peer Review. Editors are expected to do basic reading on the topic before commencing the review. The five evaluation parameters are grammar and language, structure and logical coherence, contribution to existing literature, contemporary relevance, and research and referencing. A feedback form with the editors' evaluation and remarks is supplied to the author. Contribution to existing literature and contemporary relevance can each be a sole ground for acceptance or rejection.
• 4. Peer Review (double-blind). Manuscripts shortlisted after the two stages of Content Review are forwarded to external reviewers for double-blind peer review. Reviewers are selected on subject expertise and are independent of the Editorial Board. Each review report concludes with a clear recommendation on the manuscript's status: accepted without revision, accepted with minor or major revision, or rejected. Authors of accepted manuscripts may receive minor editorial suggestions before publication; those recommended for revision receive a detailed list of reviewer comments; and rejections are accompanied by constructive feedback. If a manuscript is rejected by the peer reviewers it is excluded from the review process and will not be considered for publication in the present or future publication cycles.
• 5. Pre-Publication Review. The final stage, conducted after the manuscript has passed the two stages each of Technical Review and Content Review and the Peer Review. It covers incorporation of editorial and peer review comments, grammar and language review, citation verification against OSCOLA 4th edition, cross-referencing consistency, punctuation and formatting review in British English conventions, and syntax and structural consistency. The manuscript is then submitted to the Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor-in-Chief for final verification, marked Publication-Ready and forwarded for typesetting and printing.

The Editorial Board retains the authority to accept, suggest revisions to or reject any manuscript at any stage, to return manuscripts for substantive revision before further consideration, and to disqualify manuscripts in cases of ethical or procedural violations. All manuscripts under review are treated as confidential documents and no part is disclosed beyond the Editorial Board, peer reviewers or affiliated service providers.

The NLIU Law Review adheres to the principles of open access publishing. All articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, without subscription or access fees, and the Journal does not levy any article processing charges, submission fees or publication fees. Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print and link to the full texts, provided the use is non-commercial and proper attribution is given.

Authors retain the copyright in their works. By submitting and consenting to publication, the author grants the Journal an irrevocable, transferable, non-exclusive, perpetual and worldwide licence to publish, reproduce, republish, translate, transmit, sell, distribute, display, archive and otherwise use the submission in electronic and print editions and in derivative works, in all languages and all media now known or later developed. The licence includes an irrevocable non-exclusive right to create and store electronic archival copies, including deposit in open access repositories, and the Journal may grant others a licence to reproduce, republish, transmit and distribute the submission. The licence is granted for the duration of the subsistence of the copyright including any extensions or renewals.

All works published are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Authors may, without prior permission, reproduce the work in whole or in part in future scholarly work including books, edited volumes or anthologies; post the published or pre-print version on non-commercial personal websites, institutional repositories or open-access archives; use the work for educational, instructional or training purposes including classroom use and distribution to students; and share the work with colleagues and peers for academic purposes.

In every such case the author must provide the following acknowledgment, in the form set out in section 3 of the Copyright and Open Access Policy: First published in the NLIU Law Review, Volume __, Issue __, Year, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License.

Citations to works published in the Journal must use the format: Author Name, "Title of the Article," NLIU Law Review, Vol. __, Issue __ (Year), pp. Any commercial use, including sale of copies, distribution through commercial databases or inclusion in fee-charging products or services, requires the prior written permission of the Editorial Board, and requests are directed to lawreview@nliu.ac.in. By submitting, the author warrants that the work is original and non-infringing, has not been previously published unless disclosed, is not under simultaneous consideration elsewhere, and that all permissions for third-party copyrighted material have been obtained; the author indemnifies the Journal and the University against claims arising from a breach of those warranties. The Policy is governed by Indian law, with exclusive jurisdiction in the competent courts at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

• Submissions must be made only through the official Google Form linked below. Submissions made through any other medium, including by email, shall not be considered for review by the Editorial Board.
• All submissions must be in .docx format, word processed and compatible with Microsoft Word 2007 or above.
• The manuscript must not contain any information that can be used to identify the author. All relevant author details must be mentioned only within the form.
• Every manuscript must carry an abstract of 250 to 300 words highlighting the structure and the essence of the manuscript.
• The declaration affirming originality, absence of prior or concurrent submission and disclosure of any AI usage must accompany the submission, in the form set out in the Plagiarism Policy.
• Submissions must be made on or before 23:59 hours on 16 August 2026.
• An acknowledgement email is sent within ten days of receipt. If it does not arrive, write to lawreview@nliu.ac.in.