Indian Journal of Law and Justice, Vol. 16, No. 01

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/5692

From the Editor’s Desk

Season’s Greetings!

I am glad to announce the publication of the Vol. 16 No. 01 issue of the Indian Journal of Law and Justice. The Indian Journal of Law and Justice has come a long way in the last one decade from being a national law journal to being an internationally acclaimed journal and from being a mere print version to having a website of its own, namely ijlj.nbu.ac.in. Along with being enlisted by the UGC CARE, the journal is proudly indexed with the esteemed SCOPUS along with the HeinOnline and EBSCO. Innumerable scholars, academicians and professionals from the field of law as well as other social sciences sector have been relying on this journal for their scholarly publications and have played a pivotal role in their early career success. I along with my highly efficient editorial team pledge to building on the legacy of this journal. We are making an endeavour for online submissions of articles and research papers to improve and expedite peer review. We, as a team, shall continue to remain committed to making it a forum that welcomes scholarship from a diverse and global group of authors, whose ideas are at the cutting edge of law and policy research.

 

Keeping the trend of the Indian Journal of Law and Justice, authors across the globe have contributed on varied topical matters and raised relevant and pressing questions in their papers to enrich the journal. The current issue gives the glimpse of insights on international and national issues. The current issue highlights on the Biodiversity Conservation, measures to protect migrant workers, security challenges facing electronic commercial remittance work, evaluation of ADR and practice, principle of common but differentiated practice on climate change, tribal disentanglement, comparative study on competition laws, PoSH, tech-driven rehabilitation, tracing blasphemy in digital media, comparative analysis of legal aid and analysis of reproductive health of Santhal tribals.

And also, in notes and comments the issue highlights on commercialistaion to innovation of Start-Ups in India and the book review highlights the issue of migration, identities and democratic practices in India.

I thank all contributors for their submissions to this edition and their cooperation with the editorial team during the production phase. I express my gratitude again to the entire Editorial Team whose commitment and perseverance made this publication possible.

Suggestions and opinions for the improvement of the journal is solicited.

 

With best wishes

Dr. Sujit Kumar Biswas

Chief Editor

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    Access to Justice or Illusory Right? A Comparative Analysis of Legal Aid for the Protection of Women's Rights
    (University of North Bengal, 2025-03) Sumit
    The operationalization of women's rights, transforming them from abstract legal pronouncements into tangible realities, is fundamentally mediated by access to justice. State-provided legal aid services represent the primary mechanism for bridging the gap between formal equality and socio-economic disparity; yet, their efficacy remains a site of critical contestation. This paper examines whether these systems serve as genuine conduits for justice or, as this analysis suggests, merely an illusory right for the women they are designed to support. Employing a comparative analytical framework, this research examines the de jure promises and de facto realities of legal aid in India, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Grounded in the substantive equality standards articulated by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women particularly its General Recommendation No. 33 the study evaluates the structural integrity of each national model. The analysis reveals a 'paradox of progressive universalism' in India, where an expansive legal right for all women is systematically nullified by profound implementation deficits. By contrast, the United Kingdom's model presents a 'legislated illusion,' where fiscal austerity has deliberately curtailed access, weaponizing procedural hurdles like the 'domestic violence gateway' to exclude even its most explicitly protected beneficiaries. South Africa, in turn, illustrates a 'prioritisation paradox,' with its constitutional mandate for legal aid overwhelmingly resourced for criminal defense, thereby systemically marginalizing the civil justice needs most critical to women's empowerment. Ultimately, this paper argues that despite their divergent political rationales, these systems converge in their failure to provide accessible, high-quality, and responsive services. By foregrounding the persistent gap between legal promise and lived experience, this research contributes a critical, cross-jurisdictional perspective on the structural impediments to women's access to justice, challenging the assumption that the mere existence of legal aid frameworks equates to their functional reality.