Winning Entries from the 1st NLUJ-MAP Essay Writing Competition
12 August 2025
The recently concluded 1st NLUJ-MAP Essay Writing Competition national essay competition invited law students across India to engage deeply with one of the most urgent and complex areas of contemporary legal discourse: the intersectionality of gender and law. Designed to encourage thoughtful analysis and critical reflection, the competition created a platform for emerging legal minds to grapple with the layered realities of gendered experiences within legal systems.
At its core, it sought to foster a richer, more nuanced dialogue among students—one that pushes beyond doctrinal understandings and instead interrogates the lived realities shaped by gender, identity, and power. By promoting rigorous scholarship, the competition also aimed to empower participants to examine the multifaceted relationship between gender and legal frameworks, from domestic legal structures to international law.
The competition drew impressive submissions from institutions across the country, demonstrating the growing interest in intersectional legal studies among the next generation of lawyers. After a careful evaluation process, we’re delighted to announce the following entries emerged as the top three, reflecting not only academic excellence but also a willingness to engage with some of the most pressing gendered challenges in today’s legal landscape:
The Winning entry: Ananya Chandola (Symbiosis Law School, Pune) and Mann Sharma (Indraprastha Institute of Technology, Delhi)
From Recognition to Accountability: A Natural Law Approach to Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict
Read here
Runners-Up: Navdha Sharma and Riddhi Bodana (Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai)
Speaking from the Margins: Derrida, Spivak, and the Gendered Exclusions of Indian Family Law
Read here
Second Runners-Up: Daksha Rawat and Shreya Pankaj (Faculty of Law, Delhi University)
The Persecution Paradox: Why International Law Still Struggles to Persecute Gender-Based Violence
Read here