In recent years, several scholars with interests and expertise on various aspects of law in South Asia have joined UW-Madison. They join long-time UW-Madison Professor Marc Galanter whose extensive work on law in South Asia has been extremely influential in both American scholarship and in South Asia.
In 2006, an informal working group was established to coordinate and promote events pertaining to South Asian legal studies and to facilitate intellectual exchange between faculty and students at the University with shared interests in the field. The disciplinary interests of the working group include political science, history, religious studies, and, within law itself, environmental law, human rights, Islamic law, constitutional law, discrimination, women’s studies, and legal profession. More complete descriptions of faculty interests are given on the respective websites for individual faculty listed below. Students or faculty interested in joining the occasional discussions of the working group are encouraged to contact any of the faculty listed below.
Scholars affiliated with the Working Group
Atapattu, Sumudu – UW Law
School
Davis, Donald Jr. – Department
of Languages
& Cultures of Asia, UW-Madison
Galanter,
Marc – John
and Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law and South Asian Studies, UW-Madison
James Jaffe - Professor, College of Letters and Sciences, UW-Whitewater
Quraishi,
Asifa – UW Law
School
Sharafi,
Mitra – UW Law School, Legal Studies & Department
of History, UW-Madison
Sidel, Mark - UW Law School
Shubha Ghosh - Professor, UW Law School
Nilesh Patel - UW Law School
Resources
Don Davis' Cooperative Annotated Bibliography of Hindu Law
and Dharmasastra
Marc Galanter's Documents on South Asian Law
Mitra Sharafi's South Asian Legal History Resources
Activities
The group has been involved in several events including the pre-conference workshop on South Asia Legal Studies which is organized to coincide with the annual South Asia Conference. The group has initiated several activities including an internship program for Law Students and a speaker series.
Exchange program with National Law School of India University, Bangalore
The Global Legal Studies Center and the South Asia Legal Studies Working Group are pleased to announce that a formal exchange program with National Law School of India University, Bangalore was established recently. Under the exchange program up to 4 students will spend a semester at the host institution each year. The first group of students from UW Law School will go to Bangalore in the spring semester of 2011.
The exchange agreement was facilitated by Professor Shubha Ghosh and will be administered by Sumudu Atapattu under the Law School's Study Abroad programs.
Students who participated in the exchange program:
Fall 2010 - Michelle Zamora
Fall 2011 - Daniel Riemer
Angelita Renteria
Internship program
A summer internship program was launched in 2008 for Law Students. This is administered by the Global Legal Studies Center as part of its Study Abroad Program. Details
Summer 2009
Charlotte Bernard - Fox Mandal Little, Delhi
Summer 2010
Ali Abbas - Fox Mandal Little, Delhi
Cana Laska - Consumer Unity and Trust Society, Jaipur
Elisabeth Lex - Majlis, Mumbai
Summer 2011
Laura McFarlane - Consumer Unity and Trust Society, Jaipur
Christine Mumma - Fox Mandal Little
Upcoming Events
Fall 2012
6th Annual South Asia Legal Studies Pre-Conference Workshop
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Lubar Commons (7200 Law), UW Law School
Fall 2011
5th Annual South Asia Legal Studies Pre-Conference Workshop
Thursday, October 20, 2011
8:30am - 6:00pm
Lubar Commons (7200 Law), UW Law School
Registration: Registration is free but prior registration is requested. Please contact Sumudu Atapattu or Mitra Sharafi with your institutional affiliation and contact details by October 10, 2011
October 20, 2011: Lecture on "India's Judicial Elite: Who are Those (Under-Appreciated) Supreme Court Judges?" by George H. Gadbois, Jr. (Professor Emeritus, Political Science, University of Kentucky), author of the book "Judges of the Supreme Court of India: 1950-1989" (Oxford University Press, 2011), 12:30-1:30pm, Lubar Commons (lunch served)
Past activities
Fall 2010
4th Annual South Asia Legal Studies Pre-conference Workshop, October 14, 2010
