Book Launch | ‘Law, Justice, Society: Selected Works of Upendra Baxi’ | Co-Edited by NLS Faculty Prof. (Dr.) Arun K. Thiruvengadam

Dr. Arun K. Thiruvengadam, Professor of Law at NLSIU is one of three editors who worked together to curate the works of Professor Upendra Baxi across four volumes of a series titled ‘Law, Justice, Society: Selected Works of Upendra Baxi.’ This set, published by Oxford University Press, was released at an event organised at the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi on March 04, 2025.  Hon’ble Mrs Justice B. V. Nagarathna, Supreme Court of India presided over the event and delivered the keynote address, where she paid tribute to Professor Baxi’s manifold contributions to the Indian legal system.  The event featured presentations on each of the four volumes by the editors, and a short response by Professor Baxi.

Prof. (Dr.) Arun K. Thiruvengadam said: “It was an honour to be invited to curate the works of Professor Baxi on the broad theme of constitutionalism. Professor Baxi is one of the leading scholars of Indian constitutional law and has also contributed important works to the related field of comparative constitutional law. Every student of public law will encounter one or more of Professor Baxi’s varied contributions while making her way through the corpus of scholarly work in this field. Teachers of constitutional law will have particular favourites that they assign as part of their syllabus because of Professor Baxi’s inimitable writing style, and his ability to both zero in on critical issues and provide an unusual perspective to the issues he chooses to focus upon.”

“This project enabled me to read (and re-read) Professor Baxi’s large body of work that he has produced across nearly seven decades. The volume contains 15 works written between 1969 and 2014, which showcase a small part of that vast oeuvre.  In my introduction to Volume 2, I have tried to situate these fifteen works within the fields of Indian constitutional law and comparative constitutional law, while identifying some distinguishing features of each work.  The 15 works include some classic and much cited works of Baxi, as well as some little known works that deserve recognition because of their prescient observations.  They also include extracts from two book-length works that are regarded as classic analyses of the working of the Indian Supreme Court through the tumultuous 1970s and 1980s.  The long interview extending to 50 pages allowed me to explore the background context of these works, and Professor Baxi provides some fascinating anecdotes and details about these pieces.”

“Following Professor Baxi’s example, this is not a work of hagiography.  The 15 works include pieces that were — and will continue to be — controversial.  Professor Baxi responds to these controversies in some parts of the interview and asks readers to judge these works for themselves. It is commendable that Professor Baxi never sought to moderate or influence the choices made by the individual editors on the works that have ultimately been included. I believe that the volume will offer much, both to the diligent follower of Professor Baxi on constitutionalism, and to the reader who is encountering the irrepressible Baxi for the first time on the page.”

About the four-volume set

Widely regarded as one of the most eminent legal thinkers of India, Professor Baxi is a leading scholar on matters relating to human rights, legal and social theory, and comparative constitutional law and theory.

The set is divided across four themes: ‘Human Rights’ (Vol. 1), ‘Constitutionalism’ (Vol. 2), ‘Law and Society’ (Vol. 3) and ‘Legal Education’ (Vol. 4).  Professor Thiruvengadam served as the editor of the second volume on ‘Constitutionalism.’ Structurally, the essays in each volume are introduced by the volume editor, an expert in the field, who provides an assessment of Baxi’s works over the years. Each volume contains an interview between the editor and Professor Baxi, contextualising the latter’s research and discussing the themes covered. The respective volumes essentially conserve and reflect on pedagogical and research contributions made by Baxi to the concepts of law, justice, and society. (Source: Oxford University Press)

The other editors of the book are Amita Dhanda, Professor Emerita, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad (who edited both volumes 1 and 4), and Kalpana Kannabiran, Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development, New Delhi.

Professor Baxi said, “I deeply appreciate the immense dedication of the editors who have devoted nearly a generation to these four volumes. Their careful selection of articles, themes and discussions aim to make my writings more relevant to the present and future generations. I wished them luck then and I wish them luck now in their noble endeavour. I hope these volumes encourage meaningful engagement with the ever-evolving discourse on law, justice, and society.”

In the media:

• ‘Law, Justice, Society: Selected works of Upendra Baxi’ launched in Delhi | The Times of India
• Oxford University Press launches 4-volume edition of Law, Justice, Society: Selected Works of Upendra Baxi | India Education Diary
• ‘We’re our own messiahs’: Indian jurist Upendra Baxi seeks to redefine human rights as people-led movement | Firstpost
• PIL misuse—activism to Private Interest Litigation: BV Nagarathna | The Print

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