Musings on India, the law, and policy
Posted in Uncategorized on May 31st, 2010
The international community is meeting in Kampala, Uganda today for the first review conference of the Rome Statute. This is a chance for signatories to come together and, as Ban Ki Moon says, take stock of the (very uncertain) progress that the Rome Treaty has made since its entry into force in 2002. At the [...]
Recently returned from a four-day visit to several shrines in and around the AP-Karnataka border, I was struck by a facet of modern Indian life that I find hard to reconcile with my expectations of a sovereign socialistic secular democratic republic. I also find it disturbing that the millions of others who have been to [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 30th, 2010
(Siddharth Rao, former associate at Wadia Ghandy & Co, and currently Manager (Legal) at Samhita Social Ventures Pvt. Ltd., pens a blinder on the ‘utility’ of voluntary unemployment) After the flurry of activity that was the life of a corporate lawyer, my first month of unemployment posed a new stress. Questions relating to self worth [...]
Posted in Human Rights on May 25th, 2010
As a sort of follow-up to our earlier post about Presidents and their stances viz. the death sentence, today’s Indian Express interviews Maneesh Chhibber on the death penalty: What is the view of President Pratibha Patil on mercy petitions? Like her predecessor, President Patil is not keen on clearing any pending case. She is said [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 23rd, 2010
There has been a lot of discussion off late about the ‘limited mandate’ being given to the Centre to interfere in the Maoist insurgency in the country. Recently, the Attorney General gave an opinion stating that the powers and circumstances in the fifth schedule of the constitution may allow the Centre to interfere. The fifth [...]
Posted in Human Rights, Legal Theory on May 22nd, 2010
The Guardian reports: Across the world there are 76 countries in which people can be prosecuted because of their sexual orientation, according to the latest annual survey of the legal status of homosexuality by the International Gay and Lesbian Association. Half of those countries – 38 out of the continent’s 53 states – are in [...]