Prof. Aman Kumar
Assistant Professor
Aman did his LL.M. in International Law from the South Asian University, New Delhi. The title of his dissertation was "International Law and Legitimation of Colonialism: The Trial of Bahadur Shah Zafar and the Making of British India". He has done his B.A.LLB. with honors in ‘International Law’ and ‘Human Rights’ from National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam. His recent publication is an article titled ‘Trial as a Tool of Colonialism: The 1858 Trial of Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar’ in International Criminal Law Review. He also runs his own international law blog (Indian Blog of International Law).
He is interested in de-colonising international law. Currently, he is working on ‘Turn towards History of India and International Law’, ‘The 1857 ‘War’ between British and the Mughal Empire’, ‘Ambiguous status of India in the writing of Westlake’ etc.
Courses Teaching :
- Public International Law
- Human Rights and Practice
Elective Courses Offered :
- International Criminal Law
- Law and Justice in a Globalising World
Courses Taught :
- Public International Law (LW-2056/LW-4019)
- Environmental Law (LW-2016)
- Administrative Law (6022)
- Penology and Victimology
- Code of Civil Procedure (2062)
- Research Incubation (RI6-2016)
Areas of Research Interest :
- International Criminal Law
- TWAIL
- History and Theory of International Law
- Critical Approaches to International Law
- Constitutional Law
Administrative Roles :
- Chair – Public International Law Research Centre
- Editor-in-Chief – IFIM Law Review
- Co-Chair – The Imagination Lab
- Member – Research Committee
- Member – Moot Court Committee
Publications
- Trial as a tool of Colonialism: The 1858 Trial of Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, International Criminal Law Review, 22(1-2), pp. 166-188, 2021, Brill
- A relook at the Principle of Uti-Possidetis in the context of the Indo-Nepal Border Dispute – Jindal Global Law Review, 12 (2021), pp. 95–115, Springer
- Resolving the ‘Dispute’ under Article 119(1) of the Rome Statute – Asian Journal of International Law, 10 (2020), pp. 38-49, Cambridge University Press
- Placing Cyber Warfare within the Rome Statute Framework – Book Chapter, "International Humanitarian Law: A reflection on 70 years of Geneva Conventions 1949", Satyam Law International, 2019 [ISBN: 978-93-87839-46-5]
- Book Review of “The International Criminal Court at the Mercy of Powerful States: An Assessment of the Neo-Colonialism claim made by African Stakeholders” by Dr Res Schuerch, [1st Edition, Springer, 2017] (National Law University Assam Law Review, Vol 3, No, 1, 2019)
- Situating the Principle of Non-Refoulement in the Indian Legal Scenario – Conference Proceeding, 7th ILNU National Students Conference on International Humanitarian Laws and Refugee Law, 2018, [ISBN: 978-81-931218-5-6]
Publications in Media :
- Demolition Drives violate International Law – The Hindu, 20 April 2022 (co-authored with Prof. Prabhash Ranjan)
- Making sense of India’s abstentions from voting on UN resolutions regarding the Ukraine-Russia conflict – The Leaflet, 13 April 2022
- Why Justice Dalveer Bhandari should not be seen as India’s mouthpiece at the ICJ - The Leaflet, 21st March 2022
- As ICJ orders Russia to suspend its military operations in Ukraine, it may well have opened a window for peace - The Leaflet, 17th March 2022
- Russia claims ‘self-defence’ as its objective of attacking Ukraine – The Leaflet,16th March 2022
- As Ukraine and Russia (in absentia) battle it out at the International Court of Justice, the question of genocide is under scrutiny - The Leaflet, 09th March 2022
- How India won an improbable election at the International Court of Justice – The Leaflet, 26th February 2022
- Are Advertisements put out by Cryptocurrency Exchanges Misleading? – The Wire, 03rd December 2021
- Human Rights beyond the Headlines: India’s recent track record at the United Nations – Bar and Bench, 13th November 2021
- South Asian University: Towards a ‘South-Asian’ Approach to International Law – Part I (co-authored) - AfronomicsLaw, 18th September 2020
- South Asian University: Towards a ‘South-Asian’ Approach to International Law – Part II (co-authored) - AfronomicsLaw, 18th September 2020
Papers Presented :
- Will be presenting a paper titled “Two Documents of Indian Colonisation” at a seminar on ‘The dynamics of early modern colonial law and legal literature’ at University of Helsinki on 26-28 October, 2022.
- Will be presenting a paper on Zafar’s trial (yet to be titled) at the a conference on ‘The Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions’ at University of Exeter on 20-21 October 2022.
- Will be presenting a paper titled ‘Examining the role of Cambridge’s Whewell Professors of International Law in India’s Colonisation’ at the AsianSIL Regional Conference, hosted by the Nepal Society of International Law and the Asian Society of International Law on 30 July 2022.
- Will be presenting a paper titled ‘Was there a ‘Dispute’ in Ukraine v Russia Case at the International Court of Justice?’ at the 50th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi on 29 July 2022.
- Will be presenting a paper titled ‘Henry Maine and the Revision of Indian Civilising Mission’ at the 2nd Asian Legal History Conference organised by the National University of Singapore, on 23-24 July 2022.
- Presented a paper titled “Situating Amitav Ghosh in TWAIL and Post-colonial Cultural Studies: A review of The Nutmeg’s Curse” at the National Virtual Conference on Law, Language and Literature” organized by the Literary and Debate Society, Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad on 30 April 2022.
- Presented a paper titled “Absence of India’s International Human Rights Law obligations in its Domestic Laws” at ‘The International Conference on the Convergence of International Law to National Law in the Era of Globalization’ organized by the VIT – School of Chennai on 23 April 2022 .
- Presented a paper titled “Peace-making capacity of the International Court of Justice qua the Ukraine Russia Conflict” at the International Conference organised by the Lovely Professional University on 16 April 2022.
- Presented a paper titled ‘Examining the role of Cambridge’s Whewell Professors of International Law in India’s Colonisation’ at the Conference on "Deconstructing International Law", to be held at Maastricht University on 7 April 2022.
- Presented a paper titled ‘Turn Towards History of India and International Law’ at the Asian Legal History Conference organised by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, on 25 July 2021.
- Presented a paper on ‘Ambiguous position of India in the writings of Westlake’ at the “Junior Research Workshop on ‘The Geographies of the International’”, organised by the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History, Harvard Law School and the Graduate Institute, Geneva, on 17 June 2021.
- Presented a paper on ‘Absence of India’s International Criminal Law obligations in its Domestic Laws’ at an International Conference organised by Ministry of Justice, Poland, on 15 June 2021.
- Presented a paper titled “The 1857 ‘War’ between the East India Company and the Mughal Empire” at the Asian Society of International Law’s 8th Biennial Conference, on 28 May 2021.
- Presented a paper titled ‘Why do History of Law - Understanding the recent writings on Indian Legal History’ at the 2nd All India Legal History Conference, TNNLU, on 25 May 2021.
- Legality of 1857 Mutiny Laws of British India - PRESENTED at the 39th Conference of Australia and New Zealand Society of Law and History, Auckland, 09 December 2020.
- In the Interest of None: On the ICC’s Decision in the Afghanistan Situation – PRESENTED at International Conference on ‘South Asia in the Era of International Courts and Tribunals’, South Asian University, 28-29 February 2020.
- Characterising the Trial of Bahadur Shah Zafar – PRESENTED at Conference to Celebrate 60 years of ISIL, 20-22 February 2020.
- Place of the Mughal Empire within the Law of Nations – PRESENTED at All India Legal History Conference, Gujarat National Law University, 14-15 February 2020.
- Situating the Principle of Non-Refoulement in the Indian Legal Scenario, PRESENTED at 7th ILNU National Conference on International Humanitarian and Refugee Law – awarded ‘BEST RESEARCH PAPER’.
- Missing – An Indian Policy on Blue Economy Vis-À-Vis Climate Change PRESENTED at the 48th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of International Law, 4-5 May 2019.
- Determining the Contours of Cyber Warfare under International Humanitarian Law and their Classification as a War Crime under the Rome Statute, PRESENTED at National Seminar on International Humanitarian Law organized by Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Delhi, 19 January 2019.
- Challenges before the ICC – The African Challenge and the Aggression Conundrum – PRESENTED AT 46th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of International Law, 29-30 April 2017