CLHI Launch Conference

Scientific Programme

PROGRAMME
Centre for Legal History of India (CLHI)
Launch Conference
23 AND 24 JUNE 2026 I 9:00 (CEST) I MPILHLT (ROOM Z01) I CLHI
Tuesday, 23.06.2026
DAY 1
09:00–09:30 Registration
09:30–09:50 Welcome address and Introduction to CLHI
Stefan Vogenauer and Reeju Ray (mpilhlt)
09:55–10:00 Introducing Opening Keynote
Stefan Vogenauer
10:00–11:15 Opening Keynote
Radhika Singha, (Professor Modern Indian History, Jawaharlal Nehru University (Retd.),
Visting Professor Shiv Nadar University)
The Inscription of the Social on the Carceral: Criminology, scientific penology and social
engineering in colonial India, 1889-1939
Coffee/tea 11:15–11:30
11:30–13:00 CLHI Orientation Scholars Research Showcase
Chair: Reeju Ray (mpilhlt)
11:30–11:45 Kriti Sharma (mpilhlt), Penal Consequences of Excising the ‘Aboriginal’ Drinkscape in
Satpura, Central Provinces (1905–1920)
11:45–12:00 Saqib Bhat (mpilhlt), Trials of Sedition and Contested Sovereignty : Law, Islam, and Political
Consciousness in Dogra Kashmir
12:00–12:15 Achintya Gurumurthy (mpilhlt), Decreeing Dispossession: The Devadasi Question in the
Madras High Court (1862-1950)
12:15–12:30 Manpreet Sandhu (mpilhlt), Law, Procedure, and Rural Credit: Litigation, Execution, & Local
Justice in Colonial India, 1820–1930
12:30–13:00 Discussion
Lunch 13:00–14:00
14:00–15:35 Beyond British India
Chair: Matilde Cazzola (University of Bologna)
14:00–14:15 Palvasha Shahab (Yale University), Imperial Formations, Spatial Knowledge, and the
Jurisdictional Edges of British India
14:15–14:30 Wafa Ben Mahmoud (Humboldt University), ‘A rule of property’ and French Colonialisms: a
comparative history
14:30–14:45 Karoline Machado (mpilhlt), Revealing Goa: Archives, Governance, and Normativities in the
Portuguese Empire
14:45–15:00 Juma Omollo (mpilhlt), Legal transfer of the English fraud doctrine for the regulation of
bank failure to the Uganda Protectorate c. 1885-1965
15:00–15:15 Izhar Khan (mpilhlt), Understanding Pashtunwali
15:15–15:35 Discussion
Coffee/tea 15:35–16:00
16:00–18:00 Roundtable: Legal History in times of Authoritarian Legalities/Illegalities
Chair: Stefan Vogenauer (mpilhlt)
16:00–16:20 Nandini Chatterjee (University of Oxford)
16:20–16:40 Aparna Balachandran (University of Delhi)
16:40–17:00 Razak Khan (Freie Universität Berlin)
17:00–17:20 Sandhya Fuchs (University of Bristol)
17:20–17:40 Reeju Ray (mpilhlt)
17:40–18:00 Discussion
Dinner 18:30 (Remos)
20:00–21:00 Feedback from participants on CLHI activities
Wednesday, 24.06.2026
DAY 2
ARCHIVES AND METHODS IN LEGAL HISTORY
09:00–10:30 Panel 1
Chair: Erica Ollikainen-Read (mpilhlt)
09:00–09:15 Christopher Jenkins (mpilhlt), ‘As true to fact as it can possibly make itself’: Asymptotes,
Archives, and Methods in Indian Legal History
09:15–09:30 Rômulo Da Silva Ehalt (mpilhlt), The School of Goa: Missionary Casuistry Across the Iberian
Colonial Empires in Asia,1550-1700
09:30–09:45 Samyak Ghosh (NLSIU), Between Objects of Return and No Return: Connected Pathways of
International Law, Heritage Diplomacy, and Public History in the Present.
09:45–10:00 Rukmini Chakraborty (EUI), Loot as law? Reconstructing an archive of colonial violence
10:00–10:15 Jaideep Singh Lalli (University of Cambridge), Silent histories, loud exclusions: Hindu
inheritance and transgender personhood from Dharmaśāstras to India’s Trans Rights Act
10:15–10:40 Q&A
Coffee/tea 10:40–10:55
10:55–12:30 Panel 2
Chair: Donal Coffey (Maynooth University)
10:55–11:10 Akhila Yechury (St. Andrews), An archive of citizens: Negotiating the ‘option’ in French India
11:10–11:25 Manav Kapur (University of Texas, Austin), Evacuees across the ocean? The extraterritorial
application of South Asia’s evacuee property law, 1949-56
11:25–11:40 Martin O’Donoughue (mpilhlt), Comparative Constitutional History: Parliament in India and
Ireland - Sources and Methods
11:40–11:55 Aurif Muzafar (NALSAR), Constitutional Possibilities in Kashmir: Reconstructing the
Kashmiri constitutional imagination from 1846 through the 1950s
11:55–12:10 Erica Ollikainen-Read (mpilhlt), The travels of colonial constitutional conceptions: Revisiting
the Ilbert Bill Controversy of 1883-84
12:10–12:30 Q&A
12:30–1:00 Library Resources at mpilhlt
Ian Hillesheim (mpilhlt)
Lunch 13:00–14:00
14:00–15:30 Panel 3
Chair: Martin O’Donough (mpilhlt)
14:00–14:15 Prashant Iyengar (Columbia University/mpilhlt), Factum Valet– Notes Towards a
Phenomenology of Judicial Error
14:15–14:30 Himanshu Agarwal (University of Cambridge), Reinterrogating the Past:
How Digitisation Impacts Research
14:30–14:45 Arighna Gupta (University of Michigan), Legal Cultures and Crowds in Early-Colonial
India: Social and Doctrinal Legal Histories
14:45–15:00 Ragini Surana (mpilhlt), Doctrinal development: Restitution and illegality
15:00–15:15 Prakhar Ganguly (mpilhlt), The English Factory Acts and their transfer to the East Indies in
the 19th Century: Lessons from labour law's past for a future?
15:15—15:40 Q&A
Coffee/tea 15:40–15:55
15:55–16:00 Introducing Closing Keynote
Reeju Ray (mpilhlt)
16:00–17:15 Closing Keynote Lecture
Janaki Nair, (Professor Modern Indian History, Jawaharlal Nehru University (Retd.),
Independent Researcher)
‘The Law of Violence and the Violence of the Law’ in the Time of Insurrection
17:15–17:45 Closing Summary
Stefan Vogenauer (mpilhlt)
17:45–18:00 Vote of Thanks
Reeju Ray (mpilhlt)
18:00–19:00 Campus Tour before dinner (optional)
Dinner 19:00 (Demera)
20:00–21:00 Key takeaways
Stefan Vogenauer (mpilhlt)