Faculty Development Programme: Sustainable Development Goals through the Lens of Legal Research

The School of Law successfully organised a five-day Faculty Development Programme (FDP) titled “Sustainable Development Goals through the Lens of Legal Research” from 27–31 July 2026 in the Smart Room, Central Block. Coordinated by Dr. Milind Kumar Yadav and Dr. Prateek Tak, the programme aimed to strengthen faculty members’ understanding of the relationship between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and legal research. It addressed an important gap in Indian legal academia, where the legal dimensions of the seventeen SDGs across constitutional, environmental, international, human rights, and public policy domains are increasingly significant, yet often lack structured integration into teaching and research. The programme also responded to the growing relevance of SDG-linked litigation and national policy priorities concerning sustainable development.

The FDP comprised more than twenty sequential activities, taking participants from conceptual understanding to practical research development. The first day focused on the international and domestic legal architecture of the SDGs. Participants explored the evolution and objectives of the SDGs and examined their connections with Indian constitutional provisions, legislation, judicial decisions, and public policies. A collaborative exercise enabled faculty members to identify research gaps and connect the SDG framework with their respective areas of academic interest. Days two and three concentrated on developing essential scholarly and methodological skills. Participants engaged with legal and academic writing, formulation of research questions, development of arguments, and the use of analytical concepts such as rights, justice, governance, equality, and accountability. The sessions also provided comprehensive exposure to mixed-methods research, covering qualitative techniques such as interviews, focus groups, and ethnography, along with quantitative approaches including surveys, court-data analysis, and descriptive statistics. These sessions highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary and evidence-based approaches in contemporary legal scholarship. The fourth day addressed structured literature review and research ethics, two areas often requiring greater emphasis in legal research training.

Participants learned systematic strategies for searching, screening, organising, and critically evaluating literature through major legal and academic databases. The research ethics sessions covered informed consent, confidentiality, responsible data collection, and ethical treatment of participants. Faculty members also received hands-on guidance in preparing consent forms and Institutional Ethics Committee applications. On the final day, participants moved from preparation to research output. Each faculty member presented their research concept before a panel of internal and external reviewers and received feedback on their research questions, methodology, theoretical framework, and expected contribution. This was followed by an interactive session with a Scientific Editor from Elsevier, which provided practical insights into the journal editorial process, peer review, manuscript evaluation, and strategies for improving research quality and publishability. A concluding workshop supported participants in refining their research papers and proposals. The resource team combined academic expertise with publishing-industry experience. Dr. Amit Kumar (MNLU Mumbai, Max Planck Fellow, specialising in health and human rights law) led Days 1–2. Dr. Abhijit Rohi (MNLU Mumbai, PhD from NLSIU on informational privacy law) led Days 3–4. Dr. Prateeksha Maurya (Scientific Editor, Elsevier, PhD from IIT Roorkee) led Day 5. The programme achieved its six core objectives: familiarizing faculty with the SDG-law intersection, strengthening research methodology and writing skills, enabling research-gap identification, supporting curriculum development, encouraging publication and grant applications, and fostering a cross-institutional research community. Participants concluded the programme with publication-ready or near-ready research work, enhanced capacity to supervise SDG-themed student research, and ideas for enriching LLB and LLM course content. Overall, the FDP provided a valuable platform for strengthening research capacity and integrating sustainable development concerns into contemporary legal education and scholarship.