Our latest Annual Report is out!
We are very excited to share with you our annual report of 2022-23.
In the last couple of years, we have grown immensely, worked on exciting projects and collaborated with organizations and individuals committed to reducing barriers to access to justice. With your support, we will continue to work on our mission of creating meaningful content for all. We hope you enjoy reading the report!
Link to the report
Citizens at play
Saumya Varma discusses our board game "Sabha" produced in collaboration with the Hans Seidel Foundation. As a boardgame Sabha provides an immersive experience in the complex world of lawmaking, with the goal of democratising knowledge of legislative processes and encouraging civic engagement. The article focuses on the game's unique components such as crafting personalised bills and simulating parliamentary settings, which aim to enable citizens to become active participants in democracy.
Here is a link to the article, as well as one to our board game
NLUD Journal publishes research on Constitutional Literacy in India
Siddharth Peter de Souza and Aparna Mehrotra contributed to the fifth volume of the NLUD Journal of Legal Studies with a research paper titled "Doing Constitutional Literacy in India: Exploring Practices of Making the Constitution a Living Document." This paper introduces innovative projects that encourage active participation in the Indian Constitution. In the paper, they discuss practical solutions to bridge knowledge gaps in this study, empowering individuals and groups to exercise their constitutional rights effectively and address issues of participation and access to platforms protected by the Constitution.
Publication of Chapter on Virtual Justice Amidst COVID-19
Publication on Storytelling's Vital Role in Shaping Feminist Futures of Work
In the book "Feminist Futures of Work," Siddharth Peter de Souza and Siddhi Gupta, from Justice Adda, published a paper titled "Why Stories Matter for Representation, Action, and Collectivization." They emphasized the importance of storytelling in documenting experiences and promoting agency in the chapter, arguing that stories were powerful tools for presenting diverse perspectives and expanding the vocabulary used to describe people's lived realities. Their chapter discussed storytelling as a process as well as a mechanism for amplifying marginalized voices and challenging dominant norms in the digital age. This chapter complemented the book's broader examination of work and gender in the digital age, making a compelling case for the transformative power of narratives
Storytelling for Justice
Workshop on Access to Justice, Technology and Courts in Asia, Singapore
Justice Adda collaborated with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Tilburg Institute for Law Technology and Society to explore judiciary and legal technology interactions across Asia. The two day intensive participant workshop was attended by members of civil society groups, the judiciary, researchers, practitioners, academics from several countries, including, Singapore, China, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. Participants from various countries examined technology's promise, challenges, and implications on justice institutions, including transparency, accountability, and digital divides. The conference featured panels on "administering technology," "adjudicating technology," and "challenging technology." Speakers delved into the judiciary's motivations in adopting technology, courts' adherence to transparency and accountability in using legal technology, and the implications for protecting fundamental rights of the people.
Justice Adda collaborated with Civis in designing the 'Climate Voices’ handbook, an initiative supported by Rainmatter Foundation. This comprehensive guide empowers individuals to make a difference in India's environmental law-making and actively shape climate policies. By featuring real-life examples of citizens, communities, and civil society organizations, the guide highlights the significance of public consultations in providing a voice to all, enabling them to express their views on environmental management.
Justice Adda in collaboration with C-HELP launched a project to trace the development of the right to health jurisprudence in India. This project illustrated 10 judgments of Indian courts that have each looked at a unique aspect of the right to health. The project included judgments on a wide range of issues related to the right to health, including access to healthcare, the right to life, the right to privacy, and the right to education. The judgments provide a comprehensive overview of the jurisprudence on the right to health, and are illustrated with clear and concise summaries of the relevant court rulings. These judgments are available online and in both English and Hindi.
Workshop Retreat on Building Labour Futures with FemLab.Co
Justice Adda partnered with FemLab.Co to co-moderate and design a workshop retreat on feminist work held in Leusden, The Netherlands. The event, which took place from January 10-12, 2023, brought together designers, artists, activists, researchers, and scholars from around the world to discuss feminist work principles, worker-centric approaches, and the ethics of care in challenging market extractivism. Participants shared their experiences and explored the application of feminist principles in various work contexts, fostering engaging and diverse conversations.
Design for Justice Conference
launch of Design for Justice Fellowship
Pre-legislative consultation policy
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In March 2022, Justice Adda conducted an interactive workshop on using the climate justice lexicon for the Naropa Fellowship cohort 2021-2022. Fellows were introduced to key concepts in thinking about climate justice and were invited to practice incorporating climate justice concerns into their entrepreneurial ventures through several interactive exercises. The aim of the workshop was to include justice considerations as a part of climate accounting and into the design of climate solutions.
In September 2021, Justice Adda, in partnership with the Political Science Department of Assam University, presented key concepts and principles found in climate justice to students and faculty at the University. Participants were taken through interactions of climate justice with Law, and climate justice considerations in international and national policy architectures. They were also engaged in exercises to apply this learning in practical contexts of their daily lives and work.
Siddharth Peter de Souza, founder of Justice Adda, and Mahak Chhajer, founding associate director of Asian Century Foundation, conducted a firm-level legal design workshop for Algo Legal. The workshop focussed on the role of design has in making legal services more useful and usable for clients, and in building future ready legal organisations. During the workshop participants were introduced to innovative and creative ways legal services could be user centric. This was part of Algo Legal’s two year celebrations.
Justice Adda conducted an interactive workshop on design thinking in law as part of a collaboration with Manupatra . Participants were introduced to design thinking and invited to brainstorm ways in which it can be used to create effective legal solutions. The aim of the workshop was to help build legal organisations that are oriented to the future and resilient in an uncertain world.
Launch of Climate Justice Lexicon
As part of a larger initiative on climate justice by Justice Adda, we are pleased to introduce our new project the Climate Justice Lexicon. This lexicon was created in collaboration with the India Climate Collaborative - EdelGive Foundation alliance. As part of Justice Adda’s effort to enable and empower individuals, the lexicon is available on the website in both English and Hindi and can be downloaded as PDFs for the purpose of distribution. The lexicon provides an introduction to the world of climate justice, equipping users with an “A-Z” of relevant terms. It is not intended to be exhaustive but provides a basic understanding of key concepts related to climate justice issues, using plain language and infographics. We hope this lexicon will be a stepping stone, facilitating more widespread participation in discussions related to climate justice.
Justice Adda in collaboration with Hanns Seidel Foundation India had launched the Graphic Law Library on 26th January 2021. Due to the ongoing pandemic at that time it was not possible to host a launch event in person. In the end it was decided that it would be conducted online. The library is composed of two parts – important Indian legal procedures and legislations of public value. The idea behind the library is to spread awareness on citizens’ legal entitlements as also the procedures to go about enforcing them. It was an opportunity for us to discuss the motivation behind the project, how it developed, the design process and the possibilities the library opens up. As part of the launch event the Justice Adda team conducted a game to demonstrate how the graphic law library could be used. We thank all those who joined us for the launch event and helped make it a success.
In these times we at Justice Adda felt there was a need to address the legal issues that intersect with the pandemic. In collaboration with the Centre for Health Equity, Law & Policy we created a short explainer that covers the history, scope and purpose of the Disaster Management Act, which has been the principal legislation deployed in India’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
A legally bound framework is essential to deal with disasters as they are difficult to manage because of their scale and effect on large populations. Further, due to their complex nature, they require to be tacked at all levels of government and need inter-agency coordination. We hope that this explainer will help the average person negotiate the impact the act may have had on their lives during this time.
As part of a collaboration with Centre for Health Equity, Law & Policy and Vaibhav Bhawsar Justice Adda helped create an interactive timeline- COVID-19 and the Constitution. This timeline documents law and policy responses to COVID-19, placing them in the context of our fundamental rights.
The project has three core components: a chronological repository of law and policy responses issued at the central and state level; analytical pieces from experts that comment on the impact of these responses on Fundamental Rights; and people’s voices and lived experiences that portray the true human cost of COVID-19.
The timeline seeks to fill a critical knowledge gap and serve as a fertile ground for research, reflection and rights-based interventions. It’s for everyone – academics, lawyers, health professionals, public health experts, students, policymakers, social workers, and activists!
Justice Adda is delighted to introduce our latest project - a primer titled ‘The (not so) Secret Life of your Data.’ In this series of interactive modules, we have created a toolkit to help people understand the concerns regarding privacy and freedom of choice, within the context of data and technology.
Combining reading and reference resources from digital rights organizations around the world, reflections, quizzes, crosswords and an activity-based data routine, the toolkit breaks down complex discussions around privacy, profiling, AI and state surveillance- both internationally and with respect to the Indian context.
We want to help build a culture that is more sensitive to understanding data and its implications. This primer is part of that effort.
In partnership with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Justice Adda co-organised a conference with Dr Kalinid Kokal (IIT, Bombay). The conference ‘Plural Ideas of Justice: Stories Narratives and Experience from India’ sought to explore the different and diverse ways conflict resolution had been imagined in the legal sphere. At the centre of this discussion was people’s experience of the ‘idea of justice’. Issues of inclusivity, the emergence of digital platforms for conflict resolution, the relationship between state and non-state actors were some of topics covered over the two days. As a complement to the conference a virtual exhibition was held alongside; a visual intervention into the discussion. ‘Map-a-Forum’, a digital encyclopedia was launched during the conference. It is a platform that maps non-state actors across India identifying their location, communities involved, methods of dispute resolution amongst many other factors.
We thank all the speakers, contributors and participants who helped to make the event a success!
Justice Adda designed an Environment, Social and Governance Glossary for Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) - an advisory firm dedicated to providing participants in the Indian market with independent opinion and research on corporate governance issues. The glossary marks the entry of Justice Adda into the sphere of socially conscious investment. The glossary seeks to integrate and explain Environmental, Social and Governance factors that matter in regard to investment decision making. Some of the factors the guide addresses are pollution, climate change, gender diversity, rights of shareholders and so on. Check out and download a copy of "The Everyday Guide to ESG" for yourself!
Justice Adda, in collaboration with Manuptra, conducted a legal design bootcamp. Siddharth Peter de Souza and Mahak Chajjer worked with 11 teams to create prototypes that addressed challenges confronting the Indian legal system- addressing digital divides in virtual courts, reforming legal education to meet the challenges of automation, and building better work life balances in digital and legal work spaces. Participants consisting of students, lawyers and academics were encouraged to adopt a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to communicating legal concepts. It was an opportunity for us to learn as well from the varied experiences brought to the table.
A special thanks to our teams and participants for all their efforts and to the jury members Kanan Dhru, Abhayraj Naik and Gurdev Raj Bhatia for their insightful feedback.Thank you very much to our organizing team Priyanka , Saumya Snehal, Lakshita Satija!
Justice Adda is pleased to announce that in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation and V.M. Salgaocar College of Law we have launched the Graphic Law Library, a growing repository of over 30 Indian legal procedures and legislations. Part of Justice Adda’s drive to make the law accessible to the ordinary citizen is spreading awareness of those laws in a manner that is both engaging as well as informative. The Graphic Law Library serves the dual purpose of both educating the individual about their rights as well as informing them about the procedures to be followed in order to ensure those rights. Along with legal awareness, we hope for this library to be a means for bringing into the debate, those that are typically excluded from public discourse on the social issues that were the impetus behind the legislations covered here.
Justice Adda is organising an online workshop hosted in collaboration with Manupatra on Understanding Legal Design to be held on Saturday, the 7th of November 2020.
Legal Design can be understood as a creative process combining legal expertise with a design thinking approach integrating visualisation, simplified language and smart use of technology all focused towards the aim of making the law more accessible and engaging.
Further details and registration details at:
https://www.lawskills.in/Workshop/index
Justice Adda is delighted to be a part of a project called Feminist Approaches to Labour Collectives (FemLab.co). This project builds on an understanding of communicative ecologies of women in specific sites of informal labour to explore how digital platforms can be leveraged by them to share grievances and communicate directly to the top of the supply chain, allowing their voices to contribute to the governance of the future of work.
We will be providing law, design and storytelling outputs for the project including info-graphics, animations and visual contacts to articulate and amplify the voices of women workers.
For more on the project please check out FebLab.co
Law and Design at the Agami Summit 2019
Justice Adda with the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology organised a session on Law and Design at the Agami Summit 2019 in Bengaluru in November 2019.
At the workshop we introduced participants to the value of using play, and took them through processes of design thinking, making and building solutions to address the challenge of how to build solutions for law and justice in India.
Justice Adda with the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology organised a session on Law and Design at the Agami Summit 2019 in Bengaluru in November 2019.
At the workshop we introduced participants to the value of using play, and took them through processes of design thinking, making and building solutions to address the challenge of how to build solutions for law and justice in India.
Justice Adda, in collaboration with TrustLaw and BMS College of Law, Bengaluru organised an intensive workshop titled "Leading with Pro bono: Global Strategies for Local Impact" on December 1, 2019 in Bengaluru.
We invited law firms, independent lawyers and law students to a deep dive into building strategies and approaches for a sustainable pro bono practice in India. This workshop drew on a handbook written by the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, University of Cambridge and Justice Adda and published by Eastern Book Company in 2018.
Through an analysis of innovative pro bono strategies by law firms across the world, case studies of how regulators are incentivising pro bono and DIY templates for how to build a pro bono practice, this workshop was a hands-on experiential exercise which looked at the financial, ethical and community centered aspects of building a pro bono practice.
You can read a detailed blog post here.
Justice Adda, in collaboration with TrustLaw and BMS College of Law, Bengaluru organised an intensive workshop titled "Leading with Pro bono: Global Strategies for Local Impact" on December 1, 2019 in Bengaluru.
We invited law firms, independent lawyers and law students to a deep dive into building strategies and approaches for a sustainable pro bono practice in India. This workshop drew on a handbook written by the Cambridge Pro Bono Project, University of Cambridge and Justice Adda and published by Eastern Book Company in 2018.
Through an analysis of innovative pro bono strategies by law firms across the world, case studies of how regulators are incentivising pro bono and DIY templates for how to build a pro bono practice, this workshop was a hands-on experiential exercise which looked at the financial, ethical and community centered aspects of building a pro bono practice.
You can read a detailed blog post here.
by Siddharth Peter de Souza
As we turn four, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on our journey so far. We are thrilled to announce that we are launching a new website, with new features, ideas and services!
When Justice Adda was launched, it started with the ambition of being a blog that produced legal content in an accessible and engaging manner for an audience primarily in India. The idea was to examine the ways in which judgments, legal documents like wills and lease agreements, and legislations were drafted and we sought to find new ways to communicate them. We worked on matters related to the Rights of a Child through music, the Sustainable Development Goals through film, how court reporters work through visual mediums, and built content which we hoped would make the law interactive and interesting for the citizen in India.
(Click here to read the full post)
Justice Adda’s project with Manupatra Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd. of the E-book on the Illustrated Cases of the Supreme Court of India has been selected as part of the 50 Solutions featured in the 2018 edition of the Youth Solutions Report.
The Youth Solutions Report is a flagship initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network – Youth which seeks to identify and celebrate 50 youth-led solutions and ideas from around the world that are successfully contributing towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in business, charity, education and research.
The 2018 Youth Solutions Report can be accessed here.
The E-book on the Illustrated Cases of the Supreme Court of India can be downloaded here.
HANDBOOK ON DESIGNING SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE LAW FIRMS IN INDIA BY JUSTICE ADDA AND CAMBRIDGE PRO
BONO PROJECT.
Justice Adda and the Cambridge Pro Bono Project are happy to release a Handbook on Designing Socially Responsible Law Firms in India published by EBC.
‘The Handbook on Designing Socially Responsible Law Firms in India is a publication that draws on comparative legal scholarship, lessons and solutions from practice, and the latest innovations being introduced around the world, to suggest a framework to foster a culture of social responsibility among Indian law firms.
The handbook attempts to provide both theoretical and practical approaches that can be used by law firms, but also by policy makers, regulators, and academics in order to develop strategies that could be used to tackle barriers to justice in India.
The chief utility of the handbook is in providing implementable suggestions that law practitioners and law firms in India can easily adopt in their daily working practices. In doing so, it pioneers methods of thinking which can help Indian legal practice emerge as responsible and socially conscious agents in the delivery of legal services worldwide.’
For a copy of the handbook click here.
JUSTICE ADDA AND MANUPATRA RELEASE E- BOOK ON ILLUSTRATED CASES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Justice Adda in partnership with Manupatra have released an E-book of 50 landmark cases of the Supreme Court of India which have had an impact on the public discourse. For a free copy please click here.
Justice Adda was incubated and completed a 12 month incubator programme with the Cambridge Social Ventures programme at the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation, of the Cambridge Judge Business School .
JUSTICE ADDA COMPLETED THE CAMBRIDGE SOCIAL VENTURES PROGRAMME
INTRODUCING JUSTICE ADDA
by Siddharth Peter de Souza
Justice Adda
Rethink. Reimagine. Reinvent.
Found this introduction ironic? Check out a chart explaining how we work.
Conversations on human rights and justice have for far too long become academic and theoretical, employing a sophisticated flourish instead of being useful and usable for a citizen and a justice user. These conversations that often address the common legal needs of citizens become inaccessible to those untrained because the form and medium that they utilize is inherently restrictive to those not engaged in the field.
This needs to change and there is a growing need to democratize access to information about ordinary justice problems and facilitate greater participation among different sections of society in advancing innovations and ideas for access to justice.
There are several barriers to justice: crippling poverty, a lack of knowledge about rights and duties among citizens, complicated and beguiling court procedures, as well as financial and opportunity costs of accessing the law and justice delivery systems.
Addressing barriers to justice implies focusing on what the justice user requires, experimenting and seeking out new ways of doing things and curating a range of solutions that inspire a culture of openness, efficiency and effectiveness.
Justice Adda seeks to provide a space where design and technology enable the development of content that helps to improve access to justice by employing creative forms of disseminating and producing information with the explicit aim of reducing educational, financial, spatial and temporal boundaries that might inhibit a justice user.
The inspiration for building a conversation where knowledge and information is democratized comes from the idea of an “Adda” which colloquially, in India, represents a commune for discussions and banter, a space for theorizing, and dreaming and a collective where persons of all expertise, affiliations and peculiarities dissect the next big and small idea threadbare.
Justice Adda aims to provide a platform for rethinking problems inherent in the pursuit of justice, reimagining solutions to such problems, and reinventing ways to theorize and converse about such problems.