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.
Selected Writing
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