‘Privacy’s Revival’, by Dr Gauri Pillai

Dr Pillai will present Chapter 1 (Privacy’s Revival) of her monograph tentatively titled ‘The Synthesis Paradigm: Constitutional Reproductive Rights in India’.

Reproductive rights are deeply contested. Their scope within constitutions, the duties they impose on States, and their response to competing State priorities are being urgently deliberated. To arrive at answers, a prior enquiry must be addressed, one invoking first principles. Are reproductive rights better understood as incidents of one’s privacy or equality? Depending on the alternative chosen, the scope, the duties and the limits of reproductive rights vary. Constitutional law leans heavily towards privacy. Yet, privacy has been subject to scathing critique. Where equality is introduced, especially in response to privacy’s failures, a choice is typically constructed between equality or privacy. At best, constitutional law offers an additive option: both equality and privacy as driving reproductive rights protection. Cutting cleanly through this contestation, based on an in-depth study of the Indian Constitution, the monograph proposes a novel ‘constitutional home’ for reproductive rights: the ‘synthesis’ between privacy and equality. As opposed to mere rights combination or addition, the ‘synthesis’ fosters dynamic rights interaction. Chapter 1 makes a compelling argument about why, despite its critiques, privacy must be retained within the ‘constitutional home’ for reproductive rights in India.

Speaker: Dr Gauri Pillai

Dr Gauri Pillai is a Max Weber Post-Doctoral Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. Her work studies reproductive rights and constitutionalism, with a specific focus on India and the Global South. As Assistant Professor, she taught Constitutional Law and Family Law at the National Law School of India University Bangalore. She holds the Doctor of Philosophy in Law and the Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford, and the BA LLB (Hons.) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences. Her work has been supported by the Rhodes Scholarship and the Alaine Locke Studentship. At Oxford, she was Graduating Teaching Assistant for Comparative Human Rights and Equality Law and Managing Editor of the Oxford Human Rights Hub.

Chair: Dr Sarah Trotter