Events

The Gender and the Law Cluster at Warwick Law School would like to invite you to our upcoming work-in-progress presentations. We have four wonderful sessions scheduled, each designed to provide constructive feedback on ongoing research. If you would like to join any of the presentations, please register your interest hereLink opens in a new window, and we will share further details upon registration.

Mahek Bhatia on 'Exploring Marital Sexual Violence Litigation in India'

Abstract: My MSc thesis investigated the operation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, focusing on litigation experiences and the potential for strategic legal engagement. Drawing on legal reports and ten semi-structured interviews with lawyers, it uncovered that engagement with civil law is not legalistic, uniform, straightforward, or wholly separate from criminal justice institutions. Instead, litigation is more complex and game-like, with players, rules, advisors, and contested outcomes, in which civil law and criminal law are enmeshed in complex ways. Within this framework, lawyers emerge as crucial intermediaries who balance the legal system’s constraints with the needs of survivors. As I begin my PhD, I will be developing this project for doctoral research. In the presentation, I will outline how I plan to do so and explain the intended methodological design of the project. Receiving feedback and constructive criticism on this development will be crucial and beneficial for the project.