Biography

Dipika Jain is a Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Research and Clinical Legal Education at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), India, where she has served since its inception in 2009 as a founding faculty. As the founding director of the Centre for Justice, Law, and Society (CJLS), she is driving groundbreaking work at the intersection of law and marginalization.

An internationally recognized scholar, she has been a visiting faculty member at the Transnational Law Institute at King’s College London (2017–2021) and a visiting scholar at institutions such as the University of Oxford, the University of Melbourne, and the Max Planck Institute. Her academic journey includes a B.A. in Political Science (Hons) from Lady Shri Ram College, an LL.B. from Delhi University and she received the Canadian Institute of Health Research Fellowship Award in Health Law & Policy, 2006 to pursue a Master’s Degree at Dalhousie University, Canada. She earned an LL.M from Harvard Law School (2009) and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Frankfurt (2024) under Prof. Günter Frankenberg, focusing on critical constitutionalism and graduating with a distinction Summa Cum Laude.

Her scholarship has been cited by the Supreme Court of India in landmark cases such as Navtej Johar v. Union of India (2018) and X v. Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi (2022). In May 2023, she was cited in the “Sensitization Module for the Judiciary on LGBTIQA+ Community” published by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India, chaired by Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud on her conceptualization of legislative violence in the co-authored articled titled, Unjust Citizenship: The Law that Isn’t. In 2020, her research on abortion was cited in the legislative debate on abortion laws in the Indian Parliament.

Her scholarly interests encompass law and political economy, Judicial politics, law and social movement, critical constitutionalism, feminist legal theory, queer theory, minor jurisprudence, reproductive justice, public health law and critical pedagogies. She has published extensively in leading international journals, including the Feminist Theory, Journal of Human Rights, Violence and Gender, Healthcare, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matter, Australian Journal of Feminist Legal Studies, Columbia Journal of Law and Gender, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Statute Law Review, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law and Justice, American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, Houston Journal of International Law and Economic and Political Weekly.

She is the co-editor of the two-volume book Law, Culture, and Queer Politics in Neoliberal Times, published by Zubaan/University of Chicago Press. She has also co-edited the forthcoming volume International Law: Reflections on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights with Arvind Narrain, set to be published in 2025. Additionally, she is co-curating a special issue of the Jindal Global Law Review on Health, Law, Political Economy and Society, scheduled for publication in 2025.

Further, her forthcoming monograph, Critical Constitutionalism, builds upon and expands her doctoral research.

At JGLS, she is the recipient of several teaching excellence and research excellence awards since 2009.

Jain’s teaching portfolio includes foundational courses such as Legal Methods, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law and Family Law, alongside self-designed electives like Law and Social Movements, Law, Desire, and Popular Culture, Critical Constitutionalism, Health Law, Reading Foucault, Trans Justice, Research Methods and Reproductive Justice.

She is the recipient of a research grant from JGU Research Grant Committee on Law and Social Movements in Global South; from ARROW on legal regulation of Abortion in Asia, from Roundglass Foundation Centre, Seattle University on Access to Justice in Punjab and SRHM on Autonomy and Medical Ethics. She has advised the Law Commission of India on various reports, including those on shared custody, animal welfare laws, and maintenance laws. Her consulting experience spans prominent organizations such as UNDP, the Center for Reproductive Rights (New York), IPAS Development, ARROW, Pratigya Campaign, and SRHM, focusing on reproductive justice, digital health, and family law.

As Director of CJLS, Jain has addressed barriers to justice for marginalized groups through policy interventions, advocacy with parliamentarians, and legislative and judicial engagements. Under her leadership, CJLS has organized workshops on critical pedagogies, national consultations with grassroots activists, and India’s first residential certificate course on transgender rights. Her expertise has shaped the drafting of the Rules under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. For more details see https://www.cjls-jgu.in

As a founding faculty member, she has played a pivotal role in establishing the law school at JGU. Her extensive leadership experience includes serving as the Associate Dean of JGLS—the second-highest leadership position at the school after the Dean—as well as heading Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Recruitment.

Jain spearheaded the establishment and institutionalization of the JGLS Research Dean’s Office in 2019 and the Office of Clinical Legal Education in 2020. She also serves as the Director of the Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Centre for Clinical Legal Education. Currently, she is the Chairperson of the Academic Review Board and a member of the JGU Research and Ethics Board.

Before transitioning to academia, Jain worked with the Human Rights Law Network, where she founded the HIV/AIDS and the Law Initiative, coordinated routine legal aid programs and litigated landmark public interest cases in the Supreme Court and High Courts, including those concerning the right to food, Sampurna Bahrua vs. Union of India and access to antiretroviral drugs case.