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Law and Tech

Law and Tech

Law and Technology Research at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance (CSLG), JNU

 

CSLG comprises of ten faculty members drawn from law, sociology, political science, economics and social work. It runs a PhD program on law and governance. The Centre adopts a multidisciplinary approach to framing research and teaching on the relationship between law and governance. The study of governance, in its various forms and at different sites, is central to several contemporary issues: the reform of public institutions and public law; the creation and establishment of procedures and rules that lead to greater efficiency, transparency, and accountability; and the challenge of making governance more inclusive and participatory through the strengthening of democracy and civil society. 

 

The Law and Technology Research Group (LTRG) includes faculty members and research scholars in CSLG who work on various public policy and governance aspects of technologies. The two primary activities of the group are hosting a Law and Tech Conversation Series (EXALT) and undertaking legislative and policy analysis.

 

EXALT Faculty Convenor: Dr. Nupur Chowdhury (nupur@mail.jnu.ac.in)

 

EXALT Student Coordinators: Mandira Narain (PhD Candidate working on Mapping the Contours of Spatial, Informational, and Decisional Privacy Practices in India) and Prabhat Mishra (PhD  Candidate working on AI Governance in China) are the coordinators of EXALT. 

 

If you need any information or would like to join the mailing list or the research group please email the coordinators at exalt@jnu.ac.in / prabhat0104@gmail.com / narainmandira2@gmail.com.
 
EXALT (Exchanges on Law Technology and Society)

 

EXALT is a conversation series where we invite various speakers from academia to discuss the societal and legal implications of technology. The series started in 2021 with the aim of engaging with people working in different disciplines related to law, technology and policy and the sessions have featured scholars working on disinformation, data justice and digital rights, smart cities and AI research.   
 
Till now we have hosted the following events:
  1. Dr. Samuel Woolley, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin and research associate at the Project for Democracy and the Internet at Stanford University. Conversation on “The Reality Game: How the next wave of technology will break the truth and what we can do about it?” 18 February, 2021.
  2. Dr. Linnet Taylor, Associate Professor at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) and lead at ERC-funded Global Data Justice project and  Siddharth deSouza, postdoctoral researcher, Global Data Justice project. Conversation on Global Data Justice. 3 March, 2021.
  3. Dr. Maša Galič, Assistant Professor of criminal (procedure) law at the Criminal law and criminology department of the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam. Conversation on Privacy and Data Protection in Smart Cities. 5 April, 2021.
  4. Prof. Subbarao Kambhampati, Professor of computer science at Arizona State University, USA and former president Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Conversation on Artificial Intelligence. 22 April, 2021.
  5. Constitutional Law Reading Group Open Discussion on Informational Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. 9 June, 2021
  6. Dr. Noopur Raval, Post Doctoral Researcher, AI Now Institute, Conversation on Digital Labour and Gig Economy Platforms. 30 June, 2021
  7. Dr. Luke Stark, Assistant Professor, University of Western Ontario, Conversation on AI Ethics and Governance, 6 July, 2021
  8. Dr. Sun-Ha Hong, Assistant Professor, Simon Fraser University, Limits of Knowledge in a Data driven Society, 14, July, 2021
  9. Online Panel Discussion on the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2022, Speakers were Dr. Usha Ramanathan and Dr. Gautam Bhatia, 20 May, 2022

 

 

Law and Policy Analysis

 
The LTRG regularly analyzes and comments on forthcoming policies and laws on technologies in India. To that effect it has provided detailed analysis and submitted inputs on policymaking to the Government of India through the following reports: 

 

  1. Study Group Comments on Net Neutrality submitted to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). March  2017
  2. Study Group Comments on White Paper on Data Protection Framework for India submitted to Sri Krishna Committee Report on Data Protection Law in India to Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. January 2018
  3. Study Group Comments submitted on Draft National Forest Policy 2018 to Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. April, 2018.
  4. CSLG Study Group Comments submitted on Draft Scientific Social Responsibility (DSSR) Policy to Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. October, 2019.
  5. Memorandum on The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019, Submitted to Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests, Rajya Sabha, Parliament of India. December 2019
  6. Study Group Comments on Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 to the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the Parliament of India. February 2020
  7. CSLG Study Group Comments on Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition Technology submitted to the Niti Aayog, 30 December, 2022
 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.