Scroll Top

Phone: 1.800.296.9656        Email: circulation@cypressmagazines.com 

India Center for Law and Justice launched at Seattle U Law

Related Articles

India is the largest democracy in the world, with tremendous untapped potential for comparative legal studies with the United States. Professor Sital Kalantry aims to explore those possibilities with the India Center for Law and Justice, launched at Seattle University School of Law in 2021.

“Both countries derive some of our heritage from the British commonwealth, and in both countries, English is the language that higher courts use to issue opinions,” Kalantry said. “Given the similarities, why is there so little study of India and so much for other countries?”

At least part of the reason is the underdevelopment of legal education in India, she said, which is now starting to change as Indian law professors are increasingly publishing scholarship.

Kalantry, who was born in the Indian state of Maharashtra and moved to the U.S. with her family as a young child, has explored some of these bicultural issues in her own legal scholarship, particularly in the area of women’s rights.

Seattle U Law Professor Sital Kalantry

She founded the India Center as a professor at Cornell Law School in 2019, then moved and renamed the center last year, adding a social justice focus to the center’s work to better align it with Seattle University’s mission.

Kalantry serves as the center’s faculty director, and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence Monika Batra Kashyap is the associate director.

The India Center for Law and Justice hosts distinguished speakers and conferences of legal scholars and lawyers from India and the United States. It also provides stipends for legal scholars from India to visit Seattle U Law to conduct research and interact with faculty.

Most recently, Jindal Global Law School in New Delhi announced a partnership agreement with the law school and several other U.S. and international law schools to offer fast-track dual-degree programs, where students complete both an Indian law degree and American law degree in two years less time than it would otherwise take.

Now that the center is based in Seattle, Kalantry said she’s excited to interact with the region’s South Asian community on projects and programming.

“There’s a strong and successful entrepreneurial Indian community here, and so many ways the center can collaborate with that community,” she said, including offering legal services in the languages spoken by the people of India and high-level lectures on various topics.

“I’m excited to engage intellectually with the community here, even beyond legal issues,” she said.

National Jurist Editors

National Jurist Editors

Leave a comment

Digital Magazine
Newsletter Signup

Get unlimited access

Get a premium subscription to the National Jurist for less than $2 a month.