Acknowledgements

This book germinated as an idea at a conference held at Oxford in 2012. It began to take shape as an MPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and gradually transformed into a PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge.

Different chapters of this book have been presented as conference papers or lectures between 2012 and 2015. I am grateful to the institutions at which they were organized—Centre for Policy Research (New Delhi), Harvard Law School (Cambridge, Massachusetts), King's College London, London School of Economics, University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, and Queen Mary University (London)—and all the partici­pants whose questions and suggestions have enriched this book. I am also grateful to the librarians at the Bodleian Law Library (Oxford), British Library (London), Judges' Reference Library (Northern Ireland), Squire Law Library (Cambridge), and the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Library, for their time and expert assistance.

Pursuing the PhD would not have been possible without funding from Sidney Sussex College (Cambridge) and the Modern Law Review Scholarship.

I am indebted to those who played an instrumental role in shap­ing my thoughts and ideas as a student. They are: Kishu Daswani and Rachita Ratho, my professors at the Government Law College (Mumbai); Parimala Rao, former principal of the Government Law College; Nutan Mitra and Adarsh Wadhwa, my class teachers at the Cathedral & John Connon School (Mumbai); and Meera Isaacs, princi­pal of the Cathedral & John Connon School. I would also like to thank Darius Khambata, Parag Tripathi, and Justice Shiavax Vazifdar, for giv­ing me the opportunity to learn the law under their tutelage. Special thanks are due to Abhijit Joshi, Zia Mody, and Bahram Vakil for their counsel during (and after) my stint at AZB & Partners in Mumbai.

I am grateful to my family and friends for their unwavering support. Although Prabha, Ajju, Nani, and Baba are not here to see the book in its final form, they have all been tremendous sources of inspiration. I wish Aai were here to see this book in print, but her courage and resilience inspires me every day. Dad has always been my role model and mentor— and was my history and biology tutor in the ninth grade! I will never forget their support. I am grateful to Kalpana for her love and support and all the enjoyable teatime conversations. Abhinav has been a source of constant encouragement. I am grateful to Ba, Mom, Papa, and Dimple, for their support and unconditional love. I was sustained by Disha's love through the course of the PhD and the publication of this book.

Margrith and the late Hari Chandrachud, Lata and David Jack, and Wendy, Raman, Alan, and Andrew Chandrachud generously hosted me in Scotland. Sherina Petit made herself available to offer advice on many occasions. Dr Meena and Dr Praful Desai, Madhavi and Jay Desai, Meenakshi and Justice Girish Kulkarni, Sudha and Justice R.M. Lodha, Rajee and Justice S. Radhakrishnan, Anjana and Birendra Saraf, and Meeta and Dr Satyavan Sharma—no words can acknowledge how grate­ful I am to all of them for what they have done for our family. Many other family members, friends, and colleagues have supported me in different ways. This book could not have been written without all of them.