The influence the Irish Constitution (1937) had on the Indian Constitution (1949), notably concerning the question of fundamental rights, is well-known. But what is the exact nature of that influence? Who were the people involved in the drafting of the two? How do they relate to the international context of the time?
Samuel Moyn’s recent work on human right has powerfully argued that the Irish Constitution was the first to enshrine ‘dignity’ as the foundational principle upon which rights should be based, thereby bringing the Catholic Church into the democratic mould of modernity after its disastrous support of Fascist regimes during WWII. But did this then make Ireland into the forbearer of a socially-inclined Christian Democracy that was to dominate Europe in the after-War period, or was it still caught in the aftershocks of reactionary and autarkic nationalism? Did the notion of ‘dignity’, grounded in the idea of ‘personalism’, travel to India? Should both Constitutional moments not be considered part of a post-colonial setting, as Moyn’s theory implies? What are the links between the national and the international contexts? Is there a difference between the ‘Rights of Man’ movements of the 1940s and the ‘Human Rights’ of 1970s, and where do the Irish and Indian Constitutions fit within this story?
That is what this workshop proposes to explore, by bringing leading scholars from Ireland, India and the UK and from across disciplinary boundaries (Law, Anthropology, History, Politics) together for a two-day workshop at the University of Nottingham Asian Research Institute.
This is a free event and all are welcome to attend. Tea, coffee and a buffet lunch will be provided.
Law and Social Sciences buildingUniversity of NottinghamUniversity Park Nottingham, NG7 2RD
telephone: +44 (0)115 828 3087email: asiaresearch@nottingham.ac.uk