Prof. Dipika Jain

Dipika Jain is currently a Professor of Law, Vice Dean (Research), Vice Dean (Clinical Legal Education) and the Director of the Centre for Justice, Law and Society (CJLS) at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), India. She is a visiting faculty at Transnational Law Institute at Kings College London since 2017. 

She pursued her B.A. in Political Science (Hons) from Lady Shri Ram College and LL.B from Faculty of Law, Delhi University. 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 her LL.M from Harvard Law School.

Her teaching and research is at the intersection of Law and Marginalization. She writes on Gender and Sexuality, Postcolonial Feminism, Public Health Law, Transgender Law, Minor Jurisprudence, Critical Legal Theory, Constitution and Social Movements, Reproductive Justice, Legal Education and Critical Pedagogies and Empirical Legal Studies. At JGLS, she is the recipient of several teaching excellence and research excellence awards since 2009.

Her research was recently cited by the Supreme Court in the landmark decision of Navtej Johar v. Union of India (2018). In 2018, she was designated as the first Research Associate Professor at JGLS. In 2020, her research was cited in the legislative debate on abortion laws in the Parliament. Her recent work appears in the Journal of Human Rights, Violence and Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, Columbia Journal of Law and Gender,  Statute Law Review (Oxford), Harvard Journal of Law and Gender; Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law and Justice; American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law; Houston Journal of International Law and prestigious Indian journals including Seminar and Economics Political Weekly, among many other journals. She is co-editor of Desire and its Discontents: Queer Politics in Neoliberal India (forthcoming, Zubaan and Chicago University Press).

As the Director of CJLS, she has addressed  various barriers in access to justice for marginalized persons. CJLS had crafted policy interventions and advocacy with parliamentarians, legislative and judicial interventions; facilitated consultations with social movements, grassroots movements and civil society; organized workshops on critical pedagogies, and conducted legal empowerment workshops and courses for activists, professionals and students. She has collaborated with  transgender  and gender variant activists to facilitate national consultations; organized the first-of-its-kind residential certificate course on the rights of transgender, intersex and gender-diverse persons, and conducted exciting symposiums and conferences in collaboration with organizations and institutions such as the Center for Reproductive Rights, ARC International, Cornell Law School and the University of Connecticut among others.

She has advised the Law Commission of India on various reports on Shared Custody, Animal Welfare Law and Maintenance Laws. She has also served as an International consultant with the UNDP on Sharia Law in; Centre for Reproductive Rights (New York);  IPAS Development on Reproductive Justice and UNDP India on Digital Health.

As a founding faculty at Jindal Global Law School, Prof. Jain has played an instrumental role in setting up the Law School, which includes serving as  the Head of its  Students Affairs, Academic Affairs Office and Recruitment Chair. She is currently the Chairperson of the Academic Review Board and member of the JGU Research and Ethics Board. Before joining the academia, she was lawyer with Human Rights Law Network. She conceptualized  developed, managed and coordinated the national programs on legal aid for People Living with HIV/AIDS while specifically leading a large team of lawyers and social workers across more than 10 HRLN offices across India. During this time, she worked on precedent setting public interest litigations in the Supreme Court of India including Sampurna Bahrua vs. Union of India (petitioning for the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 in fifteen States in the country. The Act was amended as a result of this petition.) the Right to Food and Access to Antiretroviral Drugs Case. 

Books, Monographs and Edited Volumes:

• Co. Ed., Jain & Sircar, D., Law, Culture and Queer Politics in Neoliberal Times, Volume II, Zubaan Publications/ University of Chicago Press, 2020 (Forthcoming, October 2022).
• Co. Ed., Sircar & Jain, D., Law, Culture and Queer Politics in Neoliberal Times, Volume I, Zubaan Publications/ University of Chicago Press (March 2017).
• Co. Ed., Jain, D. & Sircar, O., Jindal Global Law Review, JGLR 4.1 on Law, Culture and Queer Politics in Neoliberal Times, Volume I (August 2012); JGLR 4.1 on Law, Culture and Queer Politics in Neoliberal Times, Volume II (October 2013).
• Jain, D., Pre-Marital HIV Testing: An Argument Against, Combat Law Publications (December 2008).
• Jain, D. & Stephens, R., Struggle for Anti-Retroviral Movement in India, Combat Law Publications (December 2008).
• Co. Ed. Jain, D., Gonsalves, C. & Medhini, L., HIV/AIDS and the Law, Volume I & II, Combat Law Publications (April 2007).

Articles/Book Chapters:

• Jain, D., Carcerality and Abortion in India: Towards the Regulation of Family, Gender and Sexuality, Oñati Socio-Legal Series (Forthcoming, July 2022).
  Jain, D., Right to Health and Gender Affirmative Procedure in the Transgender Persons Act, 2019 in India, Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery (Forthcoming, March 2022).
• Jain, D., Neoliberal Healthcare, Legal Regulations and the Covid-19 Pandemic in India, Healthcare (Forthcoming, December, 2022).
• Jain, D. et al, Medical Abortion through Telehealth in India: A Critical Perspective, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (Forthcoming, 2022).
• Jain, D., Legal Reforms on the Medical Termination of the Pregnancy Act, 1971: Gaps and Challenges, Indian Law Review (Forthcoming , 2022).
• Jain, D., & Abhayraj Naik., Decolonizing Clinical Legal Education: Critical Reflections, Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, Volume 68 (Forthcoming, April 2022)
• Jain, D., Role of Judiciary in Access to Abortion during the Covid-19 Pandemic in India, Routledge Gender Companion to Gender and Covid-19 (Forthcoming, 2022).
• Jain, D. & Kimberly M. Rhoten, A Queer-Feminist Analysis of BDSM Jurisprudence in Common Law Courts, Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law (Forthcoming , 2022).
• Jain, D. & Sengupta, Shampa, Reproductive Rights and Disability Rights through an Intersectional Analysis, Jindal Global Law Review, Vol 12, Issue 2 (2021).
• Jain, D. & Kartik, K., Narrative of Feminist Resistance: Exploring Regulation of Leprosy in India, Australian Journal of Feminist Legal Studies, (2021).
• Jain, D., Ed. Zumbansen P, Queering the Transnational: Perspective on Law and Sexuality, Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law, Oxford University Press, (2021).
• Jain, D. & Dasgupta, D., Law, Gender Identity, and the Uses of Human Rights: The Paradox of Recognition, Journal of Human Rights, 20:1, 110-126 (2021).
• Jain, D. ASHA Workers Rights’ Violations in the time of COVID-19: A Critical Reflection, COVID-19 & the Constitution Series CHELP, (2021)  https://www.c-help.org (online).
• Jain, D. et al, Negotiating Violence: Everyday Queer Experience of the Law, Gender and Violence,Vol 7, No. 4 (2020).
  Jain, D. & Kartik, K., Unjust Citizenship: The Law that Isn’t, 13 NUJS L. Rev. 2 (2020).
• Jain, D. et al, The MTP Amendment Bill, 2020: Anti- Rights Subjectivity, 28 Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters 1 (2020).
• Jain, D., & Shah, P, Reimagining Reproductive Rights Jurisprudence in India: Reflections on the Recent Decisions on Privacy and Gender Equality from the Supreme Court of India, 39(2) Columbia Journal of Gender and Law (2020).
• Jain, D., & Rhoten, K., Epistemic Injustice and Judicial Discourse, 26(1) Journal of Human Values, (2020).
• Jain, D., Law-Making By and For the People? A Case for Pre-Legislative Processes in India, Statute Law Review, Oxford University Press (2019).
• Jain, D & Tronic, B., Conflicting Abortion Laws in India: Unintended Barriers to Safe Abortion for Adolescent Girls, 4(4) Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (2019).
• Jain, D., Time to Rethink Criminalization of Abortion? Towards a Gender Justice Approach, 12(1) NUJS Law Review (2019).
• Jain, D., & Kartik, K., Economic Violence, in Training Manual for Legal Empowerment of Women and Girls with Physical Disabilities in India (Renu Addlakha ed.), Centre for Women’s Development Studies (2019).
• Jain, D. & Sircar, O., The Trouble with Now: Some Anti Thoughts, in Women’s and Gender Studies in India: Crossings (Anu Aneja ed.), Taylor & Francis (2019).
• Jain, D. et al., Bureaucratization of Transgender Rights: Perspective from the Ground, 14(1) Socio-Legal Review (2018).
• Jain, D., Shifting Subjects of State Legibility: Gender Minorities and the Law in India, 33 Berkeley Journal of Law, Gender and Justice (2017).
• Jain, D., & Rhoten, K., Sex Worker’s Rights in India: Perspective, Voices and Narratives from the Margins, 40 Harvard Journal of Law and Gender (Spring 2017).
• Jain, D. & Tronic, Brian., Implementation of the Public Distribution System: An Empirical Analysis of the Right to Food in an Urban Slum, 12(1) Journal of Food Law and Policy (2016).
• Jain, D. & Rhoten, K., The Heteronormative State and The Right to Health in India, 7(1) NUJS Law Review (2015).
  Jain D. et al, The Enforcement of India’s Tobacco Control Legislation in the State of Haryana: A Case Study, World Medical & Health Policy (2014).
• Jain, D. & Rossario N., Between Cairo to Haryana: How Far Have Reproductive Rights Come After Twenty Years of ICPD, Whittier Law Review (Spring 2014).
• Jain, D. et al., Legally Invisible, Seminar 65 (January 2014).
• Jain, D., Gene-Patenting and Access to Healthcare In India: Achieving Precision, 36(1) Houston Journal of International Law (Winter, 2013).
• Jain, D. & Rhoten, K., A Comparison of the Legal Rights of Gender Non-Conforming Persons in South Asia, 48(52) Economic and Political Weekly (December 2013).
• Jain, D. & Darrow, J., An Exploration of Compulsory Licensing as an Effective Policy Tool, 23(2) Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine (Sept, 2013).
• Jain, D., “Is the National Pharmaceutical Policy, 2012 Cheering the Pharma? 9(1) Indian Journal of Law and Technology (August 2013).
• Jain, D. & Abeyratne, R., Domestic Violence Legislation in India: The Pitfalls of a Human Rights Approach to Gender Equality, 21(2) American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law (March, 2013).
• Jain, D., Impact of the Decriminalization of Homosexuality in Delhi: An Empirical Study, Arkansas Journal of Social Change and Public Service (Online, January 2013).
• Jain, D. & Sircar, O., Editors’ Introduction: Neoliberal Modernities; Ambiguity of Its Discontent Law, Post/Anti-Colonial Disruptions of Queer Imperialism, Law, Culture and Queer Politics in Neoliberal Times, 4(2) Jindal Global Law Review Part II (November 2013).
• Jain, D. & Sircar, O., Editors’ Introduction: New Intimacies/ Old Desires: Law, Culture and Queer Politics in Neoliberal Times, 4(1) Jindal Global Law Review Part 1 (August 2012).
• Jain, D. & Gupta, P., The “Toxic Trade”: The Legal Landscape of Asbestos Regulation in India, Women and Environment International Magazine No 90/91, 25-29 (2012).
• Jain, D. Medhini, L. & Gonsalves, C., Ed. Sammadar, R., Verdict on an HIV Case, State of Justice in India-Issue of Social Justice, Vol. IV, Sage India (June 2009).
• Jain, D. Medhini L. & Gonsalves, C., Ed. Sammadar, R., Gender: HIV and Women, State of Justice in India-Issue of Social Justice, Vol. IV, Sage India (June 2009).

Short Commentaries:

• Dipika Jain, MTP Law’s Patriarchal Bias, The Indian Express (Feb. 13, 2021).
  Dipika Jain, The Crumbling Healthcare Infrastructure And Access To Abortion In India, Feminism in India (Feb. 13, 2021).
• Dipika Jain, MTP Bill’s proposal for a bureaucracy to vet abortions is ill-judged and impractical, The Indian Express (Feb. 11, 2021).
• Dipika Jain and Kavya Kartik, The MTP Bill Would Put Doctor Panels in Charge of Approving LateStage Abortion; It’s Unfeasible and Unnecessary, The Swaddle (Feb. 01, 2021).
• Dipika Jain, Time To Bring Some Hope To ASHA Workers Fighting Coronavirus At Frontline (Apr. 02, 2020).

Academic Fellowships/Visting Positions 

• Visiting Scholar, Centre for Human Rights, Nuremberg, Germany, June, 2019
• Visiting Scholar, National University Singapore, Singapore, March-April, 2019
• Visiting Scholar, Erlangen Centre for Islam & Law in Europe, Germany, May-June, 2018

• Visiting Fellow/Faculty, Transnational Law Institute, The Dickson Poon School of Law, “Engaging Transnational Legal Practice”, UK, January, 2016-2019.

• Faculty, Transnational Law Summer Institute, King’s College London, UK, June, 2016
• Academic Visitor, Centre for Socio Legal Studies, University of Oxford, UK, May-June, 2015
• Visiting Scholar, King’s India Institute, King’s College London, United Kingdom, June-July, 2014
• Visiting Scholar, Melbourne Law School, Melbourne, Australia. Knowledge Exchange Grant, Australia-India Institute, Australia, Dec-Jan, 2014

• Visiting Scholar, Max Plank Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Munich, Germany, May-June, 2012

Invited Speaker/Panelist:

• Outreaching The Rights: Globalization of Clinical Legal Education, Global Law School Summit, Jindal Global Law School, ( 2^nd December, 2021).
• Law, Society and Legal Aid, Legal Aid Allied Laws, Online Certificate Course, Probono India (2^nd October, 2021).
• Webinar on Access to Abortion by Adolescent in India, Asia Abortion Dialogue, IPAS (17^th June, 2021).
• Law and Marginalization Clinic: Challenges and Opportunities, Roundtable – Law Clinic(s): A Global Panorama, Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi (BAU) (11^th May, 2021)
• Webinar on Reproductive Rights: An Introduction, CCRRA, Kerala (18^th February, 2021)
• My Body, My Decision – Abortion in India, Democracy News Live (Facebook/YouTube Live, 12^th October, 2020)
• Student Engagement and Disengagement in Virtual Classroom, Centre for Research in History, Jindal Global Law School (7^th October, 2020)
• Public Health Law in India: Need of the Hour, National E-Conference, Parul University (27^th September, 2020)
• Abortion in COVID times, Webinar organized by Love Matters India (Facebook Live, 25^th September 2020)
• Access to Medical Abortion: Global South Perspectives, Safe Abortion Advocacy Initiative Global South Engagement (SAIGE) and South Asia Reproductive Justice and Account Initiative (SARJAI) (4^th September, 2020)
• Un-gendering Public Law in Asia, Webinar organized by School of Law, Singapore Management University and Centre for Asian Legal Studies, National University of Singapore ( 23^rd September, 2020)
• Emerging Challenges to the Public Health Laws in India, Nirma University, Gujarat (25^th June, 2020)
• The Right to Health: What AILS and What Can Heal, Webinar organized by Clinical Programme, Jindal Global Law School (18^th June , 2020)
• Reproductive Justice During COVID-19 and Beyond: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Policy in India and the United States, Webinar organized by The Cornell India Law Center (Zoom, 15^th May, 2020)
• #EachForEqual: Critical MTP Amendments Needed to Bridge the Gaps in Access to Safe Abortion Webinar organized by Pratigya Campaign (Facebook Live, 5^th March, 2020)
• Regional Conclave: The Future of Justice Education in South Asia, organized by Institute of Law, Nirma University (Ahmedabad, November, 2019)
• Panelist, Role of Judiciary towards increasing access to Safe Abortion, Pratigya Campaign Report Launch (September, 2019)
• Gender Legal Recognition in India: A Critical Perspective, PUBLIC LECTURE, Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nuremberg (Germany, 19^th June, 2019).
• Constitutional Recognition of Sexual Minority Rights in India: Critical Reflections, GUEST FACULTY, Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nuremberg (Germany, 19^th June, 2019).
• Riding the Wheel of Charity: Lessons from Gendered Healthcare in India, SPECIAL LECTURE for NALSAR Law Review Symposium on Law and Public Health (Hyderabad, February, 2019 )
• Riding the Wheel of Charity: Lessons from Gendered Healthcare in India, Public Health, International Conference on Health Law with Special Focus on Women’s Health, Campus law Centre, Faculty of Law, Delhi University (New Delhi February, 2019).
• Abortion in Indian Courts: A Critical Review, CAC, Conclave, IPAS Development Foundation (New Delhi, June 2018)
• Scholarly Entrepreneurialism, Movement Building, Network Building, Transnational Law Summer Institute, King’s College London (UK, June 2016)
• Thinking, Writing, Teaching: Teaching a Core Course, Transnational Law Summer Institute, King’s College London, (UK, June 2016)
• Book Talk on Queer Politics in Neoliberal Times, Kings College London (January 2017)
• The Critique of the Transgender Bill, Workshop on Transgender Rights, HIV/AIDS Alliance (2017).
• Conflicting Abortion Laws in India: Unintended Barriers to Safe Abortion for Adolescent Girls, Workshop organized by IPAS India (June 2017)
• Abortion in Indian Courts, workshop organized by SHE DECIDES (September 2017).
• Rights of the Gender Variant Groups in India: The Case in the Supreme Court of India, hosted by OutLaw, Law Student for Reproductive Justice, and the South Asian Law Students Association, Chicago Law School, USA (October 2013)
• First Graduate Student to be invited by the Law Hour Committee, Dalhousie University, Halifax to present on Public Interest Litigation in India, 2007

Conference/Workshop Presentations:

• Decolonising Experiential Learning and Clinical Legal Education, Turning Challenges into Opportunities: Justice Education in Times of Crises Worldwide Online GAJE Conference, (June, 2021)
• Gendered Labour of the Frontline Healthcare Workers in India, NUS CALS Faculty Workshop, Singapore (March 2019)
• Inheritance Rights of Hijras in Colonial and Postcolonial India, Workshop, Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP), Harvard Law School, Doha (January 2015)
• Inheritance Rights of the Hijras in India under Hindu Colonial Law: Reframing of Desires, South Asia Legal Studies Pre-Conference, Wisconsin Law School, USA (October 2103)
• Social Gendering of Property Rights in India: Reframing of Desires, 2013 Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) Conference, Harvard Law School, Boston (June 2013)
• Implications of the Naz Foundation case on the LGBT Community of Delhi: Preliminary Study, IASSCS Conference- Naming and Framing, Madrid (July 2011)
• Genetic Patenting in India: Achieving Clarity, the 18th World Congress on Medical Law, Croatia (2010)
• Compulsory Licensing in India: An Empirical Investigation, Health Rights for International Conference, Vietnam (August 2009)
• Compulsory Licensing in India as a Policy Tool, Harvard Petrie-Flom Centre, Student Health Law Colloquium, (April 2009)
• Mandatory Pre-Marital HIV/AIDS Testing in India: Ethical Concerns, National Judicial Colloquium organized by UNAIDS, India (May 2007)

Judicial Training/Legal Training:

• Invited Speaker, Judicial Colloquium on HIV/AIDS and the Law, UNDP, New Delhi, India 2007
• Invited Guest Faculty, Delhi Judicial Academy, 2018
• Convener, Judicial Colloquium on Reproductive Rights, New Delhi, India , 2019
• Invited Guest Faculty, Jammu and Kashmir Judicial Academy, 2020

Conferences/Workshops Organised:

• Co Convener: Left in the Dark Conference, 2014
• Co Convener: LASSNET Conference, 2016
• Convener: National Consultation on Rights of the Transgender and Gender Variant People in India 2013, 14, 15 at Jindal Global Law School.
• Co Convener, Syllabus Design Workshop, 2016-2020
• Co Convener, Sexing the Law Conference, 2019
• Co Convener, International Conference: Rising Through the Challenge, New Delhi, 2019

• Research Grant on Criminalization of Abortion in South Asia: An Empirical Investigation, ARROW, South Asia, 2021-22.

• Research Grant on Intersectional Understanding of Abortion Laws in India, Centre for Reproductive Rights, New York, 2021-22.

• Research Grant on Advocacy on Access to Abortion in India, IPAS India, 2021.

• Research Grant on Reproductive Rights and Conflicting Legislations, Pratigya Campaign, 2020-21.

• Designated the First Research Associate Professor at JGLS, 2018-19.

• Research Grant, JGU Research Committee, The Life of Criminal Law and Gender in South Asia, 2019-21)

• JGU Research Excellence Award (2021)

• JGU Research Excellence Award (2019)

• JGU Research Excellence Award (2018)

• JGU Research Excellence Award (2017)

• JGU Research Excellence Award (2016)

• JGU Research Excellence Award (2015)

• JGU Research Excellence Award. (2014)

• JGU Research Excellence Award (2013)

• JGU Research Excellence Award (2012)

• Jindal Global Law School Teaching Excellence Award, 2015.

• Jindal Global Law School Teaching Excellence Award, 2013.

• Jindal Global Law School Teaching Excellence Award, 2011.

• Research Grant by the Centre for Reproductive Rights, New York on “Women’s Access to Contraception in the State of Haryana, India”, 2012.

• First Jindal Global Law School Teaching Excellence Award, 2011.

• IDRC Research Fellowship Award, Ottawa, 2008.

Consultancy Positions

• UNDP International Consultant, Ministry of Justice Project, Afghanistan, 2014
• Law Commission of India, New Delhi, India, 2014-2015
• IPAS Development, New Delhi, India, 2016-17
• Selection Committee, Fulbright Fellowship, New Delhi, India 2019
• UNDP Expert Panelist on Transgender Legislation with Ministry of Law and Justice, New Delhi India, 2020
• UNDP International Consultant, Digital Health, New Delhi, India 2020
• ProBono Consultant for Queer Activists/Reproductive Rights Activists in India, 2014- 2020

Editorial Experience

• Guest Co-Editor for the Symposium Issues of Journal for Human Rights, January, 2021
• Editorial Board Member, Journal of Law and Humanities, JGLS, 2019-current
• Associate Editor, Asia Pacific Law Review, 2019-current
• Appointed Co-editor in Chief, Jindal Global Law Review, Jindal Global Law School, 2012

PROFESSOR OF LAW, JINDAL GLOBAL LAW SCHOOL, INDIA, 2009-CURRENT

Courses Taught:

Core Courses

• Family Law I
• Family Law II
• Legal Methods
• Jurisprudence II (Critical Legal Theory)

Seminar Courses

• Law and Sexuality: Exploration through Films
• Health Law and Sexuality: Contemporary Challenges
• Colonial Sexuality and Postcolonial State
• Body Through Philosophy: Reading Foucault
• Law, Desire and Popular Culture

Clinical Courses

• Reproductive Justice and the Law Clinic
• Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming People and the Law Clinic
• Transwomen and the Criminal Justice System in Delhi Clinic
• Universal Access to Healthcare in Haryana Clinic
• Gender, Difference and the Law Clinic

VISITING PROFESSOR: TRANSNATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE, KING’S COLLEGE LONDON, 2016-CURRENT

Courses Taught

• Constitutional Litigation and Social Movements
• Law, Desire and Popular Culture
• Law, Gender and Sexuality in India: Litigation and Advocacy

GUEST FACULTY, DEVELOPMENT AND LAW TRAINING PROGRAMME, ADVOCATES FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVLOPMENT, LONDON, 2021

         Module Taught

• Global Health Law

ADJUNCT FACULTY: INDIAN SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, NEW DELHI (2005)

• Modules on International Refugee Law