| The Indian Constitution : A Conversation with Power

This is an advanced course in constitutional theory, law, and interpretation. The basic purpose of the course is to engage with the Indian Constitution as a document that creates, shapes, distributes, and constrains power; and as a terrain of struggle, where different – and sometimes conflicting – visions of power are in contestation with each other. It is a stand- alone course that will be of particular interest to students who have already studied the compulsory constitutional law courses, and are looking to build upon that foundation.

The course will be structured in the following way: there will be an introductory seminar that will set out the approach, and locate it within a tradition of constitutional scholarship whose most famous exponent is Professor Roberto Gargarella. Each successive seminar will focus on one particular axis of power (such as, for example, federalism, or constitutional pluralism) and debate that threadbare. There will be a concluding seminar that will tie the threads together.

Readings are a combination of primary and secondary materials. Each seminar will have one core judgment, and accompanying theoretical readings.

The method will be entirely seminar-style discussion, accompanied by regular response papers.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, students should have an advanced understanding of the ways in which the Indian Constitution structures power, the ability to closely read and reconstruct the underlying structural and theoretical premises of constitutional law judgments, exposure to comparative constitutional studies and method, and a grasp of the basics of critical constitutional theory.