Neetika Vishwanath

Neetika Vishwanath is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research and a DPhil candidate in Criminology at the University of Oxford. She is currently on sabbatical from her role as Director of Criminalisation and Punishment at The Square Circle Clinic (formerly Project 39A), a criminal justice initiative affiliated with NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, India. At The Square Circle Clinic, she co-led its evolution into a premier center for pro bono criminal defense litigation and interdisciplinary criminal justice research.

Education

• Graduate degree in Law from Harvard Law School
• Graduate degree in Women's Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Research Focus

Her research specializes in India's criminal justice system, employing qualitative methodologies including court observations, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and judicial analysis. Primary domains include capital punishment jurisprudence, sentencing disparities, and gender-based violence frameworks, with significant contributions to policy debates through empirical studies.

Publications

Neetika's scholarly work appears in peer-reviewed journals including Criminal Law Forum, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Socio-Legal Review, and Economic & Political Weekly. Her publications consistently explore systemic inequalities in legal institutions while advancing methodological innovation in socio-legal studies. She also disseminates research through editorials in major Indian news platforms.

Professional Leadership

As co-founder and director of The Square Circle Clinic, she established interdisciplinary research teams focused on litigation strategy, empirical analysis of judicial trends, and reform advocacy. The clinic operates at the intersection of academic research and practical legal intervention under her leadership framework.