On January 7th, 8th & 9th, the members of the "Just-India" project held their first general meeting in Paris, at the EHESS and the FMSH. The reunion was supported by the FMSH, Paris.

Programme

Thursday January 7th , 2010

Daniela Berti & Gilles Tarabout: Introduction

Criminal Cases

• Daniela Berti: Presentation.
• Daniela Berti : Court Talk and Judiciary Writing. A Preliminary Fieldwork in Shimla Session Court.



• Pratiksha Baxi : The Hostile Witness and Public Secrecy in Rape Trials in India.
• Devika Bordia: Autopsies of the 'Tribal' Corpse: Custom, Police Practices and the Management of Death in Western India.
• Nicolas Jaoul: Dalit Activism, Administrative Brokerage and the Making of Political Capital in Uttar Pradesh : Preliminary Notes Towards a Political Ethnography of Justice Courts, based on the author's film: "The Dalit Panthers' Administrative Know How" (20 minutes).



• Karine Bates: Access to Justice in India. Between State Juridical Bureaucracy and the Informal Practices of Regulating Social Order.
• Gérard Toffin:  Criminal and Civil cases Related to Women in Nepal : Abortion, Inheritance, Divorce. Presentation of the Project.

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Religion and the State

• Gilles Tarabout : Presentation
• Catherine Clémentin-Ojha: Father and Guru, Son and Disciple Before Justice. Discussing Secularization of Indian Religious Institutions.



• Raphaël Voix : "Dancing with Skulls". The tandava Case or what should be a Hindu Tradition According to the Supreme Court of India.
• Gilles Tarabout: Politically sensitive Religious Rights, and the Courts. The Case of the Sabarimala Pilgrimage.
• Gérard Toffin & Chiara Letizia : Hinduism and Secularism in Nepal
  • Gérard Toffin: Religious Festivals Facing Secularization : the Case of the Indra Jatra in Kathmandu
  • Chiara Letizia: Hinduism and Secularism in Nepal : Notes from a Preliminary Fieldwork on Some Judicial Cases.

Natural Resources Management and Environment Policies, and Public Interest Litigations

• Joëlle Smadja : Presentation



• Atreyee Majumder : Laws of Land: Land Reform and Land Use Legislation in West Bengal.
• Barbara Tadié : Civil Society Associations and the Use of Public Interest Litigation in Nepal.
• Joëlle Smadja : Cases Related to Kaziranga National Park in Assam. Preliminary notes.
• Sarah Benabou: The Forest Rights Act and the Judiciary: A Preliminary Approach.

Fundamental and Constitutional Rights

• Jeff Redding : Presentation
• Ranabir Samaddar: Is the Constitution a Living Document?[as Ranabir could not be present, his text was summarized by Jeff Redding]
• Jeff Redding: Dar ul Qazas v. The Courts? An Examination of a Muslim Alternative Dispute Resolution System and Its Implications for the Future of Secular Legal Systems

Conflict of Laws in Transnational Cases

• Véronique Bouillier:
  • Summary of the workshop “South Asian Culture à la barre: Words of Experts in Transnational Case-Law ” which was held in Paris on November 20th, 2009
  • Litigants of South Asian Origin in French Law Courts. A Preliminary Report

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

• General discussion, introduced by K. Sivaramakrishnan
   
   
•  Presentation of four programmes:
  • Pratiksha Baxi: LASSNET, Law and Social Sciences Network, Delhi.
  • Paula Banerjee: Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata.
  • Werner Gephart: International Institute of Advanced Studies “Law as Culture”, Bonn.
  • Antoine Garapon: Comparative study of courts (USA, France, China, India) by the IHEJ, Institute of Higher Studies on Justice, Paris.