Daniela Berti

Social anthropologist at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), member of the Centre for Himalayan Studies (CEH). Over the last ten years, Daniela’s research has focused on the ethnographic study of judicial settings in India. She has conducted research on various district courts in Himachal Pradesh (Kullu, Mandi, Shimla) on criminal cases – cannabis cultivation, drug trafficking, caste-based and dowry-related issues – and, more recently, on cases related to environment and animal rights. She carries out fieldwork at the National Green Tribunal in Delhi on cases dealing with conservation and species survival, and at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun (Uttarakhand) where she studies how wildlife biologists assess landscape connectivity and monitor the behaviour of animal populations, thereby producing expertise that can be used in court litigation.

https://himalaya.cnrs.fr/spip3/spip.php?article159

Selected Publications

✜ Edited books & special issues of journals

• (in preparation) Animal Sacrifice, Religion and Law in South Asia ed. (with Anthony Good, eds).

• 2018 Through the Lens of the Law. Court Cases and Social Issues in India, (with G. Tarabout, eds) South Asian Multidisciplinary Journal (SAMAJ), 17.

• 2016 Filing Religion. State, Hinduism and Courts of Law (with Gilles Tarabout, Raphaël Voix, eds), New-Delhi, OUP.

• 2015 Of Doubt and Proof. Ritual and Legal Practices of Judgment, (with Anthony Good and Gilles Tarabout, eds), Farnham, Ashgate Publishing;

• 2015 The Boundaries of Law. Justice, Powers and Politics (with Gilles Tarabout, eds) Diogenes, 60 (3-4) (2013). [English edition of Diogène, 239–240]

• 2015 Regimes of Legalities. Ethnography of Criminal Cases in South Asia, (with Devika Bordia, eds), New Delhi, OUP.

✜ Articles & Chapters

• 2019 “Animals in the Public Debate: Welfare, Rights, and Conservationism in India”, in Barbara Ambros & Reiko Ohnuma (eds.), Buddhist Beasts: Reflections on Animals in Asian Religions and Cultures, Religions 2019, 10 (8): 475–99

• 2017 « Questioning the Truth. Ideals of justice and trial techniques in India » (with Gilles Tarabout) in Yazid Ben Hounet and Deborah Puccio-Den (eds.), Truth, Intentionality and Evidence: Anthropological Approaches to Crime. Abingdon, Routledge: 10–27.

• 2016 « Plaintiff Deities. Ritual Honours as Fundamental Rights in India » in D. Berti, G. Tarabout and R. Voix (eds), Filing Religion. State, Hinduism and Courts of Law. Delhi, OUP: 71–100.

• 2015 “Gods’ Rights vs Hydroelectric Projects. Environmental Conflicts and the Judicialization of Nature in India« , Rivista di Studi Orientali. Supplement 2: 111–129.

• 2015 « Religion et environnement dans les procédures judiciaires en Inde » (with G. Tarabout), Cahiers de la justice, 2015 / 3: 409–420.

• 2015 « The Technicalities of Doubting: Temple Consultations and District Courts in India » in D. Berti, A. Good, G. Tarabout (eds), Of Doubt and Proof. Ritual and Legal Practices of Judgment. Farnham, Ashgate : 19–38.

• 2015 “Binding Fictions. Contradictory Facts and Judicial Constraints in a Narcotics Case in Himachal Pradesh”, in Daniela Berti and Devika Bordia (eds), Regimes of Legality. Ethnography of Criminal Cases in South Asia. Delhi, OUP: 91–128.

• 2015 « Local Powers and Judicial Constraints in a Case of Rape in India« , in (transl.), Diogenes, 239–240 (D. Berti and G. Tarabout, eds, The Frontiers of Law. Justice, Power and Politics): 97–115.

• 2013 « Ritual Faults and Legal Offences. A discussion about two patterns of justice in contemporary India« . In Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara (eds) Sin and Expiation: Perspectives from Asian Religions. Boston, Brill: 153–172.

• 2011. « Courts of Law and Legal Practice ». In I. Clark-Deces (ed.) A Companion to the Anthropology of India. Oxford, Maiden. Blackwell Publishing: 355–370.

• 2011. « Trials, Witnesses and Local Stakes in a District Court of Himachal Pradesh (North India) ». In J. Pfaff and G. Toffin (eds) Citizenship, Democracy, and Belonging in the Himalayas. New Delhi, Sage: 290–313.

• 2010. « Hostile Witnesses, Judicial Interactions and Out-of-Court Narratives in a North Indian District Court », Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 44, 3: 235–263.