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Centre for Public Interest Law (CPIL)

About Us Leadership Research Areas Publications Research Activities Events and Conferences

About Us

The Centre for Public Interest Law (CPIL) at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) is a research and policy platform dedicated to advancing scholarship, advocacy, and interdisciplinary dialogue on issues of public interest law. The Centre brings together faculty, students, legal practitioners, civil society organisations, and policymakers to engage with some of the most pressing legal and social challenges in India and the Global South.

CPIL seeks to bridge the gap between academic research and public policy, producing empirically grounded scholarship and facilitating legal and institutional responses to contemporary governance challenges. The Centre supports research initiatives, public lectures, policy discussions, and collaborative projects that address questions of constitutional governance, human rights, environmental justice, citizenship, and social equity.

Since its establishment, CPIL has built a strong track record of research and engagement on critical socio-legal issues, including housing discrimination in major Indian cities, hate crimes and the criminal justice system, and questions of citizenship and statelessness in India. Through legal clinics, policy research, and scholarly engagement, the Centre contributes to shaping public discourse and legal frameworks around rights-based governance.

A key focus of the Centre’s work has been the citizenship crisis in India, particularly in the state of Assam, where large numbers of individuals have faced uncertainty regarding nationality and legal identity. CPIL’s research initiatives and collaborations with regional and international networks have contributed to discussions on statelessness, citizenship law, and access to justice.

Recognising the evolving nature of global legal challenges, CPIL has recently launched a new research vertical on Climate Change and Migration. This initiative examines the growing intersection between environmental change, human mobility, and legal protection frameworks. By focusing on climate-induced displacement in India and the Global South, the Centre aims to contribute to emerging debates on climate justice, environmental governance, and international legal frameworks for migration and displacement.

Through its research, events, and partnerships, CPIL aspires to serve as a leading platform for public interest law scholarship in South Asia, fostering critical engagement with law’s role in addressing complex societal challenges.

Leadership

Professor Agnidipto Tarafder

Director

Raushan Tara Jaswal

Assistant Director

Research Areas

CPIL’s research and engagement activities focus on several interrelated thematic areas:

  1. Citizenship, Statelessness, and Identity
    Research on citizenship law, nationality frameworks, and statelessness in India and South Asia, with particular attention to legal processes surrounding citizenship determination.
  2. Criminal Justice and Human Rights
    Projects addressing hate crimes, access to justice, prison conditions, and broader questions of equality and rights within the criminal justice system.
  3. Public Law and Constitutional Governance
    Scholarly engagement with constitutional rights, public institutions, and contemporary developments in Indian constitutional law.
  4. Climate Change, Migration, and Environmental Justice
    A newly established research vertical examining the relationship between climate change, displacement, and legal protection frameworks, with a focus on the Global South.

Publications

Scopus-Indexed

  1. Raushan Tara Jaswal, Arctic Amplification and its Impacts on Indian Summer Monsoon: Challenging the Status Quo of Arctic Governance and its Role in Climate Conservation, in The Arctic’s New Geopolitics: BRICS+ Policies and Investments (Upcoming).
  2. Raushan Tara Jaswal, Challenging the Status Quo of Arctic Governance and Defining India’s Role in Climate Conservation in the Arctic, From Margins to Mandate: The Global South and the Struggle for Democratic Global Governance (Upcoming).
  3. Raushan Tara Jaswal, Impact of Climate Change on ESG Investments, 14th International Conference on Governance, Fraud, Ethics, Sustainability & Reporting (IConGFESR 2024).
  4. Raushan Tara Jaswal, Of Promises and Discontents: Mapping India's Response to Guaranteeing the Right to Mental Health during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Asian Journal of International Law, Cambridge University Press (2021).
  5. Raushan Tara Jaswal, TikTok-ing on the National Security Defence, Indian Journal of Law and Technology(2021).
  6. Aashish Yadav & Barbara von Rütte, The Human Right to Citizenship: Situating the Right to Citizenship within International and Regional Human Rights Law (Brill, 2022), Statelessness and Citizenship Review.

Other Publications

  1. Raushan Tara Jaswal, Aashish Yadav, Andrea Marilyn Pragashini Immanuel Unmaking Citizens: The Architecture of Rights Violations in India’s Citizenship Trials, National Law School of India University & Queen Mary University of London (2025).
  2. Raushan Tara Jaswal, Expanding Criminology: Integrating Environmental Harm into Discourse and Practice, Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, Vol. 848, Atlantis Press (2024).
  3. Agnidipto Tarafder & Aniruddh Vadlamani, Will the EU AI Regulations Give Rise to Another “Brussels Effect”? Lessons from the GDPR, Journal of Development Policy and Practice (2025).
  4. Raushan Tara Jaswal, Automated Facial Recognition Systems: Not the win we were rooting for, The Leaflet(2023).
  5. Raushan Tara Jaswal, ICC’s arrest warrant against Putin may not be a watershed moment in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Leaflet (2023).
  6. Raushan Tara Jaswal, Dignity of the Elderly: An Indian Judicial Perspective, Cambridge University Human Rights Society (2023).
  7. Aashish Yadav, review of The Human Right to Citizenship: Situating the Right to Citizenship within International and Regional Human Rights Law (Brill Nijhoff, 2022).

Research Activities

  • Civil Action Law Project – Collaboration with the Azim Premji Foundation and Article 14 (2021–2022).
  • Research Initiative: Study on children deprived of liberty in India.
  • Regional Collaboration: Participation in the Asia-Pacific Coalition on Statelessness, contributing to the formation of the Asia-Pacific Regional Coalition on Statelessness (2022–2024).
  • Policy Engagement: Representation of CPIL at regional meetings addressing citizenship and statelessness frameworks in Asia.

Events and Conferences

2025

  • Panel Discussion: Climate, Migration, and the Law: Towards Integrated Frameworks
    16 October 2025

Panelists: Ravi Kant, Radha Barooah, Chhaya Bhardwaj, Bhavya Tandon, Suneet Kulkarni, Ntasha Bhardwaj, Kritika Swami

  • Panel Discussion: The Climate Crisis – Missing Connections
    24 April 2025; Speakers: Luciana Fernandes Coelho, Poliana Lovatto, Claudia Loureiro, Philippe Cullet, Alex Silva Oliveira
  • Guest Lecture: Climate Change and Migration: From a Human Rights Litigation Perspective
    4 April 2025;  Speaker: Chhaya Bhardwaj, Raushan Tara Jaswal

2024

  • Panel Discussion: The Long Afterlife of the Puttaswamy Judgment, 9 November 2024
    Constitution Month Celebrations, JGU
  • Public Conversation: Mental Health of Incarcerated People
    11 September 2024, Speaker: Iftikar Hussain Siddique
  • Panel Discussion, Contemporary Challenges of Citizenship in India
    6 August 2024, Speakers: Abdul Kalam Azad, Anupama Roy, Mohsin Alam Bhat, Rohini Sen
  • World Conference on Statelessness (Malaysia), Presentations by: Aashish Yadav, Shuchi Purohit

2023

  • Work in Progress Conference Presentation, Andrea Marilyn Pragashini Immanuel – University of Sydney

2022

  • Lecture: Environment Undone: Applying Investigative Journalism to Environmental Law
    Speaker: Tish Sanghera
  • Lecture: Hard Cases and Bad Law: Trial of Children as Adults
    Speakers: Mihira Sood, Sahana Manjesh

Future Directions

CPIL will continue expanding its research and engagement on citizenship, constitutional governance, and public interest litigation, while strengthening interdisciplinary work under its Climate Change and Migration vertical.

The Centre aims to position itself as a leading research hub for climate justice, migration governance, and citizenship studies in South Asia, fostering collaboration between scholars, policymakers, and civil society actors working at the intersection of law, rights, and global environmental change.

Contact Us

Write to us at cpil@jgu.edu.in and mabhat@jgu.edu.in

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