Contours of Legal History in India

The Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory and National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, are organising a Legal History Workshop, titled ‘Contours of Legal History In India: Pedagogy and Research’, on March 27 and 28, 2025, at the NLSIU campus. The workshop will include panels on different themes in Indian legal history, and a writing workshop for junior researchers.

About the Workshop

Emerging research on legal history in India has emphasized upon the dynamic life of law, going beyond its doctrinal imperatives, and highlighting histories of petitioners, lawyers, and litigants both in the courtrooms and outside it. Legal historical research includes new archives and methodologies for rethinking the relationship of law with society – that is, between the normative imaginings rooted in the realm of ideas and intellectual legacies and the everyday experiences of law rooted in mundane operations. ‘Contours of Legal History in India: Pedagogy and Research’ is the first workshop co-organized by the Max Planck Institute of Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt (Germany) and National Law School of India University, Bangalore (India) that will bring together researchers, scholars, and students to discuss the new imperatives in the field of legal history in India.

In the recent clamour to “decolonize”, pre-colonial pasts have often been rendered timeless, while the postcolonial moment has been interpreted as a replica of a “monolithic colonial”. How do we analyze the colonial genealogies of law in contemporary India? What about the precolonial iterations of law in the modern? What are the intersections of historical and legal methodologies and sources? What constitutes legal history in India? How does research intervene in, instruct, create pedagogical practices in both law and history?

Call for Papers for Writing Workshop

The Contours of Legal History in India workshop invites contributions from PhD students and early career researchers working on the history of law and legal practices in India. We are interested in research that focuses on the social, cultural, economic, political, and the textual world of law across the colonial, postcolonial, and pre-colonial time periods. By keeping the temporal scope of the submissions wide, this workshop also aims to forge a critical dialogue between the fields of modern, pre-modern, and early-modern legal histories. In so doing, we hope to reinvigorate the debates on historical continuities and discontinuities and situate our respective works within this fragmented continuum.

Contours of Legal History in India is a two-day workshop to be held at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru on 27 & 28 March 2025. PhD students (preferably in their writing stage) and early career researchers affiliated to Indian universities are encouraged to apply. The workshop organisers will provide financial and infrastructural support towards travel and accommodation.

Submission Guidelines for Writing Workshop

In keeping with the format of the writing workshop, selected applicants will be able to discuss their ongoing research, receive inputs from peers and experts, and explore writing strategies and publishing opportunities.

The submissions can focus on the following historical themes:

1. Legal Histories, Archives, and Methods
2. Imperialism, Nationalism, Sovereignty
3. Material and Visual Histories of Law
4. Borders, Migrations, and Legal Regimes
5. Science in Law
6. Hierarchy, Inequality, Legal Identities

Proposal Submission Deadline Extended

Those interested should send in a 400 word abstract of their work and a 200 word biography by December 2 to clhi@lhlt.mpg.de

Please make sure to attach your abstract and bio as a single PDF document using your full name as the title of the file.

Note: Please mention which theme your work fits into in your abstract. If your research speaks to multiple themes or neither of the above, do mention that too.

Important dates

• Selected applicants will be contacted by December 20, 2024.
• Upon selection, workshop participants will have to submit a 4000 word draft developing their proposal and submit by February 15, 2025. Since it is a workshop, participants will be required to read all the papers from their panel.

For any questions or clarifications, write to: Dr. Reeju Ray (ray@lhlt.mpg.de​)