Werner F Menski
SOAS University of London, School of Law, Faculty Member
- I taught Hindu law, Muslim law, general South Asian laws and Comparative Law at SOAS from 1980-2014. I added to this ... moreI taught Hindu law, Muslim law, general South Asian laws and Comparative Law at SOAS from 1980-2014. I added to this teaching and research on Ethnic Minorities and the Law, which then developed into components on immigration law and discrimination law. Since 2014, I am Emeritus Professor of South Asian Laws at SOAS and continue to edit the SAGE journal called South Asia Research.edit
- The supervisor for my PhD on Role and ritual in the Hindu Marriage (SOAS, 1984) was Prof. J.D.M. Derrettedit
handling difference. Creating new laws may, as in this case, conveniently serve as a tool to make more hay out of hazy notions and allows academics to proudly talk of ‘impact’. Shah’s subsequent chapters confirm that the real story of... more
handling difference. Creating new laws may, as in this case, conveniently serve as a tool to make more hay out of hazy notions and allows academics to proudly talk of ‘impact’. Shah’s subsequent chapters confirm that the real story of caste and its abuse in England is much more complex than Parliament and those who assisted or manipulated it wanted to know. This reviewer’s advice is that this well-written book needs to be read in depth by those who want to understand what may trouble South Asian Studies specialists that seem to despise India and Indians, and thus often themselves. Shah himself, a British kenyan Asian academic working on law and cultural diversity, provides a sharp lens for examining a topic about which we will soon hear more. Fake cases of alleged discrimination, relying on ill-conceived legislation that did not sufficiently care about its potential implications, as Chapter 6 confirms, will make interesting future reading. Yet, the problems of handling and balancing difference, however grounded and justified, will not go away. So whom or what do we blame, if not simply ‘tradition’? Returning to the blaspemy scenario, it becomes evident that state systems and their advisers can be implicated today as propounders of such violence by permitting obnoxious claims. Academics as handmaidens of such violence should then perhaps hang their heads in shame, rather than making self-righteous claims about caste the way they do and boasting about their impact.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Criminology and Brill
This chapter argues that the challenges of diversity management in post-modern Europe are now more visibly pushing them all to acknowledge that simplistic, state-centric methods of handling difference and diversity are no longer... more
This chapter argues that the challenges of diversity management in post-modern Europe are now more visibly pushing them all to acknowledge that simplistic, state-centric methods of handling difference and diversity are no longer sufficient. Research shows how continuing reluctance to embrace pluralist methodologies for rebalancing family law regulation in Europe risks leading to deeply messy scenarios, in which states risk losing credibility, control and power, unless they learn to improve their handling of such complex new conflicts. This chapter sought to take a constructive theoretical perspective, facing the simmering conflicts rather than denying that they exist as legal contests and shooting them into an imagined extra-legal space. Up in the air, there are certainly fewer assumed or actual fixed boundaries or prescribed roads, dynamism becomes super-dynamism, and subtle changes of navigational guidance may bring truly significant changes of direction. The chapter uses image, real fears of crashing seem to motivate the current plurality-conscious rebalancing of family law regulation in Europe
Research Interests:
While the topic of arranged marriages among South Asians has generated some interest among researchers (Ballard, 1977-8; Brah, 1977-8), is often taken up by the media, and remains of tremendous importance to the South Asian communities in... more
While the topic of arranged marriages among South Asians has generated some interest among researchers (Ballard, 1977-8; Brah, 1977-8), is often taken up by the media, and remains of tremendous importance to the South Asian communities in Britain themselves, nothing has, to my knowledge, so far been written about the effects of the British legal system and its requirements on South Asian customs and practices with particular reference to the solemnisation of Hindu marriages
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
readers to academics and scholars. There seems very little space left for commonplace, light-hearted reading for the sake of entertainment, relaxation and adventure. There is also quite a generalisation of the not-so-high quality of... more
readers to academics and scholars. There seems very little space left for commonplace, light-hearted reading for the sake of entertainment, relaxation and adventure. There is also quite a generalisation of the not-so-high quality of ‘literature today’. Mentioning Martel and Smith to represent today’s literature, khair bemoans the lack of ‘gaps and silences’ that catapults any piece of writing into good literature. One cannot help wondering why there is no mention of writers like Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, kiran Desai, Toni Morrison, Orhan Pamuk, or Mo Yan, to randomly name a few. Certainly one may not deny how these writers have masterfully utilised the failures and limits of language to speak of (or, more often than not, voice through silence) the unnarratable human experience. Many of their works have not only been patronised by today’s (consumer-oriented) publishing industry but have also been best-sellers. Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth (2008) topped the New York Times Bestseller list, while Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008) topped the Hindustan Times Bestseller list recently, and the list can go on. In other words, in this book’s assessment of, and lament for, the standard of today’s literature, there is a notable blind spot concerning these more serious, nevertheless greatly successful and widely appreciated, authors and their works. To conclude, one may not deny the greatness of art and the timelessness of appeal of Conrad, Forster, Baudelaire or Proust, but one need not despair of talent and great literature in our times.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... Finally, Mandira Sharma and Dinesh Prasain investigate the role and the growing active involvement of rural women in the Maoist insurgency. ... The final section consists of an essay by Hari Roka on Nepal's present political... more
... Finally, Mandira Sharma and Dinesh Prasain investigate the role and the growing active involvement of rural women in the Maoist insurgency. ... The final section consists of an essay by Hari Roka on Nepal's present political situation since the deployment of the Royal Army ...
Research Interests:
... Apart from the contributors to this book, I am also grateful to Mrs. Naomi Rosenberg of West Palm Beach in Florida, Mr. Inder Kapur of Hawaii, Dr. Renuka Sharma of Melbourne, Australia, Professor Michael Witzel of Harvard University,... more
... Apart from the contributors to this book, I am also grateful to Mrs. Naomi Rosenberg of West Palm Beach in Florida, Mr. Inder Kapur of Hawaii, Dr. Renuka Sharma of Melbourne, Australia, Professor Michael Witzel of Harvard University, my wife Jyoti, and many others whom I ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Abdou Maliq Simone, Improvised Lives: Rhythms of Endurance in an Urban South (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019), vii + 151 pp.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
[skip to content]. SOAS Research Online. SOAS Home »; Research »; SOAS Research Online. Login, ...
Research Interests:
Against a background of comparative jurisprudential analysis, this chapter demonstrates that despite its formal amalgamation into Hindu law in India during 1955-1956, Jaina law continues to manifest itself in various unofficial and... more
Against a background of comparative jurisprudential analysis, this chapter demonstrates that despite its formal amalgamation into Hindu law in India during 1955-1956, Jaina law continues to manifest itself in various unofficial and semiofficial forms. Thus, it is not productive to dispute whether Jaina law existed or exists. The need is rather to research what culture-specific manifestations Jaina law has been taking, and what role it continues to play in maintaining a separate Jaina identity
Research Interests: Law and Political Science
Research Interests:
In legal discourses about Hinduism and the related laws as ‘the West’s other’, this comes out prominently today in fierce ideologically grounded battles over the continued recognition of personal law systems. Given that Hinduism is a... more
In legal discourses about Hinduism and the related laws as ‘the West’s other’, this comes out prominently today in fierce ideologically grounded battles over the continued recognition of personal law systems. Given that Hinduism is a family of culturally similar traditions marked by unity-in-diversity, it has been impossible to neatly define ‘Hindu’, ‘Hinduism’ or ‘Hindu law’. Since 2014, India is again ruled by a so-called Hindu nationalist government, which seems to have its own ideas about what ‘Hindu law’ is or may be, but also claims to recognise its constitutional obligations as a government for all Indians, not just for Hindus. Yet despite reliance on effectively culture-specific basic claims as an interconnected cosmic system, these Hindu law perspectives necessarily involve recognition of various forms of the ‘legal other’, both Hindu and ‘non-Hindu’, built into the system since ancient times and continued, despite repeated predictions of disaster by detractors
Research Interests:
Inspired by the writings of the celebrant, this chapter identifies a significant climate change in the plurality-conscious theorising of ‘law’ worldwide, observing growing readiness to accept various illustrations of the internal... more
Inspired by the writings of the celebrant, this chapter identifies a significant climate change in the plurality-conscious theorising of ‘law’ worldwide, observing growing readiness to accept various illustrations of the internal plurality of ‘law’. How one depicts this, and to what extent any theoretical contribution may account for the constant dynamism of legal development will probably occupy legal scholars for many years to come. Later parts of this chapter, based on awareness of the internal diversity of law and the practical implications of the observed climate changes in comparative law globally, analyse recent path-breaking developments in the Indian legal system’s skilful handling of the deeply contested problem of maintenance for divorced wives. It shows how non-Western legal systems may be much more astute than we imagine in the navigation of such difficult issues, which involve inter alia judicial interpretation of Muslim law principles within a secular democratic Republic
Research Interests:
Acknowledgements List of Contributors Interpreting Women's Right of Divorce Theoretical Reflections Chapter 1. Interpreting Divorce Laws in Pakistan - by Muhammad Khalid Masud Chapter 2. The Politics of Divorce Laws in Iran - by Ziba... more
Acknowledgements List of Contributors Interpreting Women's Right of Divorce Theoretical Reflections Chapter 1. Interpreting Divorce Laws in Pakistan - by Muhammad Khalid Masud Chapter 2. The Politics of Divorce Laws in Iran - by Ziba Mir-Hosseini Chapter 3. Egyptian Khul: Legal Reform, Courtroom Practices and Realities of Women - by Mulki Al-Sharmani Chapter 4. Justice for Everyone? Implementation of Morroco's 2004 Mudawana Reforms - by Rachel Newcomb Chapter 5. Divorce at the Woman's Initiative in India, in Pakistan and in the Diasporas - by Livia Holden Chapter 6. The Right to Divorce for Women (Khul) in Islam: Comparative Practices in Mauritania and Egypt - by Corinne Fortier Chapter 7. Muslim Divorces in Denmark - Findings from an Empirical Investigation - by Anika Liversage Chapter 8. In the Shadow of the Law - by Ralph D. Grillo Chapter 9. No-Fault Talaq: Divorce in Canadian Immigration and Family Law - by Pascale Fournier, Aida Setrakian og Pascal McDougall Chapte...
Research Interests: Religion, Law, Islamic Law, Political Science, Islam, and 3 moreSharia, Divorce, and Faculty of humanities
[skip to content]. SOAS Research Online. SOAS Home »; Research »; SOAS Research Online. Login, ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Law and Political Science
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The present chapter aims to provide a detailed historical overview of Islamic law in comparative perspective. It seeks to demonstrate that Islamic law, too, is built on a notion of plurality-consciousness and can be examined within the... more
The present chapter aims to provide a detailed historical overview of Islamic law in comparative perspective. It seeks to demonstrate that Islamic law, too, is built on a notion of plurality-consciousness and can be examined within the triangular model of global legal theory explored in the present study. In comparison with Hindu law, scholarship on Islamic law seems to be much more securely anchored around the world. This does not mean that knowledge about Islamic law is better developed or that its place within a plurality-focused global analysis is easier to define. Scholarship on Islamic law is spread widely, available in many different languages apart from Arabic and English, and so diffuse in terms of approaches, sectarian and school traditions that a full overview is impossible. The present analysis concentrates on those aspects that further understanding of how Islamic law, as a religion-based legal system, manages to reconcile the doctrinal centrality of religious belief with its inherent plurality of socio-cultural manifestations. It is a case study mainly in how natural law and socio-legal approaches interact, while concepts of state positivism are not absent. This chapter highlights how Islamic law has achieved and largely maintained a sophisticated degree of plurality-consciousness, albeit often obfuscated by theological polemics and political rhetoric. The chapter explores in depth the tensions within Islamic law concerning its claims to uniformity and global validity and the pluralities created by human social and political life.
Research Interests:
to tell a family history (thus accounting for their decision to compile excerpts from diverse sources), they never fully explain why or how their focus on a single family deepens one’s understanding of the region’s history. Alas, these... more
to tell a family history (thus accounting for their decision to compile excerpts from diverse sources), they never fully explain why or how their focus on a single family deepens one’s understanding of the region’s history. Alas, these excerpts potentially speak of many important topics, including the structure and meaning of political relations in Rajasthan, the moral foundations of Hindu kingship, the nature of pre-colonial state formation and Mughal-Rajput socio-political relations, to mention just a few. Given that much of Saran’s and Ziegler’s previous writings (most of it unpublished) has engaged with these issues in important and innovative ways, it is somewhat disappointing not to see any of that impressive work developed in this forum. But these are ’sins’ of omission rather than of commission, and they in no way detract from the great value of these two volumes. Indeed, it is hoped that the appearance of this tour de ,force signals the return to active publication of two scholars whose unpublished work has had such a great impact on the historical studies of Rajasthan.
Research Interests:
[skip to content]. SOAS Research Online. SOAS Home »; Research »; SOAS Research Online. Login, ...
Research Interests:
[skip to content]. SOAS Research Online. SOAS Home »; Research »; SOAS Research Online. Login, ...
Research Interests:
not available Dhaka University Law Journal, Vol. 32(1), 2021 P.1-16
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
(2008). International Migration and Global Justice by Satvinder Singh Juss. King's Law Journal: Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 429-436.
Research Interests:
This is an updated list of my publications, until October 2020