I have research interests in a number of fields, including:
(1) South Asian Legal History:
- 2023: “Indian constitutionalism, the rule of law, and Parsi legal culture,” Indian Law Review (2023), 1-23 [Open Access]
- 2018: “Indian Law” in Markus D. Dubber and Christopher Tomlins, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Legal History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 839-57
- 2015: “South Asian Legal History,” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 11, 309-36
- 2010: “The Marital Patchwork of Colonial South Asia: Forum Shopping from Britain to Baroda,”Law and History Review 28:4, 979-1009 (part of Law and History Review “Forum: Maneuvering the Personal Law System in Colonial India”) (© Law and History Review 2010)
- 2009: “The Semi-Autonomous Judge in Colonial India: Chivalric Imperialism meets Anglo-Islamic Dower and Divorce Law,” Indian Economic and Social History Review 46:1, 57-81
(2) History of Forensic Science:
- 2021: “Abortion in South Asia, 1860-1947: A medico-legal history,” Modern Asian Studies 55:2 (2021) 371-428 [Open Access]
- 2019: “The Imperial Serologist and Punitive Self-Harm: Bloodstains and Legal Pluralism in British India” in Ian Burney and Christopher Hamlin, eds., Global Forensic Cultures: Making Fact and Justice in the Modern Era (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), 60-85; winner of the 2020 Law and Society Association Article Prize
- 2016: Book review of David Arnold, Toxic Histories: Poison and Pollution in Modern India (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Law and History Review 34:4 (2016), 1071-3 (© Law and History Review 2016)
(3) History of the Legal Profession:
- 2023: “Indian constitutionalism, the rule of law, and Parsi legal culture” [Open Access] (see South Asian Legal History section, above)
- 2016: “Mixing Legal Systems in the British Empire,” talk given as part of Law and Society Association meeting mini-plenary panel, “Histories of Empire and Legal Pluralism–Mixed Legal Systems around the Globe” (New Orleans, 4 June 2016), 1-10; University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No.1591 (unpublished; posted on SSRN)
- 2014: Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772-1947 (see Parsi & Zoroastrian Studies section, below)
- 2012: “Two Lives in Law: The Reminiscences of A. J. C. Mistry and Sir Norman Macleod, 1884-1926” in D. Y. Chandrachud, Anoop V. Mohta and Roshan S. Dalvi, eds., A Heritage of Judging: The Bombay High Court through 150 Years (Mumbai: Maharashtra Judicial Academy & Indian Mediation Centre and Training Institute), 258-83 (posted with the permission of the Hon. High Court of Judicature at Bombay)
- 2007: “A New History of Colonial Lawyering: Likhovski and Legal Identities in the British Empire” Law and Social Inquiry 32:4, 1059-94
(4) Parsi & Zoroastrian Studies:
- 2023: “Indian constitutionalism, the rule of law, and Parsi legal culture” [Open Access] (see South Asian Legal History section, above)
- 2017: “Parsi Life Writing: Memoirs and Family Histories of Modern Zoroastrians” in Almut Hintze and Alan Williams, eds., Holy Wealth: Accounting for This World and the Next in Religious Belief and Practice. Festschrift for John R. Hinnells (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz), 251-77
- 2015: “Law and Modern Zoroastrians” in Michael Stausberg and Yuhan Vevaina, eds., The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons), 299-312
- 2014: Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772-1947 (New York: Cambridge University Press)
- 2010: Colonial Parsis and Law: A Cultural History. Government Research Fellowship Lectures 2009-2010 (Mumbai: K. R. Cama Oriental Institute), available via the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute
- 2007: “Judging Conversion to Zoroastrianism: Behind the Scenes of the Parsi Panchayat Case (1908)” in John R. Hinnells and Alan Williams, ed. Parsis in India and the Diaspora (London: Routledge Curzon), 159-80
- 2006: “Bella’s Case: Parsi Identity and the Law in Colonial Rangoon, Bombay and London, 1887-1925,” PhD dissertation, Dept. of History, Princeton University
(5) Legal Pluralism:
- 2019: “The Imperial Serologist and Punitive Self-Harm: Bloodstains and Legal Pluralism in British India” (see History of Forensic Science section, above)
- 2016: “Mixing Legal Systems in the British Empire” (see History of the Legal Pluralism section, above)
- 2008: “Justice in Many Rooms since Galanter: De-romanticizing Legal Pluralism through the Cultural Defense,” Law & Contemporary Problems 71, 139-46
(6) Slavery:
- 2011: “The Slaves and Slavery of Marie Claire Chabert: Familial Black Slaveholding in Antebellum Louisiana,” Journal of Civil Law Studies 4:1, 187-215
- 2007: “Insurance” (750 words) and “The Nancy” (500 words), Toyin Falola and Amanda Warnock, eds., Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press), 230-1, 286-7 (respectively)
- 2003: “The Slave Ship Manuscripts of Capt. Joseph B. Cook: A Narrative Reconstruction of the Brig Nancy’s Voyage of 1793,” Slavery & Abolition 24: 1, 71-100
I have an academia.edu page, an SSRN page, and a Google Scholar profile.
Current research: I am completing a book manuscript on falsity and forensic science in colonial South Asia. I’m also working on articles on South Asian law students at the Inns of Court and on the history of law books in the British empire.
Op-ed and magazine articles:
- “Pandemic or poison? How epidemics shaped Southasia’s legal history,” Himāl Southasian (20 April 2020)
- “The History of Poison & Stereotypical Narratives,” Madras Courier (12 Nov. 2018)
- “Many think Parsis are a model minority. Are they?” [title not approved by author] Times of India (20 Sept. 2017)
- “Why the US can’t claim to have been India’s colonial cousin in its struggle against the British,” Scroll.in (4 July 2016)
- “Snoop Dogg feels the bite of Parsi legal culture,” Scroll.in (3 July 2015)
- “The Changing Face of the Legal Profession,” Star Tribune (16 Feb. 2015)
[updated on 18 April 2023]