The Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai (MNLU Mumbai) has announced a call for papers for its first International Labour Law Conference, inviting scholars, practitioners, and students to engage in academic discussions on India’s evolving labour law framework under the new labour codes.
The conference aims to bring together academicians, lawyers, policymakers, researchers, and industry professionals to critically examine the legal and policy implications of India’s labour law reforms, particularly the shift from multiple labour statutes to a consolidated code-based framework. The event seeks to foster scholarly dialogue on how these reforms will shape industrial relations, workers’ rights, and corporate compliance in the coming years.
India has undertaken one of the most significant labour law reforms in recent decades by introducing four consolidated labour codes that replace 29 earlier labour statutes. These include the Code on Wages, Industrial Relations Code, Code on Social Security, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code. The reforms aim to streamline labour regulation while improving compliance and expanding social security protections.
The upcoming conference will provide a platform to analyse the legal, economic, and policy implications of these changes. Scholars are expected to examine issues such as regulatory simplification, enforcement challenges, and the balance between labour protection and ease of doing business.
The organisers have identified several broad themes to guide academic submissions. These include the legal framework of the new labour codes, industrial relations and trade union dynamics, social security protections, and the broader economic impact of labour law reforms.
Participants are also encouraged to explore emerging issues such as the legal status of gig and platform workers, workplace equality, compliance obligations for employers, and comparative international approaches to labour regulation.
The conference will additionally focus on how labour law reforms intersect with technology, digitalisation, and evolving workplace structures, issues that are increasingly shaping employment relationships in modern economies.
Through the call for papers, MNLU Mumbai aims to create a forum for meaningful engagement between academia, legal practitioners, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. Selected research papers will be presented during the conference and may be considered for publication, offering contributors an opportunity to influence the evolving discourse around labour law reforms.
Legal scholars note that conferences of this nature play a vital role in bridging the gap between legislative reforms and their practical implementation, particularly in areas such as labour regulation where policy decisions have far-reaching social and economic consequences.
With the introduction of the new labour codes, India’s labour law regime is undergoing a structural transformation that has implications for both workers and businesses. Experts believe that continued academic research and debate are necessary to assess the effectiveness of these reforms and their alignment with international labour standards.
By inviting scholarly contributions from across jurisdictions, the conference seeks to develop a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective on labour regulation, industrial relations, and social security frameworks in a rapidly changing global economy.
The initiative by MNLU Mumbai reflects the increasing role of law schools as centres for policy dialogue, legal scholarship, and institutional engagement with contemporary legislative reforms.
