Judging in an Ableist Legal System: Critical Reflections on the Role of the Judiciary in Disability-Related Cases in India | By Prof. Sanjay Jain

About the Speaker

Sanjay Jain is a Professor of Law at the National Law School of India, Bengaluru University and was formerly Principal of the Indian Law Society’s Law College, Pune. He is a leading constitutional law expert, and is shortly to publish a two-volume commentary on the Indian Constitution. Professor Jain is also well-known in India and internationally for his work on Disability Law, both for his academic work and for his activism and engagement with the judiciary and government. He has  intervened and been cited in some of the prominent cases in High courts and the Supreme Court and is currently carrying out research on the role of Judges in upholding the rights of Disabled people in pervasively Ablest  legal systems. He has led the Indian element of the Inclusive Public Space research project (based at the University of Leeds) and has recently been awarded a fellowship by the University of New South Wales and the University of Humboldt.

About the Seminar

This seminar will explore the potential for judges, operating in legal systems underpinned by ableism, to uphold and develop law  which achieves ‘enabling’ outcomes for disabled people. Professor Jain sets this discussion against the backdrop of ablist dimensions of the Constitution of India. He draws attention  to the potential for judges, within that system, to highlight the  exclusion experienced by disabled people and to evolve strategies for recognising and protecting their human rights and fundamental freedoms. Critical to the fulfilment of such potential, he argues, is judicial engagement with ideas developed by disabled people’s organisations and Disability Studies scholarship – as well as with international standards set out in instruments such as the  UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

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