Biography
Ms Kanika Jamwal is currently a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, and is expecting to defend her thesis in 2026. Her doctoral project examines community-based water governance in rural India. It analyses how local communities in water scarce villages develop and sustain their own legal systems to govern their commons. Informed by an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, Kanika’s research sits at the intersection of law, sociology, and governance. At NUS, she is supported by the Graduate Research Scholarship.
A socio-legal researcher by training, Kanika's research interests include environmental and climate governance, the emerging discourse on the rights of nature, and legal pluralism. Prior to commencing her doctoral research at NUS, Kanika taught at the Jindal Global Law School in India, where she delivered courses on environmental law, climate change law, and public international law.
Kanika writes for national dailies on contemporary issues in environmental and climate law and governance. Her scholarly works have also been published in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. During her tenure at JGLS, she received the Research Excellence Award in recognition of her scholarship.
As a Max Weber Fellow, Kanika will work towards developing her doctoral project into a monograph. Simultaneously, she will continue building her on-going research on community-based governance of natural resources, the rights of nature, and just transition.