CCLS Alumna Received the Commendation Award During the International PITCH Programme at Monash University's Indonesia Campus.
CCLS Alumna Shireen Moti was the only Indian academic to be awarded this prize.
We are pleased to share some recent news from Shireen Moti (Laws LLM, 2017) together with an update on how her career has been going since she graduated from CCLS.
Shireen, who is also a Chevening scholar, says: “I am currently working as an Associate Professor of Law at the Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, India. I was awarded the commendation award during the International PITCH programme at Monash University's Indonesia campus. I was the only Indian academic to be awarded this prize. I am currently a PhD student at Monash University, Australia. My PhD thesis is entitled 'Artificially Intelligent Justice for Undertrial Prisoners in India'. It is an access to justice project at the intersection of law and technology, criminal justice and social justice. Pursuant to receiving the award, I was interviewed by the Monash University communications team.”
Shireen’s doctoral research is supervised by Monash University’s Prof. (Dr.) Jeffrey Giddings, Professor of Law, and Prof. (Dr.) Jacqueline Weinberg, Senior Lecturer. It addresses a profound legal and humanitarian problem, which is the staggering number of undertrial prisoners in India. Her thesis, titled ‘Artificially Intelligent Justice for Undertrial Prisoners in India’, examines the possibility of introducing AI‑driven risk assessment tools into India’s pretrial decision‑making processes. “We have a large number of undertrial prisoners languishing in Indian prisons. That's a huge problem because it's not only violating the individual rights of those people enshrined in international human rights law and constitutional law, but it speaks very poorly of the criminal justice system in India. The purpose of the criminal justice system is not to keep people behind bars, but to ensure that you are preventing crime. These delays and backlogs affect fundamental rights, from dignity to equality to fair trial standards.”, says Shireen.
Her research draws on comparative perspectives from the United States and Canada, where algorithmic tools are sometimes used to support bail decisions. “My whole thesis is about looking at the feasibility of employing risk assessment instruments in the criminal justice system in India, which means pretrial decision making when it comes to bail matters. And secondly, I’m looking at guidelines which would help me in designing a human rights compliant legal and regulatory framework for the usage of risk assessment instruments.”
This work is both doctrinal and empirical. She is interviewing sitting and former justices of India’s Supreme Court and High Courts, which is a rare undertaking for a doctoral project. Getting those views is very crucial to my project and its outcomes.”, she adds.
Beyond her core research, Shireen’s PhD experience has given her a chance to embrace new opportunities to build global skills, including the Monash PITCH Program in Indonesia, where she was the only law PhD student in her cohort.
“It seemed like a Shark Tank for research scholars. That thrill of the final presentation got me motivated,” she said. Working in an interdisciplinary group, Shireen discovered not just the challenge of collaboration but the importance of translating legal expertise for non‑law audiences. “When I read the problem and I was the only lawyer in my group, I said, ‘oh, this is a legal and regulatory problem’. Now my challenge was to make my fellow research scholars and team members understand what a legal and regulatory problem is.”
“I might know my discipline, but nobody else knows my discipline. I had to be able to communicate to my group members that what I'm saying is making sense and is rooted in my discipline.” Her team’s final presentation earned a special commendation. “We knew we had done a good job,” she added.
Shireen has also presented work at major global forums, including the 2025 International Journal for Clinical Legal Education Conference hosted at Monash Law Chambers. “I was really excited because it was being organised at Monash and IJCLE is a journal that I refer to a lot,” she said. Collaborating with Professor Jacqueline Weinberg, Shireen co‑presented on AI and access to justice. “Responding to those questions was a learning experience but I felt I did a good job,” she reflected. These experiences strengthened her confidence and reinforced the global relevance of her research.