Core
Legal & Constitutional History
Historical development of legal institutions and constitutional governance in India.
6 units33 topicsLegal · 6 programmes
Syllabus outline
Unit-wise syllabus with every topic. Click any topic to get an explanation from the AI Explainer.
Unit 1 — Early Legal Traditions and Legal Pluralism
0 / 4 readUnit 2 — East India Company and Early Colonial Courts
0 / 7 read- East India Company charters and the beginnings of Company adjudication
- Presidency towns and the Mayor's Courts
- Charter of 1726 and Charter of 1753
- Warren Hastings' judicial plans and the Adalat system
- Regulating Act, 1773 and the Supreme Court at Calcutta
- Act of Settlement, 1781 and the jurisdictional conflict
- Cornwallis reforms and reorganisation of courts
Unit 3 — Nineteenth-Century Legal Institutions
0 / 6 read- Codification and the development of major colonial statutes
- Charter Act, 1833 and institutional law reform
- Indian High Courts Act, 1861 and the creation of High Courts
- Indian Councils Acts of 1861, 1892 and 1909
- Privy Council and appellate links to colonial India
- Colonial legal profession and the growth of law reporting
Unit 4 — Constitutional Development to Independence
0 / 5 readUnit 5 — Constitution Making and Institutional Continuity
0 / 6 read- Constituent Assembly: formation, work and major historical debates
- Objectives Resolution and drafting of the Constitution
- Adoption and commencement of the Constitution
- Transition from colonial courts to constitutional courts
- Historical formation of the Supreme Court, High Courts and judicial independence
- Evolution of the Indian Bar culminating in the Advocates Act, 1961
Unit 6 — Approaching Legal History Critically
0 / 5 read- Colonial law, social hierarchy and access to courts
- Personal law and customary law during colonial governance
- Law reform and social movements in late colonial India
- Reading a charter, historical statute or institutional report as a legal-history source
- Distinguishing historical explanation from present legal validity
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Landmark cases
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Bare acts & references
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- Charter of 1726 (Mayor's Courts)
- Regulating Act, 1773
- Indian High Courts Act, 1861
- Federal Court of India — Government of India Act, 1935
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