Jindal Global Law Review - Call for Papers to Reviews Section of the Special Issue on ‘Advancing Reproductive Autonomy and Justice in Asia’

Jindal Global Law Review (JGLR) in collaboration with the Asia programme of the Center for Reproductive Rights is inviting expressions of interest for manuscript submission for the Reviews Section of the upcoming Special Issue on ‘Advancing Reproductive Autonomy and Justice in Asia’.  

About the Special Issue:

This Special Issue aims to bring together research and writing from across Asia to share and deepen understanding of legal and policy barriers to the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to develop common strategies for law and policy reform. Asia is the largest continent in the world and is home to more than half of the world’s population. There is huge diversity within the continent and therefore, the sexual and reproductive rights  landscapes vary considerably. [N.B: From here on, we use the framing ‘sexual and reproductive rights’ to indicate the entire set of sexual and reproductive health and rights issues, strategies, and approaches.] In some of the largest countries in Asia - for example India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - quality maternal health services are denied to many women. In some countries, for example, the Philippines and Indonesia, laws severely restrict access to abortion. Across the continent, conservative and hardline religious forces are actively undermining efforts to improve legal and policy frameworks to protect and promote reproductive rights. Throughout Asia, women and girls face intersectional discrimination and their vulnerability to human rights violations is compounded by their identities including race, ethnicity, class, religion, age, disability status – to name a few.  Queer, transgender, and members from LGBTQI+ community are often invisible (and in certain cases, criminalized) in law and policy conversations on sexual and reproductive rights. There is, therefore, an increasing need to center intersectional justice-oriented approaches to scholarship, advocacy, and on-the-ground implementation on this issue.

Through this, we aim to identify areas of law and policy reform while recognizing the intersectionality of discrimination and structural exclusions that prevent the full realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the region. The publication advances the Center’s ambitious goal to ensure stronger legal protections for reproductive rights for half of the world’s population by 2030. The Special Issue is to be published in December 2024 (Vol. 15, Issue 02) of JGLR.

Types of Submissions under the Reviews Section:

We are accepting expressions of interest for the reviews section under the following categories: 

• recent judgements/cases from courts in Asia relevant to reproductive rights,
• significant and recent books and articles on the subject. 

An indicative list of titles can be found below, but applicants are welcome to suggest other titles in their expression of interest. 

Who can apply?

We particularly encourage early career scholars, lawyers, activists, and civil society professionals to send in their applications.

Timelines:

The schedule for completing the manuscripts is as follows: 

• Deadline for expressions of interest: 5^th June 2024
• Notification to the selected applicants: 12^th June 2024
• Submission deadline: 3^rd July 2024

The expressions of interest must be submitted by 5^th June 2024 to jglr@jgu.edu.in (this opens in a new tab). 
 

Guest Editors:

Faustina Pereira, Vice President and Senior Regional Director  (Asia) of the Center Center 

Sarasu Thomas, Professor of Law, National Law School of India University

Checklist before you apply:

They should contain a short bio or a link to a bio available online, and a specification of the author’s interest in writing a manuscript on the title(s)/case(s) for the upcoming special issue of JGLR as well as a confirmation of availability to deliver the manuscript within the deadlines provided above. All manuscripts will undergo through the journal's standard peer review and editorial processes outlined in its submission guidelines (this opens in a new tab). 

Questions are welcome to be addressed to jglr@jgu.edu.in (this opens in a new tab). An indicative list of titles can be found below, but applicants are welcome to suggest other titles in their expression of interest.

Books, Articles, and Papers (Book reviews or review essays combining reflections on multiple books/articles (applicants are welcome to suggest other titles in their expression of interest) 

• Neha Singh, Seema Gupta, Versha Vahini, Reproductive Rights of Women in India (Bloomsbury 2023). 
• Weijun Jiang, Women's Right to Reproductive Self-Determination from the Perspective of Civil Law (Springer 2022).
• Leslie J Reagan, When Abortion was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States:1867-1973 (University of California Press 2022).
• Lauren Rankin, Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America (Counterpoint 2022).
• Mytheli Sreenivas, Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India (University of Washington Press 2021).
• Kalpana Kannabiran, Swethaa S Ballakrishnen, Gender Regimes and the Politics of Privacy: A Feminist Re-Reading of Puttaswamy vs. Union of India (Zubaan Academic 2021).
• Maya Unnithan, Fertility, Health and Reproductive Politics: Re-imagining Rights in India (Routledge 2021).
• Saroj Pachauri, Ash Pachauri, Komal Mittal, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in India: Self-care for Universal Health Coverage (Springer 2021).
• Zakiya Luna, Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice (NYU Press 2020).
• Sandra Patton-Imani, Queering Family Trees: Race, Reproductive Justice, and Lesbian Motherhood (NYU Press 2020).
• Diana Greene Foster, The Turnaway Study: The Cost of Denying Women Access to Abortion (Scribner 2021).
• Vijayan K Pillai and Guang-Shen Wang, Women's Reproductive Rights in Developing Countries (Routledge 2020).
• Neelam Hussain (eds.), Disputed Legacies: The Pakistan Papers (Zubaan Books 2019).
• International Development Committee, House of Commons Committee, The FCDO’s approach to sexual and reproductive health (UK Parliament 2023-24), https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5804/cmselect/cmintdev/108/report.html (this opens in a new tab).
• T K Sundari Ravindran, Sapna Desai, ‘Walking the talk: localising SRHM in South Asia’ 29(2) Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (2022) https://doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2022.2145099 (this opens in a new tab).
• Avishek Hazra, et.al., ‘Setting up a research agenda for financing sexual and reproductive health services toward achieving universal health coverage in South Asia’ 29(2) Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (2022) https://doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2022.2040775 (this opens in a new tab).
• Sumit Baudh, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Caste, Class, and Sex’ 20 (1) Journal of Human Rights (2021) 127.
• Mitra Sharafi, ‘Abortion in South Asia 1860–1947: A Medico-Legal History’ 55(2) Modern Asian Studies (2021) 371.
• Johanna Gondouin, et al, ‘Dalit Feminist Voices on Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Justice’ 55 (40) Economic & Political Weekly (2020).
• Dipika Jain, Payal K Shah, ‘Reimagining Reproductive Rights Jurisprudence in India: Reflections on the Recent Decisions on Privacy and Gender Equality from the Supreme Court of India’ 39 (2) Columbia Journal Of Gender and Law (2020) 1. 

Case notes:
Applicants are welcome to suggest one or more cases relevant to the subject in their expression of interest.

JGLR particularly welcomes expressions of interest from reviewers who may be able to offer a less conventional perspective on the resource(s) under review, depending on their regional or subject specialisation. As stipulated in its Aims and Scope (this opens in a new tab), JGLR particularly welcomes interdisciplinary and empirically grounded contributions that deepen our understanding of how law and legal systems evolve, operate, and impact societies - especially with a focus on India, South Asia and on the scholarship of the Global South. Beyond country-specific studies, the Journal embraces broader theoretical perspectives that provide methodologies, philosophies, and models for comparing law and legal systems and understanding the variations among them. Research that furthers our knowledge of the impacts of globalisation and international law on domestic legal orders is also a key focus area for us.