Sex equality under the Constitution of India: Problems, prospects, and “personal laws”

Delivering equality rights through family law to women of disadvantaged religious minorities under the Constitution of India and international law is undertaken. The legal model of equality predicated on sameness and difference, predominant around the world, is criticized. An alternative model addressing dominance and subordination—ordinal hierarchy—is developed and illustrated through discussion of the Supreme Court of India's jurisprudence. Their failure to apply this model to family law is identified, and a new solution to the difficult problem of guaranteeing sex equality rights to Muslim women under India's "personal laws" is proposed.