Colonial Continuities in the History of Scheduling: An Interview with Dr. Saagar Tewari - NLS Forum An interview with historian Dr. Saagar Tewari by SLR Editors Ritu Ranjan and Abhinav Jha.

New on the SLR Forum: In this two-part series, our editors interview Dr. Saagar Tewari about his new book, 'Islands Against Civilization: Anthropology, Nationalism, and the Politics of Scheduling, 1918-1950' (Orient BlackSwan, 2024).
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-bl...

Why Is There a Price to Freedom? - NLS Forum Tanishq Desai

New on the SLR Forum: Tanishq Desai critiques the legitimacy of cash bail, using Bourdieu’s framework of symbolic violence to interrogate its disproportionate impact against working-class persons.
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-bl...

On Positionality, Ethics and the Morals of Fieldwork: An Interview with Vibhuti Ramachandran - NLS Forum SLR Editors Sanaa Mathew, Madhumita G, and Niveditha K. Prasad interviewed Vibhuti Ramachandran on her recent book 'Immoral Traffic', an ethnography of the governmentality surrounding sex work in Indi...

In our latest from the SLR Interviews series, our editors spoke to Dr. Vibhuti Ramachandran about her recent book 'Immoral Traffic' (CUP 2025), on the practice of ethnography and the positionality of the ethnographer.
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-bl...

We will shortly post reflections on this series on the SLR Forum. Stay tuned for details for the plan for next trimester!

Photographs from our last session for this trimester and the 'Trials of Sovereignty' series. We were glad to discuss the book with Dr. Alastair McClure. We were also joined by Prof Mrinal Satish (Professor of Law, NLSIU) and Prof Samyak Ghosh (Assistant Professor, Social Sciences).

Teaching International Law: Navigating between Mainstream and Critical International Law - NLS Forum Paper presented at the ‘Teaching International Law’ Panel, sponsored by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Chair of NLSIU, at the 10th International Conference on International Law: Issues & Challe...

New on the SLR Forum: Dr. Srinivas Burra examines mainstream pedagogical approaches towards teaching international law, exploring methods for incorporating critical international law perspectives with a focus on Global South jurisprudence.
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-bl...

The teaching and researching of critical international law in TWAIL - NLS Forum Paper presented at the ‘Teaching International Law’ Panel held in October 2024, sponsored by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Chair of NLSIU.

New on the SLR Forum: Dr. Ashna Singh argues that TWAIL scholarship on international law ignores caste in its teaching, research and discourse and shows that caste is central to the TWAIL perspective for the critical perspectives it offers on South Asia.
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-bl...

Growing Integration and Inward-looking Normativity of International Law: Do We Need a New Pedagogy? - NLS Forum Paper presented at the ‘Teaching International Law’ Panel held in October 2024, sponsored by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Chair of NLSIU.

New on the SLR Forum: Dr. Akhila Basalalli analyses the need for a new pedagogy of international law, taking lessons from the growing integration and inward-looking normativity of international law.
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-bl...

Feminist Pedagogy as a Tool to Unsettle Expertise in Legal Academia - NLS Forum Paper presented at the ‘Teaching International Law’ Panel held in October 2024, sponsored by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Chair of NLSIU.

New on the SLR Forum: Prof. Rohini Sen uses the feminist pedagogical techniques of standpoint theory and relational analysis to critically examine notions around expertise in teaching and research in international law academia.
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-bl...

Punishment, Citizenship, and the Right to Vote: A Democratic Contradiction - NLS Forum Article 326 of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to vote to every citizen above the age of twenty-one years who is otherwise not disqualified by unsoundness, non-residence, or crime or ille...

New on the SLR Forum: Tanya Sara George and Abhishek Sanjay critique Section 62(5) of the RPA, which disenfranchises incarcerated persons - analysing its colonial origins, disproportionate impact on marginalised
groups and jurisprudence on the issue.
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-bl...

Photographs from our second session. Details on the next session soon!

We are meeting for our second session today, to discuss Chapter 3 of the book with Dr. Mrinal Satish. Do join us if you're on campus, details here.

A photograph of twelve people - including ten students and two professors - standing and smiling at the camera, in a meeting room. A table and six chairs foregrounds the photo.

A photograph from our first session. Details on the next sessions soon - stay tuned!

A poster with a yellow background and a beige horizontal panel at the top, on which the text is 'SLR, Socio-Legal Review.' The poster is divided into two vertical panels, with a photo of a book 'Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857-1922' by Alastair McClure on the left side. The words on the right side are as follows: 'SLR Reading Circle' followed by 'Session 1', 'Chapter 1: Forgetting War and Punishing Crime', 'Lead Discussant: Dr. Samyak Ghosh', 'Date: Wednesday, 13th August 2025; Time: 4:30 PM; Venue: CrL01'.

In the second iteration of the SLR Reading Circle, this term we are reading Dr. Alastair McClure's Trials of Sovereignty over four sessions. If you're on campus, join us! Details of the first session are here, we are reading Chapter 1 with Dr. Samyak Ghosh.

The SLR Forum now has a new home!
Do engage with the breadth of socio-legal scholarship that we have published here over the years.
forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum/

Who Can Hear the Constitution Bench Speak? Anshul Dalmia

New on the SLR Forum: Anshul Dalmia empirically analyses 34 recent constitution bench judgments for their level of accessibility, on metrics of the availability of transcripts, translations into vernacular languages, clarity and brevity.
www.sociolegalreview.com/post/who-can...

Caste Data, Digitisation and its Problematic Impact on Privacy and Policing This paper aims to problematise the low threshold of scrutiny applied by the Patna High Court in approving the Bihar Caste Survey without a concrete reason for the conduct of the same, especially in t...

New on the SLR Forum: Anagha Damaraju argues that the Patna HC's hasty approval of the Bihar caste survey's data collection modalities may lead to the misuse of sensitive data, rendering marginalised caste groups susceptible to privacy violations.

www.sociolegalreview.com/post/caste-d...

The Legacy of Capital Sentencing Discretion: Unpacking the Unfair History behind ‘fair’ Powers of Discretion Lakshmi Menon

New on the SLR Forum: Lakshmi Menon, from The Square Circle Clinic, reviews Alastair McClure's book 'Trials of Sovereignty', arguing that discretionary capital sentencing follows a colonial legacy designed for subjugation and punishment.
www.sociolegalreview.com/post/the-leg...

The picture shows the first page of the Postscript, accessible using the link in the post.

Our Special 20th Anniversary Issue ends with a Postscript written by Kalyani Ramnath, Editor-in-Chief of SLR in 2007. Ramnath reflects on SLR’s journey, particularly the initial years, placing the question of socio-legal in an institutional context. repository.nls.ac.in/slr/vol20/is...

This looks fantastic, with a great line-up of scholars including legal historians Elizabeth Lhost and Kalyani Ramnath (who was there in the early days)! Also includes Anup Surendranath & Maitreyi Misra on death penalty (India) and Maryam Khan on socio-legal studies in Pakistan. Congratulations, all!

The picture shows the abstract of the article and can be accessed using the link in the post.

In our fifth and final article, Sara Dezalay asks what a socio-legal enquiry looks like on a "global" scale when seen from the vantage point of Africa, showing the entanglement of law in the selective globalisation fostered by global value chains. repository.nls.ac.in/slr/vol20/is...

The picture shows the first page of the article with the abstract and article history. Please access using the link in the post.

In our fourth article, Maryam S Khan shows the emergence and development of socio-legal research in Pakistan in broad comparison with India, arguing that the meaning and evolution of “socio” in socio-legal is contingent on social and historical contexts. repository.nls.ac.in/slr/vol20/is...

The abstract of the article along with article history. Please access using the link in the post.

In our third article, Anup Surendranath and Maitreyi Misra show how mitigation practice—which draws heavily from social science disciplines—brings forth the tensions between the ostensible neatness of legal doctrine and the complexity of social reality. repository.nls.ac.in/slr/vol20/is...

The abstract of the article along with article history. Please access using the link in the post.

The second article in our Special Issue is by Deepa Das Acevedo and Jahnavi Chamarthi who discuss the relationship between the subdiscipline of legal anthropology and the broader field of law and society scholarship, with a special focus on India and SLR.
repository.nls.ac.in/slr/vol20/is...

The picture displays the first page of the article showing the article title and abstract. It can be accessed using the link in the post.

In the first article of our Special Anniversary Issue, Elizabeth Lhost critically examines what constitutes “law’s archive” when doing legal history. Outlining trends in socio-legal history, she asks how a critical historian can tell a story of fragments. repository.nls.ac.in/slr/vol20/is...

Table of Contents from Socio-Legal Review, Volume 20, Issue 2. The contents include: Editorial – page vi Articles: Fingerprints and Fragments: Reflections on the Challenges and Contributions of Socio-Legal History by Elizabeth Lhost – page 1 Cultivating Attentiveness to Law in India through Legal Anthropology by Deepa Das Acevedo & Jahnavi Chamarthi – page 25 The Meaning and Challenges of an Interdisciplinary Sentencing Exercise: Reflections from a Death Penalty Mitigation Practice by Anup Surendranath and Maitreyi Misra – page 52 Locating Socio-Legal Research in Pakistan: A Reflexive Approach by Maryam S Khan – page 92 Socio-Legal Enquiry on a Global Scale: Legal Intermediation, the Geography of Extraction, and the (Re)Negotiation of Africa’s Relationship with the World Economy by Sara Dezalay – page 120 Postscript by Kalyani Ramnath – page 149

SLR's Special 20th Anniversary Issue is out now! Volume 20(2) reflects on two decades of socio-legal inquiry from India, South Asia, and beyond—through legal history, anthropology, mitigation practice, comparative method & institutional memory. Read here: repository.nls.ac.in/slr/

The recording of the launch event of our Special 20th Anniversary Issue is now available on our YouTube channel. If you missed it, go watch an insightful discussion on the contours of socio-legal scholarship today, with special focus on South Asia. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Mu...

Reminder to register for our Special 20th Anniversary Issue launch event happening tomorrow, 18 June at 3 PM IST. Catch SLR Editors in conversation with Elizabeth Lhost, Anup Surendranath, Maitreyi Misra, Maryam Khan, and Sara Dezalay. Register here: shorturl.at/ElSzB

Muslimness, Feminism, and the Constitution | SLR Interviews Dr Sagnik Dutta Matilde Ribeiro and Sushmita Nelson

In this interview, our editors spoke to Dr. Sagnik Dutta about their book, 'In the Shadow of Minority Rights' (CUP 2025), on Muslim women's resistance, activism and agency in the context of increasing Hindu majoritarianism and violence.

www.sociolegalreview.com/post/muslimn...

Poster for the launch of Socio-Legal Review’s Special 20th Anniversary Issue titled “SLR@20: Reflections from India, South Asia, and Beyond.” Includes details of an online round-table discussion on “Socio-Legal Today” featuring editors in conversation with Elizabeth Lhost, Anup Surendranath, Maitreyi Misra, Maryam S Khan, and Sara Dezalay. Event is on 18 May 2025, Wednesday at 3:00 PM IST. Registration link: shorturl.at/EISzB. Background image shows a classroom at NLSIU. Footer reads: "2005 – SLR Turns Twenty – 2025."

It’s finally here! India, South Asia, and Beyond—SLR’s ambitious 20th Anniversary Issue takes stock of the field. Join us on 18 June, 3 PM IST for its launch + round-table with our authors on what socio-legal inquiry means today. Q&A to follow! Register: shorturl.at/ElSzB