Lucknow University Law Faculty Invites Entries for 4th National Article Writing Competition 2026
The Lucknow University Moot Court Association (LUMA), Faculty of Law, University of Lucknow, has announced its 4th National Article Writing Competition, 2026. The competition invites law students, research scholars, academicians, and legal professionals to write on the theme "Electoral Democracy and Constitutional Governance in India: Contemporary Challenges, Legal Reforms and the Future of Democratic Integrity."
The competition aims to promote original legal research, critical analysis, and scholarly discourse on electoral integrity, constitutional governance, political finance, electoral reforms, and emerging technological challenges. The top 15 articles will be considered for digital publication in collaboration with LawFoyer, subject to the applicable publication requirements.
Articles must address the main theme or its sub-themes, which include constitutional foundations of electoral democracy, independence and accountability of the Election Commission of India, electoral integrity and corrupt practices, electoral finance and political funding, technology and artificial intelligence in elections, freedom of speech and electoral regulation, resolution of election disputes, federalism and representation, electoral equality and inclusion, democratic backsliding, and emerging frontiers in election law. Submissions outside the theme may be rejected at the screening stage.
The competition is open to law students, research scholars, law professionals, and professors from institutions recognised by the Bar Council of India. Co-authorship is permitted up to two authors, and inter-university participation is allowed. Only original, unpublished work will be accepted; articles pending publication elsewhere or submitted to another competition are ineligible.
Participants must register through a Google Form and pay a fee of ₹400 for single authors and ₹600 for co-authors. After payment verification, they will receive an acknowledgement email with a Manuscript ID, which must be used for all further communication. The manuscript submission form will be sent to the registered email address 15 days after the acknowledgement. Registration alone does not constitute a submission; the manuscript must be uploaded through the second form before the deadline.
Manuscripts must be 3,500 to 4,000 words, inclusive of footnotes but excluding the title page, with an abstract of up to 200 words and five keywords. The format requires Microsoft Word (.docx), Times New Roman font size 12 for the main text, 1.5-line spacing, justified text, and font size 10 for footnotes. Citations must follow OSCOLA 4th edition, and the language must be English. Each participant must submit two separate documents: an anonymous manuscript identified only by the Manuscript ID, with no identifying details in the file name, document properties, headers, footers, footnotes, acknowledgements, or body text, and a separate title page containing the Manuscript ID, article title, full name of the author(s), and institution, course, and year. Authors must avoid self-identifying references such as "in my earlier article" in their footnotes.
Following evaluation, the top 15 articles will be selected for digital publication in the LawFoyer International Journal of Doctrinal Legal Research, an ISSN-bearing publication. Authors of selected articles will be required to pay an additional publication charge of ₹300 per article, payable only after selection and separate from the registration fee. For any queries, participants may write to mcc.lucknowuniv@gmail.com.
Source: SCC Times