“The Universe is made of stories, not atoms.”
So said the poet and political activist Muriel Rukeyser. Indeed, stories lie at the very core of our existence! They give meaning to our lives, enrich our cultures and help us make sense of a world that is both complex and uncertain.
Stories play a particularly important role in the law and its development. For the best lawyers are those that tell the best stories; extracting the essence of a client’s case and translating it to a compelling narrative before a judge/jury. As such, story-telling lies at the heart of legal culture.
Little wonder then that we, at IDIA Charitable Trust (IDIA), picked the theme “Law & Story Telling” for our IDIA Annual Conference in New Delhi on the 7th and 8th of December. We’re thrilled to have some of the leading lights from the country (and abroad as well) join us on this occasion. To share their perspectives on the Law & Story Telling. The schedule in brief is as below. More details can be found in the card at the end of this post (pdf version available here).
Schedule of Awards Function and Conference (December 7-8, New Delhi)
- December 7th, 2018, Friday (6 pm onwards, at Constitution Club of India, New Delhi):
Inaugural of IDIA Conference and hand out of IDIA Diversity Champion awards function. This will be followed by performances from our talented IDIA scholars, and then, dinner and refreshments.
- December 8th, 2018, Saturday (10.00 am to 6.00 pm at Indian Law Institute, New Delhi):
Full Day Discussion on “Law & Storytelling” (Keynote Addresses + Panel Sessions).
We really hope that our donors, partners, well-wishers and many others who support the cause of diversity and inclusion can join us on both days. We particularly look forward to hosting you on the 7th evening, where we showcase some performances from our talented scholars. We also hand over awards to our top performing scholars; as also to various champions of diversity and inclusion who have gone out of their way to take forward the mission of IDIA.
Leading Lights from the Law (and Other Fields)
We’re extremely fortunate to have Justice DY Chandrachud (one of most inspiring and erudite judges) agree to deliver the keynote address on the 8th. He will speak on the “Narrative of Justice“. We also have a second keynote on “How to Tell a Tale” from famed lyricist and script writer Javed Akhtar (who, as many of you know, is an exceptional speaker and thought leader). And if that is not sufficient to satiate you, we a special panel address from the inimitable Justice BN Srikrishna.
On the 7th evening, we have a number of leading judges such as Justice Arjan Sikri of the Supreme Court and Justices Gita Mittal and Hari Shankar as our Guests of Honours to kick off the conference inaugural and hand out awards to our scholars and diversity champions. We also have the Solicitor General of India, Mr Tushar Mehtawho will be a distinguished dignitary on the dias. As you can see from the card (at the end of this post), the schedule boasts a distinguished diversity of speakers from the bar, bench, law firms, civil society, academia and even a professional story teller!
Please Spread the Word
Please do pass on this message to all your colleagues etc who are likely to be interested in this theme. All they need to do is RSVP by sending an email to info@idialaw.com. In order to cover some part of our costs (given that we have not secured full funding to cover the costs in their entirety) we are charging a modest sum of Rs 3000 for both days (7th and 8th). Dinner, lunch and refreshments will be provided. Of course, this does not apply to existing donors and partner organisations of IDIA or our IDIA team volunteers etc.
We would like to thank the following folks for working around the clock to put this conference together:
i) Our IDIA team at NLU Delhi led by student leaders, Arshdeep Singh and Shweta Venkatesan.
ii) Our Chief Patron Abhimany Bhandari for again agreeing to support a significant part of the costs for this conference. And his office colleagues (Roohina) who’ve helped.
iii) The wonderful Prof Manoj Sinha for again partnering with us to host us at the ILI (Indian Law Institute).
iv) Mr. Jairam Ramesh for enabling us to book the Constitution Club of India through his letter of introduction. And Varun Santhosh for connecting us to Mr Ramesh as soon as he saw Prof Shamnad’s SOS call on Twitter!
And last, but not the least, thank all the leading minds who’ve agreed to grace the occasion and lend their time on the panel/dias, so that our scholars could benefit from their presence and perspective.
In that spirit, we wish that many of you will join us for these momentous two days. If not for us, at least for the sake of our scholars who need as wide an exposure as possible in order to help level the playing field and create a more inclusive India.
RSVP:
Eshwar Ramachandran,
Director, IDIA
Phone: +91 77604 93503
Cc: info@idialaw.com