VizChitra 2025

{Describe your talk/session in 2-3 paragraphs}

What was it like building databases on the death penalty, on sedition, and on custodial deaths in India? What were the challenges we faced? What does aggregating data, in a way few people have done, tell us that anecdotal stories don’t? And what does this macro picture erase of the individuals and families impacted by the system?

In this talk, I present the challenges in visualizing such complex social phenomena through my work building different legal datasets. I will reveal the decision-making process and effort required to transform overwhelming volumes of interconnected data into compelling visual narratives without sacrificing nuance or complexity. I will reflect on the necessity of this work — the need to dive into the granular, so we have a more accurate idea of the macro operation of the system. I also want to consider what such efforts can sometimes miss– that is, the individual for the big picture.

Through this discussion, I want to get at the heart of what we try to achieve with data consolidation and visualisation in the law. I also want to reflect on how the process of visualisation itself helps bring that clarity into our work, in bringing to the forefront questions of audience and accessibility. Ultimately, I hope to show why we need data visualisation, how we benefit from it, as well as why further collaborations across our sectors are essential for this work to succeed.

{Mention 1-2 takeaways from your session}

Understand the unique challenges of developing datasets based on legal data
Insights on the value of visualisation with legal data and the specific challenges that emerge
Reflection on what is lost in the process of aggregating data and how these concerns can be overcome

{Who is the audience for your talk/session?}

This session is designed for an interdisciplinary audience of professionals who already work extensively with data but struggle with effective storytelling. Journalists, lawyers, researchers, designers, and developers who are seeking innovative ways to transform their information into compelling, multidimensional narratives or grappling with the challenges of doing so. It is ideal for those in communication and design roles, data analysis, public policy, academia, and tool builders who want to move beyond conventional visualization approaches who wish to reflect on the process for and challenges of revealing deeper patterns and connections in complex social data.

{Add your bio, including work place name and your job role}

The session will be led by Gale Andrew, a legal researcher, currently at the Laws of Social Reproduction Project at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. She graduated from National Law University Delhi and completed her LL.M. at SOAS University of London, followed by a MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Oxford. She worked for several years as a Senior Research Associate at Project 39A, National Law University Delhi leading research on bail, custodial violence, legal aid, and the death penalty. She designed the database tracking death penalty cases in India that is the leading source of statistics on the issue.