Challenging The Rules(s) of Law

This rare comprehensive critique of criminology in India brings together widely respected activists, advocates, bureaucrats, scholars and practitioners who share their concerns about the Indian criminal justice system through an interdisciplinary lens and discuss the need to entrench human rights in Indian polity. It is a significant step towards mapping the ways in which interdisciplinary research and human rights activism might inform legal praxis more effectively and holistically.Challenging the Rule(s) of Law: Colonialism, Criminology and Human Rights in India contests unproblematic assumptions of the rule of law and opens out avenues for a renewed and radical study of criminal law in the country. The collection looks at the problem of criminal law from the early colonial period to the present, examining the problem of overt violence by state actors and their compliance with dominant private actors. It calls into question the denial by the state of the wherewithal for bare life, which compounds people’s vulnerability to a repressive rule of law.This work is a must read for students, researchers and faculty of Law, Criminal Law, Criminology, Legal History, Human Rights, Sociology of Law and Colonial History. It will also be invaluable for law historians, legal scholars and policy makers, especially the judiciary.

Kalpana Kannabiran is the recipient of the inaugural Amartya Sen Award for Social Scientists, 2012, for her work in Law. She is a sociologist and legal researcher and is currently Director, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad, an autonomous research institute supported by the Indian Council for Social Science Research. She was awarded the VKRV Rao Prize for Social Science Research in the field of Social Aspects of Law by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) in 2003. She was part of the founding faculty of National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University of Law where she taught sociology and law for a decade (1999–2009) and is a founder member of Asmita Resource Centre for Women where she has coordinated research and legal outreach for women. Kannabiran has been the general secretary of the Indian Association for Women’s Studies (1998–2000) and is active in the International Sociological Association. She was a member of the Expert Group on the Equal Opportunity Commission, Government of India (2007–2008) and member of the Expert Group on Legal Education Reform in Kerala, Government of Kerala. She has been an activist in the women’s movement since the late 1970s. Prof. (Dr.) Ranbir Singh is the founder Vice-Chancellor of National Law University, Delhi established by the Delhi Government in 2008. He is a Council Member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, UK. He is Vice-President & EXCO Member of SAARCLAW India. He is Member of the Eminent Persons Advisory Group (EPAG) of Competition Commission of India. He is Member of the State Higher Education Council, constituted by the Govt. of NCT of Delhi. He is Past- President of the Association of India Universities (AIU) and Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI). He was the founder Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR, University of Law, established by the Andhra Pradesh Government in 1998. He has been there for ten years as the Vice-Chancellor of the well-known premier institution for legal education and research in the country which was rated as one of the Best University in the Country in the year 2008 in ‘India Today’. He has been a Vice-Chancellor for over 18 years now.For more information: http://nludelhi.ac.in/pep-fac-new-pro.aspx?Id=16