Meet the Author: A historical introduction to Indian Contract Law

The book offers a genealogy of the core concepts of Indian contract law, tracing their trajectory from the nineteenth century soil of English jurisprudence in which they germinated, to their transplantation into the Indian Contract Act 1872, and the interpretation of the provisions containing these concepts by Indian courts and influential treatise-writers, over the last one hundred and fifty years.

With respect to each of the contract law doctrines discussed, the book seeks to provide an account of the state of the English law at the eve of the drafting of the Act, with a particular emphasis on the impact the civil law had on the doctrine and a close study of the legislative history of the provisions of the Act codifying it, with a view to uncovering what the drafters had originally envisaged.

On 26 November, Professor Swaminathan will present the chapters on the historical background of the Act (ch 1) and the doctrines of consideration (ch 3) and privity of contract (ch 4). Each chapter will be commented on by a discussant.

The author:

Shiv Swaminathan is Professor and Dean at Shiv Nadar School of Law in Chennai. Previously, he was Director and Associate Dean (Research) at Jindal Global Law School. He works primarily on legal philosophy, and teaches jurisprudence and contract law for which he received several teaching excellence awards.

Registration required via vogenauer.office@lhlt.mpg.de by 19 November. Registered participants will be provided with the text of the book before the session upon request.