James Jaffe: Introducing Myself

I received my Ph.D. From Columbia University in New York in 1984 with a specialty in modern European history. Since then, I have written two books on industrial relations in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Britain and edited a third, the diary of a famous political activist from that period. This work helped to develop a special interest in the history of alternative dispute resolution, especially the history of arbitration, which is now the focus of my research. I have published on the history of arbitration in Britain, but more recently I have spent the last two years expanding this research into the history of arbitration in colonial India. Currently, I am working on a monograph exploring the adaptation and contestation of Indian and British forms of arbitration to resolve civil disputes in colonial Bombay. More generally, the monograph will address competing and complementary concepts of justice and fairness during the colonial era.