Tagore Law Lectures

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The Tagore Law Lectures are an annual lecture series organised and hosted by the University of Calcutta, in India. The series is named after Prasanna Kumar Tagore, an Indian lawyer and politician, who left an endowment for the series in 1868. The first lecture in the series was delivered by Herbert Cowell, in 1870, on Hindu law as administered in British courts in India.[1]

History and Endowment[edit]

The Tagore Law Lecture series was funded in 1868 by Prasanna Kumar Tagore, an Indian lawyer and politician. In 1868, Tagore provided by his will that a law professor, to be known as the 'Tagore Law Professor' was to be appointed by the Senate of the University of Calcutta, and that this Professor's duties would be to:

"...read or deliver, yearly at some place within the town of Calcutta, one complete course of Law Lectures, without charge to the students and other persons who may attend such Lectures."[1]

Tagore's will further provided for the publication of a minimum of 500 copies of these lectures, to be distributed for free. In his inaugural lecture, Herbert Cowell noted that the intention of this bequest was apparently to encourage the preparation and publication of textbooks on Indian law.[1] The Tagore Law Lectures were delivered by leading Indian, British, and American scholars and jurists, including Rash Behari Ghose, Gooroodas Banerjee, Sir Frederick Pollock, Roscoe Pound, and John Woodroffe, and former U.S. Supreme Court judge, William O'Douglas.[2] H.M. Seervai, the Indian lawyer and constitutional law scholar, was also invited to deliver lectures for the series, but declined on the grounds that his professional commitments would not allow him to develop lectures that fit the series' standards of legal research.[3]

In 2020, the Calcutta University published the Tagore Law Lectures delivered between 1868 and 1986 on their library website, making them publicly accessible, as part of an initiative to digitise records and rare documents.[2][4]

Legacy[edit]

Scholar and lawyer Rajeev Dhavan has described the Tagore Lecture Series as the 'most celebrated' of Indian endowed lectures on law, noting that the research produced for these lectures represents a 'black-letter' tradition, aimed at documenting the law and not critically assessing it.[5] This assessment is echoed by e Rajkumari Agrawala, who has critiqued the series for its focus on a formalistic approach to law, and noted a lack of theoretical appreciation in the lectures delivered under this endowment.[6]

The Tagore Law Lectures have been often cited by courts in India as references for the interpretation of Indian laws. The Privy Council in 1941 relied on Upendra Nath Mitra's Tagore Law Lecture in 1932, concerning the law of limitation.[7] The Indian Supreme Court has relied on multiple Tagore Law Lectures including William O' Douglas's 1939 Lecture on comparative U.S. and Indian law,[8] Julius Jolly's 1883 lecture on the Hindu law of partition, inheritance, and adoption[9] and M.C. Setalvad's 1974 lecture on the relation between the Union and States in the Indian Constitution.[10]

List of Lectures[edit]

A list of the Tagore Law Lectures that have been delivered is below.[2]

Year Lecturer Title
1870 Herbert Cowell The Hindu Law: Being a Treatise on Law Administered Exclusively to the Hindus by the British Courts in India I
1871 Herbert Cowell The Hindu Law: Being a Treatise on Law Administered Exclusively to the Hindus by the British Courts in India II
1872 Herbert Cowell The History and Constitution of the Courts and Legislative Authorities in India
1873 Shama Churun Sarkar The Muhammedan Law: Being a Digest of the Law Applicable Especially to the Sunnis in India
1874 Arthur Phillips The Law Relating to the Land Tenures of Lower Bengal 1874-75
1875 Rash Behari Ghosh The Law of Mortgage in India
1877 Ernest John Trevelyan The Law Relating to Minors in the Presidency of Bengal
1878 Gooroodas Banerjee The Hindu Law of Marriage and Stridhan
1879 Trailokyanath Mitra The Law Relating to the Hindu Widow
1880 Rajkumar Sarvadhikari The Principles of the Hindu Law of Inheritance
1881 William Fischer Agnew The Law of Trusts in British India
1882 Upendra Nath Mitra The Law of Limitation and Prescription (in British India) including Easements
1883 Julius Jolly The Hindu Law of Partition, Inheritance and Adoption
1884 Syed Ameer Ali The Law Relating to Gifts, Trusts, and Testamentary Dispositions Among the Mahomedans
1885 K. K. Bhattacharya The Law Relating to the Joint Hindu Family
1886 K. M Chatterjea The Law Relating to the Transfer of Immovable Property
1887 G.S. Henderson The Law of Testamentary Devise as Administered in India or the Law Relating to Wills in India
1888 Golapchandra Sarkar Sastri The Hindu Law of Adoption
1889 T. A. Pearson The Law of Agency in British India
1890 Lal Mohun Doss The Law of Riparian Rights: Alluvion and Fishery
1891 Maulvi Mahomed Yusoof Khan Bahadur Mahomedan Law Relating to Marriage, Dower, Divorce, Legitimacy, and the Guardianship of Minors
1892 Pandit Pran Nath Saraswati The Hindu Law of Endowments
1893 Arthur Caspersz Estoppel by Representation and Res Judicata in British India
1894 Sir Frederick Pollock The Law of Fraud, Misrepresentation, and Mistake in India
1895 Saradchandra Mitra The Land Law of Bengal (with Bihar and Orissa)
1896 Ram Charan Mitra The Law of Joint Property and Partition in India
1897 John George Woodroffe The Law Relating to Injunctions in British India
1898 Asutosh Mukhopadhyay The Law of Perpetuities in British India
1899 Frederick Peacock The Law Relating to British Easements in India
1901 K. Shelley Bonnerjee The Interpretation Of Deeds Wills, And Statutes In British India
1903 Satya Ranjan Das The Law Of Ultra Vires In British India
1904 Jogendra Chundra Ghosh The Hindu Law Of Impartible Property Including Endowments
1905 Kisori Lal Sarkar The Mimansa Rules Of Interpretation As Applied To Hindu Law
1906 Satish Chandra Banerji The Law Of Specific Relief In British India
1908 Sripati Roy Customs And Customary Law In British India
1909 Priyanath Sen The General Principles Of Hindu Jurisprudence
1910 C. O. Remfry Commercial Law In British India
1912 Bijoy Kisor Acharyya Codification In British India
1913 Samatul Chandra Dutt Compulsory Sales In British India
1914 Satish Chandra Bagchi Principles Of The Law Of Corporations With Special Reference To British India
1916 Prosanto Kumar Sen The Law Of Monopolies In British India
1917 K. P. Jayaswal Manu And Yajnavalkya A Comparison And A Contrast : A Treatise On The Basic Hindu Law
1918 Nagendranath Ghose Comparative Administrative Law
1920 K.Subramania Pillai Principles Of Criminology
1921 S. P. Sen Gupta Law Of Mortgage
1922 James Wilford Garner Recent Developments In International Law
1923 Westel W. Willoughby The Fundamental Concepts Of Public Law
1924 Satyaranjan Das The Law Of Ultra Vires
1925 Radhabinod Pal The History Of The Law Of Primogeniture With Special Reference To India Ancient And Modern
1929 Prosanto Kumar Sen Penology Old And New
1930 Radhabinod Pal The History Of Hindu Law In The Vedic Age And In Post-Vedic Times
1931 Arnold D. Macnair The Law Of The Air
1933 James Mackintosh Roman Law In Modern Practice
1937 Nalini Kumar Mukherjee The Law Of Partnership With Special Reference To British India
1937 - 38 William Holdsworth Some makers of English Law
1938 Radhabinod Pal Crimes In International Relations, 1938,
1939 William O. Douglas From Marshall To Mukherjea : Studies In American And Indian Constitutional Law
1942 Nripendra Nath Sircar The Law Of Arbitration In British India
1948 Roscoe Pound The Ideal Element In Law
1950 Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta Evolution Of Ancient Indian Law
1951 P.B. Gajendragadkar The Hindu Law Of Religious And Charitable Trusts
1962 J.R.Mudholkar Press Law
1963 B.C.Mitra The Law Of Carriage By Sea
1972 Durga Das Basu Limited Government And Judicial Review
1977 Sir Zelman Cowen Individual Liberty And The Law
1983 M. Hidayatullah Right To Property And The Indian Constitution
1986 Imam Fakhruddin Hassan Bin Mansur Al-Uzjandi Al Farghani Mahomedan Law Of Marriage, Dower, Divorce, Legitimacy And Guardianship Of Minors, According To The Sunnis

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Cowell, Herbert (1870). Tagore Law Lectures: The Hindu Law: Being a Treatise on the Law Administered Exclusively to Hindus by the British Courts in India. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Company. p. 1.
  2. ^ a b c University of Calcutta. "Tagore Law Lectures: Catalogue". University of Calcutta, Library E-Book Catalogue. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  3. ^ Kirby, Michael (2008). H.M. Seervai. Universal Law Publishing. p. 47. ISBN 978-81-7534-666-6.
  4. ^ "Calcutta University Makes Its Archive With Century-Old Records Available Online". NDTV.com. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  5. ^ Dhavan, Rajeev (1986). "Legal Research in India: The Role of the Indian Law Institute". The American Journal of Comparative Law. 34 (3): 527–549. doi:10.2307/840360. ISSN 0002-919X. JSTOR 840360.
  6. ^ Agrawala, Rajkumari (1982). "Indian Legal Research : An Evolutionary and Perspective Analysis". Journal of the Indian Law Institute. 24 (2/3): 470–513. ISSN 0019-5731. JSTOR 43952218.
  7. ^ General Fire and Life Assurance Corporation Ltd. v. Janmahomed Abdul Rahim, A.I.R 1941 P.C. 6
  8. ^ K. A. Abbas vs The Union Of India & Another, A.I.R. 1971 S.C. 481
  9. ^ Abhiraj Kuer vs Debendra Singh, A.I.R. 1962 S.C. 351
  10. ^ State of West Bengal Vs. Kesoram Industries Ltd., A.I.R 2005 S.C.1646.
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