Law & Jurisprudence
Tracing the idea of law from custom and scripture to constitutions and human rights
A course in jurisprudence and legal history that treats law not merely as a technical craft of statutes and courtrooms but as a civilisational conversation about authority, justice, and obligation. It moves between classical natural law, Islamic fiqh, Hindu and colonial legal codes, modern legal positivism, and the making of the Indian Constitution, training students to read legal texts and institutions as historically situated arguments about how power should be constrained and justice pursued.
- 01
What Is Law? Natural Law, Positivism, and the Question of Obligation
An introduction to the central jurisprudential question of what makes a rule 'law' and why anyone is obligated to obey it, comparing natural law theory, legal positivism, and legal realism.
5 concepts · 5 sources · 3 exercises
- 02
Making the Indian Constitution: Ambedkar, the Constituent Assembly, and Colonial Codification
Traces the drafting of the Indian Constitution through the Constituent Assembly debates, the pivotal role of B.R. Ambedkar, and the deeper colonial legal codification that preceded it.
5 concepts · 5 sources · 3 exercises
- 03
Comparative Legal Systems: Common Law, Civil Law, and Islamic Fiqh
Compares the world's major legal traditions — English common law, continental civil law, and Islamic fiqh — examining their historical origins, methods of reasoning, and contemporary interaction.
5 concepts · 5 sources · 3 exercises
- 04
Rights, Courts, and Public Interest Litigation in India
Examines the evolution of fundamental rights jurisprudence in India, especially the expansion of Article 21, and the distinctive Indian innovation of Public Interest Litigation.
5 concepts · 5 sources · 3 exercises
- 05
Law and Society: International Human Rights, Law and Development, and Access to Justice
Explores how law interacts with social change globally and in India, from the international human rights framework to debates on law's role in development and the persistent problem of access to justice.
5 concepts · 5 sources · 3 exercises