Professor Madhav Khosla

Madhav Khosla

  • Associate Professor of Law
Education

Ph.D., Harvard University, 2017
LL.M., Yale Law School, 2010
B.A, LL.B., National Law School, Bangalore, 2008

Areas of Specialty

Comparative Constitutional Law
Constitutional Theory
Indian Constitutional Law

Madhav Khosla is an Associate Professor of Law at Columbia University. He is interested in the nature and form of constitutions, especially from a comparative and theoretical perspective. Much of his research and writing in comparative constitutional law has focused on South Asia and India. Khosla studied political theory at Harvard University, where his dissertation was awarded the Edward M. Chase Prize for “the best dissertation on a subject relating to the promotion of world peace”, and law at Yale Law School and the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Before joining Columbia Law School, he was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.

Khosla's books include India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy (Harvard University Press 2020), which was an Economist Best Book of 2020 and co-winner of the Order of the Coif Book Award 2021, The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution (ed. with Sujit Choudhry and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Oxford University Press 2016), and Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia (ed. with Mark Tushnet, Cambridge University Press 2015). In addition, Khosla’s writings have been published in journals such as the American Journal of Comparative Law, Harvard Law Review, and the International Journal of Constitutional Law, as well as popular forums like the Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, and Time. Khosla’s work has been cited by courts in India and Pakistan.

Publications

Comparative Constitutional Law (with Rosalind Dixon, Vicki Jackson, and Mark Tushnet, under contract, Oxford University Press)

“Courts, Constitutionalism, and State Capacity”, 70 American Journal of Comparative Law 95 (2022) (with Mark Tushnet)

“The Possibility of Modern India” (forthcoming, Global Intellectual History)

Is a Science of Comparative Constitutionalism Possible?,” 135 Harvard Law Review 2110 (2022)

“Constituting India,” 4 Jus Cogens 79 (2022) 

“The Three Faces of the Indian State,” 32 Journal of Democracy 111 (2021) (with Milan Vaishnav) 

“Democracy and Decolonization: How India was Made,” 18 International Journal of Constitutional Law 1031 (2020)

“India’s First Period: Constitutional Doctrine and Constitutional Stability” in From Parchment to Practice: Implementing New Constitutions (Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Huq eds., Cambridge University Press, 2020)

India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy (Harvard University Press 2020)

“Judicial Accountability and Independence” in Re-forming India: The Nation Today (Niraja Gopal Jayal ed., Penguin Viking 2019)

Regulation in India: Design, Capacity, Performance (ed. with Devesh Kapur, Hart Publishing 2019)

“The Supreme Court” in Rethinking Public Institutions in India (Devesh Kapur, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Milan Vaishnav eds., Oxford University Press 2017) (with Ananth Padmanabhan)

The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution (ed. with Sujit Choudhry and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Oxford University Press 2016)

“Constitutional Amendment” in The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution (Sujit Choudhry, Madhav Khosla, and Pratap Bhanu Mehta eds., Oxford University Press 2016) 

“Equality in Asia” in Comparative Constitutional Law in Asia (Rosalind Dixon and Tom Ginsburg eds., Edward Elgar 2014) (with Justice Kate O'Regan) 

Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia (ed. with Mark Tushnet, Cambridge University Press 2015)

Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers (ed., Penguin Allen Lane 2014)

The Indian Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2012) (Hindi translation, 2018)

“Inclusive Constitutional Comparison”, 59 American Journal of Comparative Law 909 (2011)

“Making Social Rights Conditional: Lessons from India”, 8 International Journal of Constitutional Law 739 (2010)

“Proportionality: An assault on human rights? A reply”, 8 International Journal of Constitutional Law 298 (2010)

Honors and Awards

The Order of the Coif Book Award (for India's Founding Moment)

2021

Edward M. Chase Prize, Harvard University (awarded for “the best dissertation on a subject relating to the promotion of world peace”)

2018

Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation Scholarship (for attending Yale Law School)

2009–2010

Other Professional Experience

  • Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi; Research Associate, July 2010–June 2011
  • Commission on Centre-State Relations, Government of India, New Delhi; Research Assistant, June 2008–May 2009
  • The Hon. Justice H.S. Bedi, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi; Law Clerk, Jan–Mar 2008
  • The Hon. Justice S.B. Sinha, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi; Law Clerk, Oct 2007

Related News and Stories