How law works, and fails to work, in ordinary lives
ASCEND studies the law as people actually meet it, through empirical fieldwork, doctrinal analysis and mixed methods, and publishes everything in the open.
Ethics Review Committee
A standing committee clears every study involving human participants before fieldwork begins.
An open access archive
Every publication is free to read and download. Nothing sits behind a paywall or a login.
Read, study, follow, submit
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Research Programmes
Long-running lines of inquiry into access to justice, plural legal orders and the everyday administration of law.
II
Publications Library
Reports, working papers, datasets and articles, each marked as peer-reviewed or not.
III
The Commons
Shorter essays and field notes in Bangla and English, written to be read on a phone.
Recently published
Shalish and the State: A Doctrinal Reading of Village Arbitration
Reads the statutory framework for village mediation against how disputes are actually settled in fieldwork sites.
Reaching the Court: Cost, Distance and Delay in District Legal Aid
A mixed-methods account of what it takes for a litigant of modest means to get from first complaint to first hearing.
Interviewing in Plural Legal Settings: A Field Protocol
The protocol our fieldworkers follow, as cleared by the Ethics Review Committee.
সালিশ আর আদালতের মাঝখানে: গ্রামের মানুষ ন্যায়বিচার খোঁজে কোথায়?
আইনের বই যা বলে আর মানুষের জীবনে যা ঘটে—এই দুইয়ের ফারাক বুঝতে আমরা মাঠে গিয়ে শুনেছি।
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Our ethics procedures, open access policy and accounts are public. Start with Governance & Ethics, then write to us.