Dr. Sudhir Krishnaswamy

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy in Law, Oxford University – 2008
• Bachelor of Civil Law, Oxford University – 2000
• Bachelor of Arts and Law (Honours), National Law School of India University – 1998

Profile

Dr. Sudhir Krishnaswamy is the Vice-Chancellor of NLSIU, Bengaluru and the Director of the Department of Professional And Continuing Education (PACE), NLSIU. He is also the Co-founder and trustee of the not-for-profit research trust, Centre for Law and Policy Research. Previously, he was the Director of the School of Policy and Governance, and Professor of Law and Politics at Azim Premji University. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize 2022 in the Humanities category.

A Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Oxford University, he has earlier worked with the Prime Minister’s Committee on Infrastructure, Planning Commission; and the Kasturi Rangan Expert Committee on Bangalore Governance. His main areas of interest are constitutional law, Legal System Reform, legal theory, intellectual property law and administrative law.  He has also written on a wide range of topics, including Indian constitutional law, intellectual property law, and judicial corruption.

Sudhir is also part of Facebook’s oversight board that was set up to moderate content posted on social media platforms. He is the only Indian among the 20 members of the board that comprises independent Members from around the world. The board has the power to make decisions on content that can be allowed or removed from Facebook and Instagram.

Teaching Experience:

He was Professor of Law and Politics at Azim Premji University, Bangalore. He was also the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Visiting Professor of Indian Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School. He has been a Teaching Fellow in Law at the Pembroke College at Oxford University, an Assistant Professor at NLSIU, and a Professor at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. He has taught law at universities in the UK, India, Australia and the US.

Publications

Books

Democracy and Constitutionalism in India, Oxford University Press 2009

Articles, Journal Chapters, Conference Papers

• Dalits see the apex court’s order on SC/ST Act as a dog whistle to destroy the law, Sudhir Krishnaswamy, April 10, 2018, The Print.
• The people’s court, Sudhir Krishnaswamy, November 24, 2016, India Today.
• Mr. Modi, Don’t Patent Cow Urine, Achal Prabhala and Sudhir Krishnaswamy, June 16, 2016, The New York Times.
• Patently a Missed Opportunity, Achal Prabhala, Sudhir krishnawamy, The Hindu, May 25, 2016
  The SC must end partisan federalism, Sudhir krishnawamy and Gaurav Mukherjee, The Hindu, Feb 10, 2016
• Is a Presidential Reference on Koushal v Naz Forum Shopping?, Legally India.
• Why Novartis case will help innovation [with Achal Prabhala], The Hindu.
• ‘Healthcare Law in the US and the RTE in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, Sep 01 Vol XLVII., 2012 [with Arjun Jayadev]