Nihal Sahu
I’m a Research Fellow at Vidhi. Most of the time, I’m working on building the rule of law in India by producing research, advising government departments, and helping draft legislation. I think a lot about legal realism, software, and economics.
If you’re working on something in one of my areas of interest, I’d like to help.
I’m most active on Twitter and Bluesky. The best way to reach me is by email at nihal.sahu (at) vidhilegalpolicy (dot) in.
Selected Writing
Practice
the core mechanism • you can practice behaviours, not just skills • identity is downstream of practice • what you end up practicing will often depend on your environment
Tax cuts as price controls
gain-of-function research on tax cuts
Liberalism is gentleness
short • people have multidimensional preference sets • we love the ability to make choices
Microlawsuits
the lower limit on dispute resolution time • ai judges • slowness as legitimacy • dworkin's dream
Against searching for saints
in defense of paying people to do things • incentives solve principal-agent problems • motivated agents exist but are unevenly distributed and hard to identify
Authority
the development of modern states • statecraft has a technology tree • parliamentary democracy • separation of powers • rule of law
Against lawyer brain
escaping formalism for substance • why legal training teaches you to avoid the real world • learning to form opinions under uncertainty • choosing outcomes over process • strong beliefs, loosely held
I have a favourite band
literary earworms • finding identity • developing taste • rainbow kitten surprise • self-loathing
Your writing is not good enough
fear and writing • professional compromises • the erosion of caring • honest feedback • fighting mediocrity
Religious freedom, reform, and secularism
Article 25 and the reform clause • protecting religious freedom while reforming practices • state control of Hindu temples • cognitive dissonance in Indian secularism • dynamic equilibrium between competing visions
Tipping the odds
economists and lawyers • the limits of interpretation • what is Law™
The second best is a formal order
notes on the death of Elizabeth II • legal realism • rule of law in India • the English roots of constitutional traditions
Research
Expert FAQs on end-of-life care · Working of medical councils · Healthcare facilities licensing · Court data on medical negligence · New framework for Indian religion jurisprudence
Speaking
Panel on euthanasia, International Literature Festival of Kerala, 2024
DPHICON, Tamil Nadu Public Health Conference, 2025