Call for Participation | TNNLU Announces Two-Day National Conference on “Legal History of Tamil Nadu” [25th & 26th September 2026]

The Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU) was established by the Government of Tamil Nadu by an Act of the State Legislature

ABOUT TNNLU:

The Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU), Tiruchirappalli, located in Srirangam Taluk of the Tiruchirappalli District, was established by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2012 to provide quality legal education. It offers two five-year integrated Undergraduate programs, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) & B.Com. LL.B. (Hons.) and one-year LL.M. program in Business Law. TNNLU also offers Ph.D. program in Law and Interdisciplinary perspectives since 2021. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recognised and approved TNNLU under Section 2(f) and under Section 12B of the UGC Act, 1956. TNNLU is recognised by the Bar Council of India (BCI).

ABOUT LCHSI:

The Legal Centre for History of South India (LCHSI) is one of the vibrant research centres in the Tamil Nadu National Law University, Tiruchirappalli. It was established with the financial support of the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2021. The Centre aims to promote the knowledge of legal history by engaging in research projects, organising academic programs such as seminars, workshops, and conferences and collecting manuscripts related to the colonial and pre-colonial legal culture of South India in general and the Tamil region in particular.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE:

Rewriting history is an important integral part of history writing in modern times. History writing in contemporary India attempts to address the problems posed by the stereotyped histories produced by colonial historians in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian legal history, like other branches of history, is also very much in need of such treatment.

Legal history as a discipline emerged in the nineteenth century. In India, it was the colonial scholars who first attempted to produce legal history to support and strengthen British colonial rule during that same century. Historians such as James Mills and others extensively depended upon Sanskrit or Brahmanical sources and ignored others. When nationalist historians emerged to respond to colonial interpretations and support the Indian Nationalist Movement, scholars such as K.P. Jayaswal and a few others attempted to rewrite Indian legal history using newly discovered sources such as the secular Arthashastra.

Marxist historians in India did not pay much attention to Indian legal history since they concentrated on the social and economic aspects of Indian history. Historians who belong to the later schools, such as the subaltern and feminist, are currently showing interest in the subject, as they view that the legal reforms introduced by the British greatly affected the disempowered social groups in Indian society. Still, there exists a wider gap in the discipline, and many areas remain untouched even today. The Legal Centre for History of South India, Tamil Nadu National Law University, Tiruchirappalli, which was founded to explore and propagate the legal ideas of South India, initiates this conference to contribute to this field, with a specific focus on the Tamil region.

Call for Papers:

Contributions in the form of research papers are requested from students, research scholars, academics, and lawyers across India on the following themes and related research that might fall outside the ambit of the themes.

Sub-Themes:

• History of legal ideas and institutions in ancient/medieval/modern Tamil Nadu

• Historical interpretations of legal concepts and judicial functioning under the Tamil rulers

• Sources of Tamil legal history

• Intellectual history of legal personalities in the Tamil region

• History of legal education & legal profession in modern Tamil Nadu

• The relationship between law and disempowered social groups (labour/Dalits/women, etc.) in Tamil Nadu

Important Dates:

Rewards:

1. Certificate (soft-copy) will be issued on the same day of the conference to both paper presenters and participants.

2. Publication of the selected papers in an edited volume with an ISBN number.

3. Proceedings: All the participants and paper presenters will be receiving the seminar proceedings as an edited volume (hard-copy) without any additional charges.

Registration Fees:

Students and Research Scholars (single author): Rs. 1,000

Students and Research Scholars (with a co-author): Rs. 1,500

Teachers/academicians/professionals (single author): Rs. 1,500

Teachers/academicians/professionals (with a co-author): Rs. 2,000

Observers/participants: Rs. 500

Submission Procedure/Guidelines:

• An abstract of 300 words and a full paper between 3500 and 5000 words (excluding footnotes & references) should be submitted.

• Both abstract and full paper submissions should contain the following information on the cover page: – title of the paper, name, and designation of the author/authors, name of the institution with address, mobile number, and email ID of the corresponding author.

• The submission must be made in MS Word (.docx) format.

• The following formatting style should be followed: – Font – Times New Roman, Font size – 12, 1.5-line spacing, and the alignment should be justified; Footnotes should follow Times New Roman and font size should be 10, with 1.0-line spacing.

• Manuscripts will be screened for plagiarism; if the plagiarism count is greater than 10%, the paper will be summarily rejected.

• The authors are advised to follow the 9th edition of MLA as the style of citation.

• Abstract should be submitted to the following email ID: lchsi@tnnlu.ac.in

Bank Details for Payments:

Name of the Account Holder: TNNLU – CONFERENCE SEMINAR AND WORKSHOPS

A/C No.: 30030110042083

IFSC Code: UCBA0003003

Bank & Branch: UCO Bank, TNNLS Branch, Tamil Nadu National Law University, Navalurkuttapattu, Dindigul Main Road, Tiruchirappalli 620 027.

UPI ID: tnnluconference@ucobank

Contact Us:

For any further information/clarification, please contact

Legal Centre for History of South India

Tamil Nadu National Law University Tiruchirappalli-620027

Mail: lchsi@tnnlu.ac.in

Phone: +91 8610359218

To know more about the event, click on Two-Day National Conference on Legal History of Tamilnadu

Click here to access the brochure of the conference