RUI: Arbitration and the Cultures of Justice in Colonial India and Britain

University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater WI

Investigators

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to examine how people resolve disputes in the context of rapidly changing legal systems and how people come to judge what is fair and just. It examines this phenomenon on a comparative transnational scale through an historical analysis of the transference and adaptation of informal methods of dispute resolution; in particular, the common-law process of arbitration. This project employs the historical case-study method to examine these issues in the context of Great Britain's acquisition of colonial territory in India. As Britain's empire expanded, arbitration quickly became an important aspect of imperial rule because it served a number of useful purposes, including the reduction of judicial expenses and the encouragement of the participation of local elites. Most importantly, common-law arbitration appeared to correspond to an indigenous form of dispute resolution, the tribal and caste panchayats, and thus was perceived as a bridge between the two legal cultures. As British arbitration practices were adapted for use in India, Indian arbitrators were given broad powers to resolve local disputes. Through the analysis of these decisions, this project will therefore help to uncover not only how legal processes adapted to one another, but also how commonplace methods of dispute resolution expressed contemporary ideas of what is just and what is fair.