Redefining Legal Scholarship: Kerala Law Academy Hosts Landmark CLEA-MILAT Research Mentoring Programme (RMP) 2.1
The Kerala Law Academy (KLA) Law College, in collaboration with the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) and the Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy & Training (MILAT), organised the 2.1 Edition of the CLEA-MILAT Research Mentoring Programme (RMP)® 2026 at the CALSAR campus, Palayam. Conceived as a long-term research mentorship initiative, the three-day residential programme focused on strengthening legal research, academic writing and publication skills among researchers, doctoral scholars and faculty members.
The programme was inaugurated by Justice N. Kotiswar Singh, Judge, Supreme Court of India, as the Chief Guest, while Justice C. S. Dias, Judge, High Court of Kerala, attended as the Guest of Honour. The inaugural session was also attended by Adv. Nagaraj Narayanan, Director, Kerala Law Academy; Prof. Anilkumar K., Director (Administration), Kerala Law Academy; Prof. (Dr.) S. Sivakumar, Lead Mentor and Director, RMP, President, CLEA and Chairman, MILAT; and Prof. (Dr.) N. K. Jayakumar, Former Vice-Chancellor, NUALS.
Addressing the gathering, the dignitaries highlighted the importance of quality legal research in strengthening judicial reform and constitutional democracy, encouraging participants to undertake research capable of contributing to legal and societal development.
Day One: Research Foundations and Technology
The academic sessions commenced with an introduction to the Research Mentoring Programme by Prof. (Dr.) S. Sivakumar and Dr. Ruchi Sharma D., who outlined the objectives of the mentorship model and emphasised publication-oriented, ethically grounded legal research.
Prof. (Dr.) B. C. Nirmal, Former Vice-Chancellor, NUSRL Ranchi, along with the RMP team, conducted a session on literature review, focusing on identifying research gaps and developing theoretical frameworks.
Sessions on technology-enabled legal research were led by Prof. (Dr.) S. Sivakumar and Ms. Nabila Zehra, covering the use of specialised databases, AI-assisted research tools and digital citation resources while maintaining academic integrity.
The day also included sessions by Prof. (Dr.) K. C. Sunny, Former Vice-Chancellor, NUALS, on hypothesis formulation and testing, and Prof. (Dr.) P. Puneeth, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, on developing persuasive legal writing and arguments.
Day Two: Research Grants, AI, Ethics and Interdisciplinary Research
The second day commenced with a session by Prof. (Dr.) S. Sivakumar on strategies for securing research grants, followed by Dr. Gulshan Rai, who discussed the use of data mining, text mining and artificial intelligence in legal research.
Prof. (Dr.) N. K. Jayakumar examined the relationship between doctrinal research, policy formulation and legislative drafting.
Sessions by Prof. (Dr.) A. Lakshminath, Former Vice-Chancellor, CNLU Patna, focused on interdisciplinary legal research, while Prof. (Dr.) Gigimon V. S. and Dr. Kavita Chalakkal addressed plagiarism, publication ethics and responsible research practices.
The day's programme concluded with Ms. Vidhya Gowrishankar explaining journal selection and the peer-review process, followed by Dr. Giri Sankar S. S., who discussed logical fallacies in legal reasoning.
Day Three: Empirical Research, Indian Knowledge Systems and Academic Writing
The final day featured sessions by Prof. (Dr.) S. Sivakumar, Dr. Ruchi Sharma D. and the RMP team on case law analysis and legal research methodology.
Prof. (Dr.) Priyesh C. A. conducted a session on empirical legal research, including qualitative interviews, data collection and sampling techniques.
Prof. (Dr.) K. C. Sunny discussed comparative legal research and Indian Knowledge Systems, while Dr. Richa Chaudhary highlighted emerging research opportunities in climate governance and sustainability.
The concluding academic session was conducted by Prof. (Dr.) S. Sivakumar, who guided participants on dissertation structuring, citation methods, footnoting and maintaining consistency across academic citation styles.
The programme concluded with the valedictory session presided over by Justice A. H. M. D. Nawaz, Judge, Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, as the Chief Guest. Justice Nawaz commended the initiatives of CLEA, MILAT and Kerala Law Academy in promoting legal research and strengthening academic collaboration across South Asia.
Certificates were distributed to the participants, marking the completion of the residential component of the programme. The participants will now undergo two weeks of one-to-one virtual mentoring before submitting their manuscripts for peer-reviewed journal publication.