About Dharmashastra National Law University
Dharmashastra National Law University (DNLU), Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, was established in 2018 under the Madhya Pradesh Dharmashastra National Law University Act, 24 of 2018. The University aims to advance legal education and achieve excellence in imparting value-based legal education to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
DNLU places emphasis on research and scholarship and supports faculty and student research initiatives, seminars, conferences, workshops, and publications in reputed legal journals. The University also fosters mooting and legal competitions to help students develop practical legal and advocacy skills.
About the Centre for Studies in Legal Theory
The Centre for Studies in Legal Theory (CSLT) is a specialised academic centre at DNLU, Jabalpur. It serves as a platform for critical inquiry, scholarship, and conceptual research at the intersection of law, philosophy, and society.
CSLT seeks to encourage engagement with the foundational principles, socio-political underpinnings, and moral frameworks that shape law. The Centre promotes dialogue among students, academicians, and jurists while connecting theoretical jurisprudence with contemporary legal realities.
About the Call for Blogs
CSLT invites original and unpublished blog submissions on the theme “The Afterlife of Law: What Survives When a Legal Rule Changes?”
Submissions should ordinarily be between 1,000 and 1,200 words. The Editorial Board may allow flexibility in the word limit at its discretion.
Theme and Sub-Themes
Main Theme: The Afterlife of Law: What Survives When a Legal Rule Changes?
1. Normative Residue and Desuetude: Repealed or struck-down laws may continue to shape judicial reasoning, interpretation, and institutional habits. Submissions may examine how laws survive on paper but go unenforced, and how norms lose formal authority yet remain obeyed.
2. Temporal Jurisprudence and Transitional Justice: Legal change raises questions of finality and normative correction, including prospective and retrospective overruling, saving clauses, and constitutional transformations.
3. Institutional Memory and Executive Habit: Bureaucratic practices, policing protocols, and executive forms may outlive the provisions that created them. Submissions may explore how precedent keeps overruled doctrines alive under new terminology.
4. Theoretical Paradigms of Legal Change: Revolutionary and systemic change raises questions about what survives a break in the legal order, including the persistence of colonial legal frameworks after formal decolonisation.
5. Repeal, Validity and the Existence of Legal Norms: A repealed or struck-down rule may cease to exist, or aspects of it may remain. Submissions may examine the distinctions between rules that are repealed, read down, or void ab initio.
6. Law and Morality After Legal Change: A rule that was valid but is later regarded as deeply unjust raises questions about its status as law and whether its underlying principles survive its removal.
7. Rights, Duties and Powers After the Rule Changes: Rights, duties, and powers created under a rule may not simply vanish when that rule no longer exists. Submissions may address vested rights and saving clauses.
8. The Persistence of Legal Fictions and Outdated Concepts: Legal fictions, outdated concepts, and doctrines may continue to operate after their original purpose has faded.
9. Obedience, Custom and Living Law Beyond Formal Authority: Submissions may examine how obedience, custom, and practice continue after a rule has formally ceased to operate.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions must be original and unpublished. The similarity index must not exceed 10%, as verified through Turnitin. Authors will be responsible for the accuracy of the facts, arguments, and opinions expressed in their submissions.
Co-authorship is permitted for a maximum of two authors. Submissions must be made in .doc or .docx format.
All references must be provided as hyperlinks. Where hyperlinks are unavailable, authors must use endnotes following the Bluebook 21st edition. Footnotes are not permitted.
Formatting Guidelines
Manuscripts must be formatted in Times New Roman, font size 12, with 1.5 line spacing and normal margins.
Review Process
Each submission will undergo a three-stage review process:
- Plagiarism and AI Check: The submission will be assessed for originality and authenticity.
- Clarity Review: The language, coherence, and logical flow of the arguments will be evaluated.
- Substantive Review: The legal and economic accuracy, analytical depth, and relevance of the piece will be assessed.
Only manuscripts meeting all three standards will be considered for publication. The CSLT Editorial Board will have complete and final discretion over acceptance or rejection. The Board will not entertain requests for advance opinions on abstracts, outlines, or topic proposals. Due to the high volume of submissions, the Editors may not be able to provide individual feedback on rejected manuscripts.
Publication Details
The copyright of all published blogs will vest with the Centre for Studies in Legal Theory.
Deadline
Oct 25, 2026
How to Submit?
Authors must email their articles in .doc or .docx format to cslt@mpdnlu.ac.in.
Contact Details
- Ms. Riddhi Shree Nair, Convenor, Centre for Studies in Legal Theory: riddhi082-22@mpdnlu.ac.in
- Ms. Jhalak Singh, Co-convenor, Centre for Studies in Legal Theory: jhalak046-23@mpdnlu.ac.in
- Centre for Studies in Legal Theory: cslt@mpdnlu.ac.in
Centre for Studies in Legal Theory, Dharmashastra National Law University, BRBRAITT Campus, Ridge Road, South Civil Lines, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh 482001.