About Legal History in India | NLSIU-MPI (LHLT) Conference
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) 2025 and Max Planck Institute (MPI) For Legal History and Legal Theory are organising a conference on the Contours of Legal History in India from March 27 to 28, 2025.
About the Conference
Emerging research on legal history in India has emphasized 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 for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt (Germany) and National Law School of India University, Bengaluru (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 clamor 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, and create pedagogical practices in both law and history?
Aim of the Conference: Legal History in India | NLSIU-MPI (LHLT) Conference
The 2-day conference aims to bring together diverse groups of scholars and researchers, across ranks and specializations. Our interest is in creating opportunities for conversations around legal history research in India and the world. One of the key highlights of our 2-day event is the early career researcher writing workshops through which we facilitate mentorship opportunities for scholars located in India. Our plenaries and roundtables create opportunities for conversations around the historiography of legal history in South Asia, legal history pedagogies, and new approaches toward studying the embeddedness of law in history, society, and politics. The workshop is a step towards connecting communities of legal historians across the world in order to facilitate future projects that will enrich our knowledge of legal history in the global south, particularly India.
Important Date: Conference on Legal History in India
March 27 to 28, 2025.
Place: NLSIU Bengaluru
