UMass Law UMass Law: UMass Law Celebrates Chaudhry’s Recently Published Book

The UMass Law community celebrates Professor Faisal Chaudhry’s recently published book South Asia, the British Empire, and the Rise of Classical Legal Thought: Towards a Historical Ontology of Law.

There was celebration to be had at UMass Law in honor of Professor Faisal Chaudhry’s recently published book with Oxford University Press. Professor Lisa Owens and the Faculty Development Committee hosted the book launch and panel discussion at the law school to mark its release and faculty, staff, and students came to celebrate. Dean Sam Panarella opened the event by welcoming the UMass Law community and visiting panelists and giving his congratulations to Professor Chaudhry for his well-received book. The panel discussion was comprised of several notable scholars:

Professor Tiraana Bains, Brown University 

Professor Osama Siddiqui, Providence College

Professor Sana Haroon, UMass Boston

Professor Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School 

Professor Danya Reda, Wayne State Law- Moderator

Professor Faisal Chaudhry, UMass Law

During the panel discussion, much enthusiastic praise was handed to Chaudhry for his insightful research and writing, and the panelists shared thoughts and observations on the wider ambitions and key insights of the monograph. In the book, South Asia, the British Empire, and the Rise of Classical Legal Thought: Towards a Historical Ontology of Law, Professor Chaudhry provides a re-reading of the history of legal change under colonial rule in South Asia from 1757 to the early twentieth century. The panelists traded off by focusing on the parts and themes of the book they found most intriguing given their own respective research interests, highlighting the book’s embrace of perspectives historical, legal/jurisprudential, and social theoretical.  Overall, the discussion relayed the challenge Chaudry sets for his readers to re-examine major questions about the colonial history of the South Asian subcontinent, the relationship between law and empire, and socio-legal theory and philosophical jurisprudence.

Please see the video of the panel discussion below: