Arun K. Thiruvengadam
Professor
- J.S.D., New York University
-
LL.M. (Public Service Law),
New York University -
LL.M (Public Law and Policy),
National Law School of India - B.A., LL.B (Hons.), National Law School of India
Areas of Interest
Comparative constitutional law | Indian Constitutional, Administrative and Regulatory law | Law and Development | Constitutionalism in Asia
Arun K. Thiruvengadam obtained undergraduate and post-graduate degrees from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (“NLS”) in 1995 and 2001 respectively. He later studied for a second LLM and a JSD at New York University School of Law (NYU Law) where he was a recipient of the Global Public Service Law Scholarship for the LL.M (2001-02) and a Doctoral Fellowship while a JSD candidate (2002-07).
He has previously held the following academic positions: Research and Teaching Fellow
at NLS (1999-01); Research Fellow, NYU Law (2003-2005); Visiting Fellow (2005- 2007) and Assistant Professor Law, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (2007-15); Associate Professor (2015-2017) and Professor of Law, Azim Premji University (2017-2021) and Professor of Law, NLS (2021-2026). In June 2026, he was appointed a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School, Australia.
Professor Thiruvengadam began his career as a practicing lawyer before the High Court of Madras in 1995 in the chambers of Mr. Arvind P. Datar. Between October 1995-March 1997, he worked as law-clerk-cum-research-assistant to Chief Justice A.M. Ahmadi at the Supreme Court of India. Thereafter, he practiced before the trial courts in Delhi and the High Court of Delhi for a year. Between 1998-1999, he practiced before the Supreme Court of India while working in the chambers of Mr. Raju Ramachandran, Senior Advocate.
Thiruvengadam’s research focuses on comparative constitutional law; Indian constitutional, administrative and regulatory law; Law and Development, and Law and Politics in South Asia. Some of his publications in these areas are listed below.
Thiruvengadam has taught courses on a visiting basis at a number of law schools including the University of Toronto, Canada; the University of Trento, Italy; the Central European University, Budapest/Vienna; City University School of Law, Hong Kong; the University of Zurich Switzerland; UNSW, Sydney, Australia; and the JSW Law School, Bhutan. He is a founding editor (and currently the co-General Editor) of the Indian Law Review (Taylor and Francis, UK). He is on the Editorial Board of the Asian Journal of Comparative Law (Cambridge UK) and World Comparative Law (Nomos, Germany).
Some of his publications are listed here. Several of these are available at his SSRN page.
Publications
1. The Constitution of India: A Contextual Analysis (Hart Publishing UK: Oxford,
2017) (Indian edition by Bloomsbury India published in January 2018),
1. Editor, ‘Volume 2: Constitutionalism’, Selected Works of Upendra Baxi (a total of 4 volumes) (Oxford University Press, India, 2024), pp. 744. (original content: Introduction and an Interview with Upendra Baxi).
2. Democratic Constitutionalism in Continental Polities: Comparing the European
Union and India (Edward Elgar UK, 2021) (co-edited with Philipp Dann).
3. Amartya Sen and Law (Routledge USA, October 2019) (co-edited with Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Victor V. Ramraj and Supriya Routh).
4. Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia (Oxford University Press: Delhi, 2013; Paperback edition, 2016) (co-edited with Sunil Khilnani and Vikram Raghavan),
5. Emergency Powers in Asia (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2010;
South Asia paperback edition, 2017) (co-edited with Victor V. Ramraj)
1. Defending Deference: Review of Cora Chan’s ‘Deference in Human Rights Adjudication’, Vol 4 (Issue 2) 2026 Comparative Constitutional Studies (Edward Elgar) 10 pp. (with Kedar Ammanji).
2. Teaching Law and Development in India: Reflections, Insights and Challenges, Vol. 55 (2), VRU/World Comparative Law (2022), (with Neeraj Grover).
3. Fortifying Liberal Constitutionalism in our Times: Reflections on ‘Abusive Constitutional Borrowings’, Vol 12 (2) Journal of Indian Law and Society (Winter 2021)
4. Book Review, Justice vs Judiciary (2019) by Sudhanshu Ranjan, Vol, 17 (2) 2021 Socio-Legal Review.
5. Evaluating Bruce Ackerman’s ‘Pathways to Constitutionalism’ and India as an exemplar of ‘revolutionary constitutionalism on a human scale’, Vol 17 (2) International Journal of Constitutional Law (I.CON) 2019, 682-89, 9 pp.
6. Book Review: ‘Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia (Mark Tushnet and Madhav Khosla, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2015), Public Law (2018, Issue 2)
7. Forswearing ‘Foreign Moods, Fads or Fashions’ Contextualising the refusal of
Koushal to engage with foreign law, Vol VI, No. 4 (Oct-Dec 2013) NUJS Law Review pp. 595-612 (published in April 2015)
8. Social Justice lawyering and the meaning of Indian constitutionalism: A case study of the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, 31 Wisconsin International Law Journal 525-65 (2013). (with Arvind Narrain).
9. Of Masks, Absences and Exceptions: Cause Lawyering in Singapore, 31 Wisconsin International Law Journal 646-671 (2013). (with Jothie Rajah).
10. Excavating Constitutional Antecedents in Asia: An essay on the potential and perils, 88 (1) Chicago-Kent Law Review 45-61 (2013)
11. Judiciaries as crucial actors in Southern regulatory systems: A case study of Indian telecom regulation, 6(3) Regulation and Governance 327-343 (September 2012) (with Piyush Joshi)
12. Book Review: ‘Administrative Law and Governance in Asia: Comparative Perspectives,’ 32(2) Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 211-221 (2010).
13. ‘In Pursuit of “the Common Illumination of our House”: Trans-judicial influence and the origins of PIL jurisprudence in South Asia, 2 Indian Journal of Constitutional Law 67-103 (2008)
14. Legal Education in Asia, 1 Asian Journal of Comparative Law 184-207 (2006), (with C.H. Tan, KS Teo, J Wang, GF Bell, XH Dang, J Kim and V Vijayakumar)
15. India: Constitutional Amendment for the Right to Education, 2 International
Journal of Constitutional Law 148-158 (2004), (with Vijayshri Sripathi).
16. International Law and Constitution-making, 2 Chinese Journal of International
Law 467-518 (2003), (with Thomas M. Franck)
(Selected)
1.‘India’s Unfolding Constitutional Moment’ in Albert Chen and Kevin Tan (eds.),
Constitutional Moments in 21 st century Asia (Bloomsbury, UK, forthcoming April 2027) (with Parv Tyagi).
2.‘Assessing India’s Parliamentary Executive across 75 years’ in Timothy Endicott, Catherine O’Regan, Harshan Kumarasingham and Dominic Burbidge (eds.) Ruptures and
Continuities in the Westminster Model (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2027) (with Aaditi Sinha).
3. ‘Fourth Branch Institutions’ in Aparna Chandra et al (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Indian Constitution (Cambridge University Press India, 2026), pp. 20. (with Manpreet Dhillon).
4. ‘Of Continuities, Ruptures and Déjà vu: The Regulation of Telecommunications from
‘Colonial India’ to ‘New India’ (1854-2024)’ in Ganesh Sitaraman, Morgan Ricks et al,
(eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Networks, Platforms and Utilities Law (Cambridge University Press, 2026), pp. 30. (with Shrey Garg).
5. ‘Social Rights in India’ in Neha Jain and Mila Versteeg (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Human Rights Law (forthcoming 2026), 25 pp. (with Gaurav Mukherji).
6. ‘The Intertwining of liberalism and illiberalism in the Indian Constitutional Tradition’
in Andras Sajo, Stephen Holmes and Renata Uitz (eds), The Routledge Handbook of
Illiberalism (2021), pp. 736-52.
7. ‘India’s Constitutional Founding: An enduring but mixed legacy’ in Constitutional
Foundings in South Asia (Kevin Tan and Ridwanul Hoque, eds, Hart Publishing UK,
2021), pp. 1-41.
8. ‘Constitutional Change, Basic Structure and Constitutional Politics: Insights from the
Indian experience’ in Henning Glaser (ed.), Identity and Change – The Basic Structure in
Asian Constitutional Orders (German Southeast Asian Centre for Public Policy and Governance: Bangkok, forthcoming), pp. 1-21.
9. ‘Pandemics and Emergency Powers in Asia’ in Victor V. Ramraj (ed.), Covid-19 in
Asia: Law and Policy contexts (Oxford University Press: UK, 2021), pp.15. (with Victor Ramraj).
10. ‘India’ in Nationality Law in the Eastern Hemisphere: Acquisition and loss of
citizenship in Asian Perspective (Olivier Wonk, ed., Wolf Legal Publishers: the Netherlands, 2018), pp. 153-76 (23 pp.) (with Ashna Ashesh).
(Selected)
1. Invited for a Plenary Panel on Academic Freedom at the annual conference of the International Conference of Public Law (I.CON S) held at the University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland in July 2026.
2.Invited to deliver a lecture as part of a public panel at the Faculty of Law, University of
Zurich on ‘Global Challenges to the Rule of Law’ on June 04, 2026.
3. Invited to deliver two public lectures on ‘India’s Constitutional Moment’ and ‘Telecommunications Regulation in India’ at the Faculty of Law and the Centre for India
and South Asia Research (CISAR), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada on March 16 and 18, 2026.
4. Invited to deliver a Keynote talk on ‘Constitutional Moments in 21 st Century Asia: India’ at the Asian Constitutional Law Forum, organised by Hong Kong University between December 09-10, 2024.
5. ‘Changing conceptions of Equality in the Age of Authoritarianism: A case study of the Indian constitutional experience’ presented as a public lecture at the University of Zurich on May 04, 2023 as part of the URPP Equality of Opportunity project.
6. ‘Kushaldas Advani at 70’ presented as part of a virtual panel organized by the ILS
Law College, Pune to commemorate important public law decisions of the Indian Supreme Court on July 20, 2020. The panel featured Chief Justice Sahi of the Madras High Court, and included Senior Advocate Arvind P. Datar and Sharath Chandran, Advocate, Madras High Court.
7. ‘Covid-19 and Centre-Local relations in India’ presented as part of the Second Virtual Roundtable on Covid-19 and Centre-Local relations in Asia: Coming Together or Coming Apart? organised by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS), Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore on June 15, 2020.
8. ‘Contextualising Democratic Decay and Resilience in India’ presented as part of a panel discussion featuring constitutional scholars from Germany and India on ‘Democratic Decay and Resilience in Europe and India’ held at Humboldt University Law Faculty Berlin on February 20, 2020.
9. ‘The Making of the Indian Constitution: A focus on process and methods’, delivered
as a public lecture at the workshop on “The Idea of the Indian Constitution, Chapter II’
organized by Takshila Foundation and History for Peace project at the Delhi Public School, Pune, between Feb 07-09, 2020.
10. ‘Sentinel or Undertaker: The Supreme Court and the Indian Constitution’ delivered as the 2019 James Merralls Fellowship Lecture on Dec 02, 2019 at Melbourne Law School and on Dec 10, 2019 at Corrs Wesgarth Chambers, Sydney.
11. ‘Exploring the Constitutional Contours of the Ayodhya Judgment’, delivered as part
of the first NLS Public Lecture Series, at the campus of the National Law School of India
University, Bangalore on November 14, 2019.
12. ‘Panel Discussion on the Supreme Court by Numbers’ organized by the Centre for Law and Policy Research, Bangalore at the Bangalore International Centre (Seminar Hall I)) on Friday, July 12, 2019.
1. ‘India’s unfolding Constitutional Moment’ presented at the annual conference of the International Public Law Society (I.CON S) held at UCD Dublin, Ireland in July 2026
2. ‘Regulation of Telecommunications in India (1854-2024)’ presented at the Third Networks, Platforms and Utilities conference organized by Vanderbilt University between June 3-5, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
3. ‘Fortifying Liberal Constitutionalism in Our Times’ presented at a one-day conference organized by the CSSEIP, NLS and IIT Bombay on ‘After Neo – liberalism’ held at NLSIU Bangalore on March 21, 2024.
4. ‘Social Rights in India and Asia’ presented at the Faculty seminar at Humboldt University at the Chair of Public Law of Professor Philipp Dann in Berlin on June 05, 2023.
5. ‘Assessing Judicial ‘Hero’ figures in the Age of Authoritarianism: A comparative assessment’ presented at a symposium on ‘Between Philosopher King and Juristocracy: The ambivalence of adventurous apex courts in South Asia’ held at the Central European University, Vienna between May 19-20, 2023.
6. ‘Liberalism, Constitutionalism and Religious Revivalism in South Asia: A contemporary Indian perspective’ presented at a virtual conference on ‘Public Law, Legal Orders and Governance: Regulating Globalisation in Asia’ organized by the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria and the JSW Law School, Bhutan between June 25-28, 2020.
7. ‘Developments in the law relating to Tribunals’ presented at the conference on ‘Courts and the Constitution, 2019’ organized by the Law and Other Things blog in collaboration with Azim Premji University and NALSAR, Hyderabad at the campus of NALSAR, Hyderabad on January 25-26, 2020.
8. ‘Blinkered, Compromised and Scared: Rohingya Asylum Seekers and the Limits of
Constitutional Protections in India’ presented at a workshop on ‘Constitutional Resilience in South Asia’ organized by the Centre for Constitutional Studies, Melbourne Law School at Melbourne between Dec 05-07, 2019. (co-presented with Douglas MacDonald-Norman).
9. ‘Transformative Constitutionalism in India’ presented at a workshop on ‘Transformative Constitutionalism in India and the EU’ held at the Justus Leibig University, Geissen, Germany between Sep 18-20, 2019.
10. ‘Contemporary and historical perspectives on law and governance in South Asia’, presented at a Conference on Public Law, Legal Orders and Governance organized jointly by the JSW School of Law and the University of Victoria, Canada, held at the JSW Law School, Thimphu, Bhutan between July 17-19, 2019.
11. ‘Evaluating Bruce Ackerman’s ‘Pathways to Constitutionalism’ presented at the Doctoral Students Seminar, Department of Law, Central European University, Budapest on June 05, 2019.
12. ‘Constitutional Foundings in India’ presented at a conference on ‘Constitutional Foundings in South Asia’ organized by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore between March 22-23, 2019.
13. ‘Constitutionalism and Citizenship’ presented at a conference on ‘Migration in South Asia: Poverty and Inequality” organized by the South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore between February 24-25, 2019.
