Tamara Relis (Touro Law School)

Tamara Relis
Assistant Professor of Law
Touro Law School
New York, USA

and

Research Fellow
Department of Law
London School of Economics

email: tamararelis@msn.com

description of work:

Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship, in her new book, The Purchase of 
Human Rights (Oxford University Press, contract review), Professor Relis 
questions how the current proliferation of international human rights has 
shaped case processing systems at grassroots levels. She has conducted 
legal empirical research on international human rights violation cases of 
violence against women, processed in formal courts, lok adalats and 
quasi-legal non-state justice regimes (mahila panchayats and nari adalats) 
in eight states of India. Subsequent to several fieldwork trips, and 
supervising 8 teams of research assistants working in seven languages, the 
book includes data from over 400 interviews (with victims, accused, 
families, lawyers, mediators, arbitrators and judges), questionnaires and 
case hearing observations. The book examines how, if at all, international 
human rights laws and norms (e.g., CEDAW) have permeated the processing of 
these cases, comparing how receptive the different spaces of lower courts 
versus quasi-legal regimes are to claims made from the international 
sphere. The manuscript further examines the theoretical ideas informing 
these processes (e.g., norm diffusion theory, universalism versus cultural 
relativism, restorative justice, and feminist critiques of mainstream 
human rights paradigms) and how these ideas are understood by those on the 
ground.

Tamara Relis teaches courses in International Human Rights Law and in 
Global Conflict Resolution. Her first book, Perceptions in Litigation and 
Mediation: Lawyers, Defendants, Plaintiffs and Gendered Parties, based on 
her PhD dissertation, was published by Cambridge University Press (New 
York, 2009 & 2011 paperback). Her recent essay, Human Rights and Southern 
Realities, 33(2) Human Rights Quarterly 509-551 (May, 2011) provides a 
sample of her new book's data, findings and interview excerpts (see Parts 
I, III & IV).