ILRF invites chapters examining the Mediation Act, 2023, with selected contributions published in an e-book carrying an ISBN.
About India Legal Research Foundation
The India Legal Research Foundation (ILRF) is a legal research and policy think tank working across access to justice and legal research, capacity building, and legal awareness.
The edited book is Volume I of the ILRF Chapter Series and will be published with its own ISBN.
About the Opportunity
The India Legal Research Foundation invites practitioners, academics, researchers, students and policy professionals to submit chapters for an edited book titled “The Mediation Act, 2023: Settlement, Structure and Access to Justice.”
The volume aims to examine the design and implementation of the Mediation Act, 2023, including its impact on dispute resolution, access to justice, institutional mediation, enforcement of settlements and future reforms.
Single-authored and co-authored submissions are accepted, with a maximum of two authors per chapter. Chapters containing original data, case analysis, empirical surveys or a critical approach will be given particular preference.
Eligibility Criteria
- Practitioners and mediators
- ADR faculty and mediation centre coordinators
- Research scholars
- LL.M. students
- Final-year LL.B. students
- Policy professionals
- Single-authored or co-authored submissions are accepted, with a maximum of two authors per chapter.
Roles & Responsibilities
Research and Analysis
Contributors are expected to prepare an original and unpublished chapter addressing the central theme or a related topic concerning the Mediation Act, 2023.
Submission Requirements
- Manuscripts must be prepared in English.
- The manuscript should use Times New Roman, 12 pt. for running text and 14 pt. for headings.
- The paper should be in A4 portrait format and prepared in MS Word.
- All margins should be 1 inch (2.5 cm), with 1.5 line spacing and left justification.
- Manuscripts, including tables, figures and references, should be approximately 3,000–6,000 words.
- An abstract of not more than 250 words should accompany the manuscript.
- The manuscript must be original and unpublished.
- Each manuscript must be accompanied by an undertaking of the author(s).
- The manuscript should carry page numbers.
- Footnotes should follow the latest edition of the Bluebook citation style, with no endnotes.
- A chapter submitted to this edited book should not be simultaneously submitted elsewhere.
- The author(s) name, designation, official/residential address and email ID should appear below the chapter title, followed by the abstract and text.
- Content must be original, properly attributed and legally accurate.
- Similarity must remain below 10 percent.
- Text generated entirely by AI or copied works without correct citations will constitute academic and professional misconduct.
Themes
Contributors may submit chapters on areas including:
- Pre-litigation mediation, statutory design, exemptions and thresholds
- Mandatory mediation, voluntariness, consent, coercion and access to justice
- Mediated settlement agreements, their status, challenges and execution
- Enforcement of mediated settlements
- Institutional mediation and mediation service providers
- The Mediation Council of India and its regulatory design
- Mediator accreditation, training and standards of competence
- Confidentiality and privilege
- Online dispute resolution and community mediation
- Comparative mediation frameworks and the Singapore Convention on Mediation
- Mediation and the Commercial Courts Act
- Interaction with arbitration, Lok Adalats and Section 89 CPC
- Med-Arb and hybrid processes
- Mediation in family, matrimonial and maintenance disputes
- Mediation in commercial, insolvency and startup disputes
- Government disputes and mediation
- Power asymmetry and party protection
- Empirical studies of mediation uptake
- Costs, timelines and settlement rates compared with litigation
- Mediation and judicial pendency
- Capacity building for mediators and the ADR skills gap
The listed sub-themes are illustrative, and the editorial team also welcomes other topics related to the central theme.
Duration
The publication process is scheduled from abstract submission in September 2026 to publication in December 2026.
Deadline
The abstract submission deadline is September 15, 2026.
Publication Details
The book will be published electronically as an e-book with its own ISBN.
There is no publication fee. Contributors seeking a physical copy must purchase it themselves.
Contact
Email: publications@ilrf.in
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Application Procedure
Stage 1 — Abstract Submission
Submit a 300–500 word abstract containing:
- Proposed title
- Five keywords
- 100-word author bio
Abstracts must be submitted through the Google Form specified in the original call. Abstracts sent by email will not be considered.
Stage 2 — Full Chapter Submission
Authors should prepare the full chapter only after receiving an abstract acceptance email.
The full chapter must be submitted as an MS Word (.doc/.docx) file along with the signed undertaking by email to publications@ilrf.in.
Subject Line: “Vol. I — Mediation Act — Full Chapter”
Chapters submitted without abstract acceptance will not be considered.
Important dates:
- Abstract submission deadline: September 15, 2026
- Communication of abstract acceptance: September 20, 2026
- Full chapter submission deadline: October 20, 2026
- First review: November 5, 2026
- Publication date: December 15, 2026
