Distinguished Lecture: Concept of Justice in India in Legal, Historical and Social Perspective
April 25, 2016
Professor Mahendra Pal Singh, Chancellor, Central University of Haryana and Chair Professor, Centre for Comparative Law, National Law University, Delhi, gave a Distinguished Lecture titled: “Concept of Justice in India in Legal, Historical and Social Perspective ” on April 21, 2016 at Nalanda University.
Professor Singh talked about how the concept of justice has not drawn enough attention of the scholars even after the adoption of Constitution in 1949 that places “JUSTICE, social, economic and political” in the forefront among the goals that it sets to secure to all the citizens of the country. He shared how the Constitution and the concept of Justice were both borrowed from the west and thus most discussions around this concept are also from a western perspective. He however, has for sometime now been uncomfortable in confining the concept of justice in one model without associating it with the society to which it has to be applied.
Professor Singh’s lecture thus addressed the issue of the concept of justice in the Indian context and whether Indians have articulated this concept in a way that is in keeping with the needs of the society.
Bio-profile of Professor Mahendra Pal Singh
Mahendra Pal Singh is the Chancellor of the Central University of Haryana and Chair Professor of Comparative Law at National Law University Delhi. Earlier he was the Chairperson of Delhi Judicial Academy, New Delhi and the Vice-chancellor, National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. Before that he taught at the University of Delhi from 1970 to 2005, where he was also the Head and Dean of the Faculty of Law from 1994 to 1997. Before moving to Delhi, he taught at Meerut from 1964 to 1970.
He has been a fellow and visiting professor at several institutions and universities of international repute. In 1980-1982 and again in 1985 he was Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Heidelberg. He was visiting professor and Head of Law Division at the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg in 1987-88 and visiting professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Heidelberg in 1991-92. In 1999-2000, 2001 and 2014, he was fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg. He was a visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong and City University of Hong Kong in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2005, at Kansai University, Osaka in 2002, at the National University of Singapore in 2005, and at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 2006. In 2002-03 he was fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin and in 2004 at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He was also Director, Indian Law Institute, New Delhi in 1997. In 2008 Renmin University of China, Beijing honoured him by appointing as Visiting Professor for three years. He has delivered prestigious endowment and other keynote lectures at several universities and academic institutions in India and abroad.
His publications include over one hundred papers in national and international legal journals and edited works and ten books, including German Administrative Law in Common Law Perspective, Freedom of Trade and Commerce in India, Comparative Constitutional Law, Shukla’s Constitution of India, Legal Dimensions of Market Economy, and Human Rights and Basic Needs. He has also been working on and collaborating in national and international research projects. Comparative public law, especially constitutional law, administrative law, human rights and legal systems are his major research interests.