Tarun Khaitan a Future Fellow at Melbourne Law School, working on a project on the resilience of democratic constitutions, with a focus on South Asia. He is also the Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory at Wadham College (Oxford), currently on special leave for four years starting 1 September 2017.
He specialises in legal theory, constitutional law and discrimination law.
He is also a visiting Global Professor of Law at New York University Law School, the General Editor of the Indian Law Review, an Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, an Affiliate of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and an Associate of the Oxford Human Rights Hub. He completed his undergraduate studies (BA LLB Hons) at the National Law School (Bangalore) in 2004 as the 'Best All Round Graduating Student'. He then came to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and completed his postgraduate studies (BCL with distinction, MPhil with distinction, DPhil) at Exeter College. Before joining Wadham, he was the Penningtons Student (Fellow) in Law at Christ Church.
His monograph entitled A Theory of Discrimination Law (OUP 2015 hbk, South Asia edition and Oxford Scholarship Online, 2016 pbk) has been cited by the European Court of Human Rights and reviewed very positively in leading journals, including in Law and Philosophy, where Sophia Moreau said "In this magnificent and wide-ranging book ... Khaitan attempts what very few others have tried." In Ethics, Deborah Hellman said that its 'ambitious scope and the careful argumentation it contains make it one of the best in the field’. In his review in the Modern Law Review, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen claimed that "Khaitan's account is sophisticated, extensive and among the best normative accounts of discrimination law available." Colm O'Cinneide's review in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies says that "Khaitan’s quest shows up the inadequacies of previous attempts to track down this Holy Grail, and the path he has laid down will encourage others to follow in his footsteps." The book won the Woodward Medal (with a cash prize of 10,000 Australian dollars) in 2019 for making ‘a significant contribution to knowledge in a field of humanities and social sciences.’ A full list of reviews is available here.
He helped draft the Indian Anti-Discrimination and Equality Bill 2017. His research on discrimination law has been quoted and relied upon by the Indian Supreme Court. He writes regularly for newspapers and blogs: links to his columns are available here. Dr Khaitan was awarded the 2018 Letten Prize, a 2 Million Norwegian Kroner award given biennially to a young researcher under the age of 45 conducting excellent research of great social relevance. He is using a part of the award towards setting up the Indian Equality Law Programme, aimed at capacity-building for early-career scholars.
Find out more about Tarun Khaitan's experience
Tarun Khaitan's highlights
FEATURED Journal article
Political insurance for the (relative) poor: How liberal constitutionalism could resist plutocracy
Read moreTarun Khaitan's selected work
Projects
Displaying the 3 most recent projects by Tarun Khaitan.
Project Types
2
Research Grant
1
Internal Research Grant
Scholarly Works
Displaying the 25 most recent scholarly works by Tarun Khaitan.
Honours, Awards and Fellowships
Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
Credentials
Positions
Arc Future Fellowship
Law
Education
BA LLB Hons
National Law School of India University
Bachelor of Civil Law
University of Oxford
Master of Philosophy in Law
University of Oxford
Doctor of Philosophy in Law
University of Oxford