Introduction: new directions, new voices in family law in India

Abstract

In July 2019, select family law scholars from around India and the world gathered at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru, India to participate in a conference on “New Directions, New Voices in Family Law in India” jointly sponsored by NLSIU, the University of Oxford – Faculty of Law, and Melbourne Law School. The papers and presenters were diverse and the conference conversations were enthusiastic. As a result of this conference, four quite different but interlinked papers were eventually selected for inclusion in this special issue of the Indian Law Review. These papers bring much needed attention to neglected aspects of a wide range of contemporary Indian family law issues and move us beyond seeing Indian family law as necessarily about the constitutional dimensions of personal law and the nationalistic directions that these constitutional discussions have often taken. The following four papers are to be commended for the nuance and sensitivity each brings to complicated legal and social issues relating to family.