Prof. Manasi Kumar

Prof. Manasi Kumar

Professor

B.A. (Reed College);

J.D. (Lewis & Clark Law School)

: manasi@jgu.edu.in

Prof. Manasi Kumar is a Professor at Jindal Global Law School. Prior to entering academia, she worked as a commercial dispute resolution attorney with well-known law firms in India and the United States, where she was admitted to the Oregon state bar. She had a diverse commercial practice that included construction, oil and gas, government procurements, insurance, and maritime law. She teaches foundational contract law courses, and a self-designed, highly popular elective on commercial contract drafting.

In 2020, she received the O.P. Jindal Global University Research Excellence Award. In 2021, she convened an ambitious series of conferences on contract law in common law countries. This project was in collaboration with the London Centre for Commercial and Financial Law (in cooperation with the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London), and convened experts from across four continents in a detailed comparative study of contract law in the common law world. The conferences resulted in a series of papers being published in a special double-issue of the Liverpool Law Review, which is a Scopus-indexed journal.

Her research is focused on contract law and alternate dispute resolution. She has also served as Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs in JGLS and later Controller of Examinations for O.P. Jindal Global University, a role she stepped down from to focus on her research in 2018.

She has a Juris Doctor from Lewis and Clark Law School in the United States, where she was inducted into the Cornelius Honour Society upon her graduation in 2008, an honour given to select graduates by the law school faculty. She is currently working on completing her dissertation on objectivity and contextualism within the Indian law of contracts from Deakin Law School.

Articles

  • Manasi Kumar. ‘The “Positive Law” of Impossibility in the Indian Contract Act.’ Indian Law Review, Volume 7, 2023.
  • Manasi Kumar, Maren Heidemann. ‘Contract Law in Common Law Countries: A Study in Divergence.’ Liverpool Law Review, Volume 43, Issue 2, 2022, 133-147.
  • Manasi Kumar, Nishtha Pant. ‘Construing the Written Warranty.’ Liverpool Law Review, Volume 43, Issue 2, 2022, pp. 361-388.
  • Manasi Kumar. ‘The Chimera of Restraint of Trade in India.’ Journal of Contract Law, Volume 37, 2021, pp. 64-85.
  • Manasi Kumar. ‘The “Composite Transaction” and Extension of Arbitration Agreements in India.’ Journal of International Arbitration, Volume 27, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 363-390.
  • Manasi Kumar and Isha Saluja. ‘Relocating Fertility: Charting the Course for Uterine Transplants in India.’ Quinnipiac Health Law Journal, Volume 23, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 49-80.
  • Manasi Kumar. ‘Birthing a Contract: A Critical Evaluation of Commercial Surrogacy in India through a Contractual Framework.’ Indian Law Review, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 206-231.

Book Chapters

  • Manasi Kumar and Poorna Mysoor. ‘The Duty of Good Faith’ in Foundations of Indian Contract Law (Oxford University Press) (forthcoming in 2024).
  • Catherine Brinkman, Manasi Kumar. ‘Bid Disputes.’ Construction Law Volume, The Oregon State Bar’s Practitioner’s Guide Series (2011).

Editorial Positions

  • Member, Editorial Board. Liverpool Law Review (appointed January 2024).

Other Publications

  • Manasi Kumar. ‘An Imagined Battlefield.’ The Statesman [New Delhi], 17 September 2015, p. 14. Print.
  • Manasi Kumar and Kimberly Rhoten. ‘Whose Baby Is It Anyway?’ India Legal, Volume VIII, Issue 11, 15 February 2015, pp. 50-51.
  • Manasi Kumar. ‘India’s Daughters Gag Themselves.’ The Statesman [Kolkata], 12 March 2015, p. 16. Print.
  • Designed, organized, and co-convenor for a series of virtual conferences in 2021 on ‘Contract Law in Common Law Countries – A Study in Divergence.’ These conferences are co-organized with the London Centre for Commercial and Financial Law, in cooperation with the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. The project culminated in a special issue of the Liverpool Law Review in 2022 – Volume 43, Issue 2.
  • 17th Asia Law Institute Conference on ‘Law and Justice in Asia.’ Asian Law Institute (National University of Singapore) in collaboration with the National Law University (Delhi), November 2020. Presented paper on ‘The “Composite Transaction” and Extension of Arbitration Agreements in India.’
  • 4th Annual Conference on ‘The Future of the Commercial Contract in Scholarship and Law Reform.’ Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, October 2019. Presented early draft of paper on extension of arbitration agreements in India. Subsequently published in the Journal of International Arbitration.
  • Law of Contracts I & II
  • Commercial Contract Drafting (self-designed elective)
  • Animal Welfare Law (self-designed elective)
  • Adjunct Faculty at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata (2022-present).