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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


B.A.; LL.B. (University of Delhi)


LL.M. (ILI, Delhi)


 

Prof. Amit Bindal

Professor

Email abindal@jgu.edu.in
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ORCID ID 0000-0002-8257-4926
Key Expertise Religion and Law, Religious Studies, Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence and Legal Theory, Constitutional Law.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)


B.A.; LL.B. (University of Delhi)


LL.M. (ILI, Delhi)


 


Biography

Amit Bindal is a Professor at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), OP Jindal Global University (JGU). He has been teaching at JGLS for the past seventeen years.

His teaching and scholarship centre on the intersection of Law and Religion. Bindal’s work focuses on the juridical encounter with the language of mythology and the ways in which it has shaped religion as an identity category in the Indian context. His intellectual interests include exploring the question of mysticism in Indian and Continental philosophy.

His first book, Freedom of Religion and Constitutional Law: Traversing Myth and Modernity (Routledge, 2025) argues that in postcolonial societies such as India, courts must engage with the complexities arising from their encounter with religion rather than reaffirming the myth of a separation between law and religion. The book demonstrates that any other approach leads to repression and its subsequent re-emergence in various forms.

Bindal has authored several journal articles and book chapters on themes relating to the death penalty, the philosophy of criminal law, and constitutional law. He has taught core courses such as Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, and Jurisprudence. He has also offered electives including Law and Religion, Law and Literature, and Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence.

Bindal completed his undergraduate degree in English Literature from Hansraj College and obtained his law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. He earned his Master of Laws degree from the Indian Law Institute in 2009 and completed his PhD at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences (CSSS), Department of History in 2022. He is interested in studying and reading law through interdisciplinary approaches.
 

Jurisprudence

Criminal Law

Constitutional Law

Judicial Process

Law and Religion

Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence

Law and Literature

Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Law

Late Shri M.K. Nambiar Gold Medal for the Best Researcher in LL.M.

Prof. K.N.C. Pillai Gold Medal for securing the First Position in Criminal Law 

Teaching Excellence Awards at JGLS
 

National Law School of India University, Bangalore (2021)

THINKING LAW AND FEMINISM THROUGH PSYCHOANALYSIS (Elective Course)
 

FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: TRAVERSING MYTH AND MODERNITY (2025, Routledge: London).

‘Constitutionalism and the sacred cow: the secular mythology of the Indian Supreme Court’, Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, 23:1, 93-116 (2023).

‘The ‘Legal Unconscious’: Exploring the Intersection of Law and Psychoanalysis’ Asian Journal of Legal Education 10(2), 177–189 (2023). [Co-authored]

‘Thinking through Forgiveness: Towards Postcolonial Criminology of Kindness’, Indian Journal of Criminology, Vol 51 (Special Issue), 126-141 (2023).

‘Saving the Gods, Not Listening to Them’, SEMINAR Issue No. 755 (July 2022).

‘Political Hinduism in the courts of law: Religious speech and struggle for democracy in India’, Indonesian Journal of International and Comparative Law, 9 (2), 153-180 (2022).

‘“Complete Justice”? Silences and Erasures in the Ayodhya Judgment’, NUJS Journal of Indian Law & Society, 11(1), 48-71 (2020).

‘Violence, Desire, and Death Penalty: Reflections on the Foundations of Modern Legal Subjectivity’, Rethinking Law & Violence (Vashist & Sood, eds., Oxford University Press, New Delhi), 2020.

‘Sabarimala and the Flattening of Religious Community’ SEMINAR Issue No. 721 (January 2019).

‘Religion, Governance & Corruption: An Analysis of Judicial Reasoning in the Election Judgment’, Journal of Indian Law Institute, 59 (1), (2017).

‘Resurrecting the Other of ‘Modern’ Law: Investigating Niyamgiri Judgment & Legal Epistemology’, NUJS Journal of Indian Law & Society 5 (Monsoon), 237-247 (2014).

‘Abolition of the Death Penalty in India: Legal, Constitutional and Human Rights Dimensions”, Confronting Capital Punishment in Asia: Human Rights, Politics, Public opinion and Practices (Hood & Deva eds., Oxford University Press, Oxford) 2013. [Co-authored]

‘Upendra Baxi’s The Future of Human Rights’, (2013) Journal of Indian Law Institute 55 (4), 2013.

‘Conceptualizing Religion Conceptualizing Religion in the Public Sphere: Essential Practices Test and Beyond’, Rethinking Law: Emerging Issues and Challenges (Deepa Kansra et al., eds: Authors Press, New Delhi), 2012. [Co-authored]

‘Non-Culpability of Attempt to Commit Suicide: A Critical Analysis of the State’s Policy of Wounding the Wounded’, Bangalore Law Journal 3, 184- 202 (2010).

‘Rethinking Theoretical Foundations of Retributive Theory of Punishment’ Journal of Indian Law Institute 51 (3), 307-339 (2009).
Email abindal@jgu.edu.in
ORCID ID 0000-0002-8257-4926
Key Expertise Religion and Law, Religious Studies, Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence and Legal Theory, Constitutional Law.
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