Legal Theory in the Colonies: Hindu and Jewish Scholars under British Rule

Assaf Likhovski

doi:10.1017/9781009699877

In colonial India and Mandatory Palestine, early-twentieth-century legal scholars made important contributions to the study of the nature of law, particularly by analyzing Hindu and Jewish law – their ancient religious systems. This book reconstructs the lives and ideas of these scholars, revealing a forgotten global wave of jurisprudential innovation that appeared across many territories in the non-Western world. The book challenges the view that non-Western legal scholars working in the colonies were passive recipients of Western ideas. It argues that Indian and Jewish thinkers used Western historical and sociological approaches to law to reimagine Hindu and Jewish law, and to assert their relevance to modern legal and constitutional debates. Though historical in scope, the story this book tells is also relevant to contemporary tensions between Western liberal law and non-Western religious legal traditions. This title is available as open access on Cambridge Core.

‘There are many parallels between India and Palestine in the waning years of the British Empire, and Assaf Likhovski is one of the very few scholars who can write comparatively about their histories as part of the same story. Likhovski demonstrates that jurists in Palestine and India contested the hegemony of imperial law with self-awareness and sophistication. This brilliant blend of intellectual and institutional history explains a key chapter in the creation of the modern world order and shows how a collection of diverse and fascinating thinkers challenged Western assumptions about the very meaning of law.’

Alexander Kaye - author of The Invention of Jewish Theocracy: The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel

‘A magnificent feat of scholarship. Assaf Likhovski has written an essential, groundbreaking work that transforms our understanding of law's rich and complicated colonial past in South Asia and the Middle East—and offers a resource for imagining its democratic future.’

James Loeffler - author of Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight over Free Speech in Modern America

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Contents

Legal Theory in the Colonies
pp i-i
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Series page - Series page
pp ii-iv
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Legal Theory in the Colonies - Title page
pp v-v
Hindu and Jewish Scholars under British Rule
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Copyright page
pp vi-vi
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Dedication
pp vii-viii
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Contents
pp ix-x
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Figures
pp xi-xi
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Tables
pp xii-xii
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Acknowledgments
pp xiii-xv
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Note on Transliteration and Terminology
pp xvi-xvi
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Introduction
pp 1-22
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Part I - Institutions and Works
pp 23-132
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1 - Legal Education and Legal Theory in Colonial India
pp 25-81
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2 - Legal Education and Legal Theory in Mandatory Palestine
pp 82-124
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Interlude 1: Goals
pp 125-132
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Part II - Individual Scholars
pp 133-200
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3 - The Life and Jurisprudential Ideas of Radhabinod Pal
pp 135-162
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4 - The Life and Jurisprudential Ideas of Samuel Eisenstadt
pp 163-189
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Interlude 2: Politics
pp 190-200
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Part III - Ancient Public Law
pp 201-338
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5 - The Hindu Polity Literature
pp 203-249
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6 - The Study of Ancient Jewish Public Law
pp 250-301
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Interlude 3: Impact
pp 302-308
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7 - Legal Education and Legal Theory in Egypt and China
pp 309-338
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Epilogue
pp 339-351
The Decline and Resurgence of Legal Nationalism in Postcolonial India and Israel
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Bibliography
pp 352-409
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Index
pp 410-426
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Legal Theory in the Colonies

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