1/11/23

LASSnet Webinar Series - 15 September 2022 - Guest Lecture : Lessons from Forensic Science :Why History Matters





On behalf of LASSnet anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University and the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS, we are pleased to invite you for a talk on law and forensics by Dr Mitra Sharafi. We hope you will be able to join us and share the announcement with those interested.

Speaker

Mitra Sharafi
Evjue-Bascom Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School (USA) with History affiliation


Chair & Discussant

Mrinal Satish
Professor of Law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore


Date: 15 September 2022 (Thursday)

Time: 5 pm IST

Topic

 Lessons from Forensic Science: Why History Matters?

Abstract

The rise of medical jurisprudence and forensic science historically offers important lessons for how we should approach forensics today. Drawing from the history of forensics in colonial South Asia and the common-law world during the 19th-20th centuries, this talk provides cautionary tales pertaining to field formation, the establishment and migration of credibility, and the consolidation of authority of forensic fields.

LASS net Webinar Series - 13 October 2022 - Guest Lecture : Incarcerating the Innocent :A History of Undertrial Prisoners in Colonial India





On behalf of LASSnet anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University and the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS, we are pleased to invite you for an online talk by Dr Alastair McClure on 13 October 2022 at 5 pm IST.

Paper Title

Incarcerating the Innocent: A History of Under-Trial Prisoners in Colonial India

Speaker 

Alastair McClure 
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Hong Kong


Chair & Discussant 

Mayur Suresh
School of Law, SOAS

Date: 13 October at 5 pm IST

Time: 5 pm IST


Abstract

Stitching together the social life of what came before the courtroom, this paper seeks to bring the experience of pre-trial detention within histories of the criminal trial in colonial India. With the accused regularly spending weeks in lockups, barracks, tents, and prisons awaiting trial, on one level detention presented a series of practical obstacles when it came to organising a proper legal defence. At the same time, this experience brought with it a host of more basic problems, with regular complaints about the derisory provision of food, ill-treatment at the hands of the police, the exposure to the heat and the cold, and difficulty in accessing family and friends. Placing a tremendous physical and emotional burden on the accused, these problems continued when their trial was to begin. Marched through towns tied to a rope, locked in overnight train compartments, or escorted in police vans, the journey to court itself could become humiliating public spectacles. On arrival in the courtroom, whether it be a lack of access to personal clothes, the position of guards around the docks, or the use of handcuffs, the politics of how the accused was presented was then to shape how they were perceived by the jury and the judge. As will be shown, in these circumstances it was not uncommon for those making a case for their innocence to have to do so dressed in prison clothes and shackled to the dock, as they battled hunger and fatigue.

LASSnet Webinar Series - 4 May 2022 - Guest Lecture : Ethnographic Notes on the Many Lives of the Emergency






On behalf of LASSnet anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University and Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS, we are pleased to invite you for a talk

On 4 May (Wednesday)

At 6:30 pm IST

Topic

 Ethnographic Notes on the Many Lives of the Emergency


Speaker

 Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh
Assistant Professor, Azim Premji University


Chair & Discussant

 Arvind Narrain, 
Visiting faculty at the School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University & at the National Law School of India University.

LASSnet Webinar Series - 6 July 2022 - Book Discussion : An Ethnographic Approach to Forensic Medicine in India

 


On behalf of LASSnet anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University and the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS, we are pleased to invite you for a book talk by Dr Fabien Provost.

Date: 6 July (Wednesday)

Time: 4 pm IST

Topic: An Ethnographic Approach to Forensic Medicine in India

Book Talk

Abstract: Based on a year-long ethnographic survey in the morgues of North Indian hospitals and on work on judicial archives, my book Les mots de la morgue explores the daily practice of forensic medicine. By describing the encounters between doctors, police officers and families, the medico-legal examinations, and the work involved in writing reports, I develop an anthropological approach to the relationship between medicine and law. What happens to a medical practice when it serves a legal purpose? How do writing strategies allow doctors to redefine their role in the legal process? My analyses reveal the games of anticipation, the forms of knowledge and the professional tensions which govern the production of medico-legal evidence.

Speaker 

Dr Fabien Provost
Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, King’s College London.


Chair & Discussant 

Dr. Manpreet Singh, Academic Fellow, NLSIU, Bangalore

LASSnet Webinar Series - 11 March 2022 - Book Discussion :Vernacular Rights Cultures: The Politics of Origins, Human Rights, And Gendered Struggles For Justice




On behalf of LASSnet anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University in collaboration with Centre for Law and Humanities, O.P. Jindal Global University and Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS, we are pleased to invite you for a book discussion on 11 March 2022 (Friday), 7 pm IST.

Title of the book:

Vernacular Rights Cultures:
The Politics of Origins, Human Rights, and Gendered Struggles for Justice

Author:

Sumi Madhok

Professor of Political Theory and Gender Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.


Discussants:

Ghazala Jamil

Assistant Professor,
Centre for the Study of Law and Governance,
Jawaharlal Nehru University

Shirin Rai

Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies & Director of Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Centre on International Development.

Naveeda Khan

Associate Professor of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University


CHAIR

Niraja Gopal Jayal

Avantha Chair at King's India Institute, King's College London; Centennial Professor at the Department of Gender Studies, London School of Economics & Formerly Professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University

LASSnet Webinar Series - 27 January 2022 - Panel Discussion : The Cow and the Elephant as “CATTLE ” in Indian Law, Policy and Practice

 



LASSnet is back with its webinar series. We are pleased to invite you to the first webinar of this year which will be held in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Humanities (CLH), JGU and Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS. Please join us for a panel discussion on 

Animal rights, anthropatriarchy and the law 

on 27 January 2022 (Thursday), 6:30 pm (IST) 

with Naisargi Dave and Alok Hisarwala Gupta

 moderated by Arvind Narrain

LASSnet Webinar Series - 17 December 2021 - Book Discussion : From Family to Police Force: Security and Belonging on a South Asian Border

 


On behalf of LASSnet anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Humanities, JGLS, and Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS, we invite you to join us for a conversation on Farhana Ibrahim's recent book, From Family to Police Force: Security and Belonging on a South Asian Border.

On: 17 December 2021 (Friday), 4 pm IST

A Book Discussion:

From Family to Police Force: Security and Belonging on a South Asian Border

Speakers

Author: Farhana Ibrahim, Professor (Sociology), Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Discussant: Sahana Ghosh, Assistant Professor (Sociology), National University of Singapore


LASSnet Webinar Series - 21 October 2021 - BOOK DISCUSSION: Naming Violence: Torture and Terrorism in Colonial South Asia




On behalf of LASSnet anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Humanities, JGLS, and Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS, we invite you to join us for a panel discussion on the colonial histories of torture and terror in South Asia. 

This panel curates an important conversation between two authors, led by Radhika Singha and Joseph McQuade’s response on his book,  A Genealogy of Terrorism: Colonial Law and the Origins of an Idea (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Jinee Lokaneeta's comment with Deana Heath’s response on her book, Colonial Terror: Torture and State Violence in Colonial India (OUP, 2021). 

Please join us for a discussion on 21 October 2021 (Thursday), 5.30 PM IST

Theme 

Naming Violence: Torture and Terrorism in Colonial South Asia.

Chair 

Mayur Suresh, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, SOAS, University of London

 

Speakers


Radhika Singha, Eminent Historian and Professor of History, Formerly at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi


Jinee Lokaneeta, Professor and Chair, Political Science and International Relations, Drew University


Joseph McQuade, Richard Charles Lee Postdoctoral Fellow in the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto


Deana Heath, Reader in Indian and Colonial History, University of Liverpool


LASSnet Webinar Series - 24 September 2021 - BOOK DISCUSSION ON: From the Colonial to the Contemporary: Images, Iconography, Memories, and Performances of Law in India’s High Courts

On behalf of LASSnet anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Humanities, JGLS, and Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) SOAS, it gives us great pleasure to invite you for a panel discussion on Rahela Khorakiwala’s book, "From the Colonial to the Contemporary: Images, Iconography, Memories, and Performances of Law in India’s High Courts".

 

  In conversation with

   Rahela Khorakiwala

 

BOOK DISCUSSION ON:


From the Colonial to the Contemporary: Images, Iconography, Memories, and Performances of Law in India’s High Courts

 

 

SPEAKERS

 

Peter Goodrich, Professor of Law, Director, Program in Law and Humanities,

Cardozo Law

 

Kanika Sharma, Lecturer in Law, Director, Centre for Asian Legal Studies,

SOAS University of London

 

Swastee Ranjan, PhD, University of Sussex

 

CHAIR


Mani Shekhar Singh, Professor of Sociology, Jindal Global Law School,

O.P. Jindal Global University

 


When: Friday, 24 September 2021 at 7 pm IST (09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada/2.30 pm London)


Topic:  From the Colonial to the Contemporary: Images, Iconography, Memories, and Performances of Law in India’s High Courts


LASSNET Webinar - 8 July 2021 - Panel Discussion: The Making and Unmaking of Illegality : Ethnographic Commentaries on Scenes of Authoritarian Law



The Making and Unmaking of Illegality: Ethnographic Commentaries on Scenes of Authoritarian Law


This panel explores three areas of contestation in contemporary India: riot cases from Gujarat, foreigners tribunals in Assam and terrorism trials in Delhi. In bringing ethnographic attention to each of these judicial sites, the panel aims to understand how legality is made and unmade through everyday legal processes.


Speakers

Moyukh Chatterjee, Visiting Research Scholar at Middlebury College

Ordinary trials and the making of permanent minorities: Notes from inside the laboratory of Hindu nationalism


Fariya Yesmin, Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi

Understanding the everyday of a courtroom: Making of the foreigner in the Foreigner’s Tribunals in Assam, India


Mayur Suresh, Lecturer, SOAS

‘Terrorism’ v. technicalities: How terror-accused navigate trials proceedings


Chair & Discussant

Prof. Deepak Mehta, Dept of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University


1/4/17

Judicial Reasoning and Judicial Behavior: Studying the Supreme Court of India: Call for Papers


Judicial Reasoning and Judicial Behavior: Studying the Supreme Court of India
Colloquium hosted by Center for Public Law and Jurisprudence
Jindal Global Law School
Call for Papers
The role of the Supreme Court of India in shaping the post-colonial nation has been central to its study in the academy. The institution’s assertion of supremacy in a constitutional democracy, and its tense relationship with separation of powers have been focal points of scholarship, and rightly so. However, there have been fewer studies on its structures of reasoning, its role as a policy maker, the impact of its structural organization as well as the role that the individual biographies of judges have played in the shaping of the institution as a whole. With more than six decades of appellate and constitutional adjudication behind it, any analysis of the Supreme Court’s functioning is bound to be challenging. However, this is also makes the institution ripe for study using tools drawn from a gamut of social science disciplines.
Accordingly, we propose to deepen existing scholarship of the Supreme Court with a colloquium that will bring together scholars of the Supreme Court to analyze its methods, reasoning and its institutional organization. We invite papers on any of these aspects of the Court’s body of work from different disciplinary perspectives, and not merely those that come from a doctrinal analysis of judicial decisions. Accepted papers may form part of an edited volume that will center on the imprint of the Indian Supreme Court on the making of constitutional democracy in contemporary India.
The themes/ questions that the papers might address are as follows:
1.           Judges of the Court – Biographies, Ethnographies and Subjective Biases: Aside from George H. Gadbois’ monumental work biographing the judges of the Court, sociological work on the Court has been limited. Further, these works do not adequately consider the manner in which the background of the judges might affect their sympathies and decision-making. In particular, there is a need to investigate the nature of assumptions and biases that inform the decision-making patterns of individual judges, and this would require a combination of theoretical, quantitative and qualitative field research. This work requires combining publicly available data with the imposing informal knowledge of the Court that floats within its corridors and, there are several challenges to doing this form of work. It is however, a promising field for sociological investigation.

2.           Structural Questions – Procedures and the rules of the practice, including on appointment of judges and how these shape substantive decision-making? Does the working of the Supreme Court lend itself to certain forms of reasoning, e.g., the use of precedent and departure from earlier decisions? What are some of the structural constraints that affect judicial behaviour like dissent? How do structural aspects affect the nature of cases that are often heard? Do structural factors influence the outcome of cases, and work against the interest of certain classes of litigants? How has the two-judge bench phenomena affected the manner in which law has evolved? Whether the manner in which cases are allotted to benches has influenced the evolution of law? While conclusive research on several such questions may be difficult, it may allow for experimenting with innovative methods.

3.           Judicial Reasoning – Is the court largely formalist? Is there a cleavage between its interpretive techniques in constitutional cases and other cases? What might explain the variations in interpretive techniques across types of cases? What forms of ‘normativity’ may be discerned in its decision-making processes? What are some ethical and moral assumptions that form the basis of decisions? How does the court construct gender, caste and religious identities and the manner in which such constructions would influence law? Does a liberal or conservative bias ground the reasoning of the court in certain types of cases? How has the court explored ambiguity, which is inevitable in legal doctrine? What hermeneutic tools do judges employ when discerning doctrine from precedent? What has been the Court’s tryst of with the philosophical notion of legal realism?

4.           Policy-making and Doctrine – Beyond the usual dichotomy of a law-making/interpretive function, which has marginal use as an analytical tool, and with the assumption that the Court, as a political institution shapes policy, several interesting questions arise. While evolution of doctrine in itself is studied frequently by practitioners and academics alike, it would be worth examining whether the evolution in a particular direction can be explained by changes in the social, economic or political context in which such cases arose. Whether the activism shown by the Court varies depending on the subject-matter with which the case deals? Whether the policy-making objectives of the Court affect the docket of the Court? Whether patterns in decision-making could point to the socio-economic or political aims of the Court? Whether the Court is capable of certain discernable, coherent objectives, despite its regularly changing composition? Moreover, the ‘dialogic process’ between Courts and law-making bodies has become an important analytical framework to study the role of Courts in shaping policy – how can this be applied to the Indian Supreme Court? How do judges view an ‘audience’ to their pronouncements and how do considerations of reputation affect the Court? How does the court influence the popular discourse on various social, political issues?
These themes are of course, intended to be suggestive and we remain open to all innovative and incisive analysis of the Supreme Court in the making of the modern Indian republic.
The colloquium will be held on 29-30 April 2017 at Jindal Global University’s campus, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
We will be open to abstracts till February 15, 2017. Please email your abstract as an MS-Word (.doc, .docx) file without any identifying references to Sannoy Das [sdas@jgu.edu.in], along with a separate document that contains the title of the proposed paper, your name and designation. 
Abstracts will be selected through a double blind peer-review process and selected authors will be notified by February 25, 2017. Draft papers will be due on April 23, 2017.
For clarifications, please write to sdas@jgu.edu.in.

12/14/16

The launch of the Indian Law Review at LASS 2016: Call for Papers

Routledge, Taylor & Francis is delighted to announce the launch the Indian Law Review. Edited by a global team of exceptional scholars, we are excited to be publishing the first volume in 2017. Authors are now welcome to submit manuscripts. The Indian Law Review, seeking to build upon LASSNET's successes over the last decade, is an academic - led, double- blind peer-reviewed, generalist journal on Indian Law. It aims:
·       to publish top quality scholarship on Indian law spanning all areas of law including comparative perspectives that include Indian Law.
·       to offer a forum for the community of scholars of Indian Law both within and outside India.
·       to take a broad interdisciplinary approach to the study of Indian Law, thereby reaching a wide readership, including legal academics, philosophers, criminologists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists, legal practitioners and others. 
The Indian Law Review's scope is broad, and extends to all work relevant to Indian law (including comparative perspectives). The journal is not limited in terms of legal themes or methodology; the only limitation is jurisdictional, and submissions are welcome from scholars located worldwide. Indian Law Review may also publish a small number of high quality pieces relating to the law of other South Asian and Southeast Asian jurisdictions with historical and geographical connections to India.

The Indian Law Review publishes three issues per year. Each issue aims to contain three to five articles, one to three book reviews, a literature review, and notes on recent case and statutes. Its editorial policy requires anonymised submissions, and strictly follows double-blind peer review.

Indian Law Review is accepting submissions
The Indian Law Review uses Editorial Manager to manage the submission and peer review process, and is now accepting submissions for articles, literature reviews, case notes, legislative notes, and book reviews. To submit your manuscript please visit the Journal’s submission page. For information on preparing your submission please visit the Instructions for Authors page.

LASS in LiveLaw

Fourth Edition of LASSnet Conference 2016, 'Thinking With Evidence: Seeking Certainty, Making Truth'



 The only conference of its kind in South Asia, the fourth edition of the Law and Social Sciences Research Network (LASSnet) took place from 10-12 December 2016 in Delhi.
LASSnet is a virtual network anchored at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University. LASSnet was established in order to bring together scholars, lawyers and doctoral researchers engaged in research and teaching of issues of law in different social sciences in contemporary South Asia in 2007.
The fourth edition of the LASSnet conference was organised by the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jindal Global Law School of O.P. Jindal Global University, National Law University Delhi, Azim Premji University, Ambedkar University Delhi, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, and the Dickson Pool Transnational Law Institute at the King’s College, London. These institutions have been at the forefront of interdisciplinary research on law and have engaged with the role of law in the making of contemporary South Asia. More than 500 participants from all over the world attended the conference of over 60 sessions, and three featured panels engaged with what it means to think with ‘evidence’ in law and outside law.
Evidence has increasingly become an important category in our everyday lives, be it in the familial, political, or historical domain. The contested nature of evidence in law and life found animated debate at the conference. The theme of this conference, ‘Thinking with Evidence: Seeking Certainty, Making Truth’ pertains to the question of evidence and its role in legal and social research. For initiatives such as LASSnet, the imperative of thinking with evidence – in these times of virtual virality, forensic imaginaries and ephemeral archives – serves as a fertile ground on which we can stage discussions of the perils, pleasures, meanings and methods of inter-disciplinarity. ‘Thinking with Evidence’ allows engaging the possibilities of legal and social world, and how they invite discussions on our changing world and possible futures.
The conference was graced by many luminaries including C Raj Kumar, Ranbir Singh, Shyam Menon, Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Niraja Jayal, Julia Eckert, Ravinder Kaur, Vrinda Grover, Rebecca John, Peer Zumbassen, Shirin Rai, Lawrence Liang, Kalpana Kannabiran, Tarunabh Khaitan, Jawahar Raja, Abhinav Chandrachud, Shalini Randeria and Shireen Hassim.
LASSnet has highlighted the fact that although the domain of law has primarily been either a site of legal practice or of scholarship by lawyers alone, the emergence of LASSnet demonstrates how exciting and important it is to have conversations about law and justice from a range of disciplines. Scholarship in the field of law has grown to encompass a wide array of disciplines, methodologies, political perspectives and conceptual overlaps. If the initial movement was predominantly led by sociologists and then by scholars of literary studies, it now includes an ever expanding terrain of social science and humanities disciplines, including anthropology, digital studies, film and history. LASSnet has always seen law as an immensely fertile site to examine the social, the historical and the political. Previous LASSnet conferences were held in 2009, 2010 and 2012 at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (FLAME) in Pune and at the Department of Law, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
The opening talk at the 2016 conference was delivered by the eminent political theorist from Yale University, with Professors Shiv Visvanathan, Ramin Jahenbegloo, and Gitanjali Surendran on Gandhi’s ideas on non-violence. The closing contemplated the evidence of hope by crafting a discussion between the eminent legal scholars Indira Jaising, Babloo Loitongbam, Usha Ramanathan, Upendra Baxi, and Julia Eckert.
Three memorial panels were organised to recognise the contribution of the work and lives of three young academics, all of whom passed away in 2015. The panel dedicated to Dwijen Rangnekar marked his pathbreaking work in the field of geographical indicators. Another panel remembered Priya Thangarajah, a young Sri Lankan lawyer and researcher who made invaluable contributions to deepening our understanding of law and violence in times of conflict. And finally tribute was paid to U.S. based Pakistani scholar late Nasser Hussain whose work on law and emergency remains one of the most important contributions to the field in the region. The three panels engaged with the work of these scholars as a way of acknowledging their deep learning across histories, borders, disciplines and friendships.
The conference witnessed discussions around six books by emerging scholars from the LASSnet community on themes ranging from public interest litigation in India to debates around sentencing in criminal cases. One of the panels focused on a discussion around law and disability following the recent release of The India Social Development Report. The Indian Law Review, an academic journal on Indian law, was launched at the conference, also a product of the conversations at LASSnet over a decade. A syllabus workshop designed between King’s College London and O.P. Jindal Global Law School was held where mid-career teachers were invited to submit a syllabus of their own design for feedback and discussion.