The civil rights of Indian citizens are guaranteed both in the Indian Constitution and through the State's international commitments. Despite these guarantees, the civil rights framework encounters numerous challenges from the State—problematic counter-terrorism laws, continuation of the death penalty, misuse of arrest and preventive detention powers, lack of implementation, and impunity. Through nine incisive essays on both traditional and emerging issues, this volume examines the prevailing imbalance between individual rights and State power. Many laws designed to protect the State do little more than protect State power at the expense of her citizens, directly flouting the Constitution, international law, and democratic principles. The authors critically analyse most of these laws, examining their justifications, background debates, and evolution, along with how they violate constitutional and international law. Taking into account relevant and contemporary comparative case law and developments in international law, this book makes a strong case for bold legal reforms and suggests various measures for improvement.

Launched in 1991, the Asian Yearbook of International Law is a major internationally-refereed yearbook dedicated to international legal issues as seen primarily from an Asian perspective. It is published under the auspices of the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA) in collaboration with DILA-Korea, the Secretariat of DILA, in South Korea. When it was launched, the Yearbook was the first publication of its kind, edited by a team of leading international law scholars from across Asia. It provides a forum for the publication of articles in the field of international law and other Asian international legal topics. The objectives of the Yearbook are two-fold. First, to promote research, study and writing in the field of international law in Asia; and second, to provide an intellectual platform for the discussion and dissemination of Asian views and practices on contemporary international legal issues. Each volume of the Yearbook contains articles and shorter notes; a section on Asian state practice; an overview of the Asian states’ participation in multilateral treaties and succinct analysis of recent international legal developments in Asia; a bibliography that provides information on books, articles, notes, and other materials dealing with international law in Asia; as well as book reviews. This publication is important for anyone working on international law and in Asian studies.

Investigation into how a shared narrative of law and cinema produces ways of collectively remembering mass violence in postcolonial India.

Historically, at English common law, the death penalty was mandatory for the crime of murder and other violent felonies. Over the last three decades, however, many former British colonies have reformed their capital punishment regimes to permit judicial sentencing discretion, including consideration of mitigating factors. Applying a comparative analysis to the law of capital punishment, Novak examines the constitutional jurisprudence and resulting legislative reform in the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, focusing on the rapid retreat of the mandatory death penalty in the Commonwealth over the last thirty years. The coordinated mandatory death penalty challenges - which have had the consequence of greatly reducing the world’s death row population - represent a case study of how a small group of lawyers can sponsor human rights litigation that incorporates international human rights law into domestic constitutional jurisprudence, ultimately harmonizing criminal justice regimes across borders. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the study and development of human rights and capital punishment, as well as those exploring the contours of comparative criminal justice.

On 26th January 1950 India became a republic, shedding its last links with its colonial past and inaugurating a new era of liberty and freedom. With fundamental rights and civil liberties guaranteed by the state, the new constitution was universally acclaimed as the 'world's greatest experiment in liberal government'. This idealistic birth of a new republic meant a clean break with a repressive past. And yet, barely twelve months later, the very makers of the constitution were denouncing their own creation. Passed in June 1951, the First Amendment to the Constitution was a pivotal moment in Indian constitutional history. Sixteen Stormy Days explores the contentious legacy of this First Amendment which drastically curbed freedom of speech, restricted freedom against discrimination and circumscribed the right to property. It follows the sixteen days of debate that led up to it, the people that created it, the great battle waged against it and the immense consequences it has had for Indian democracy. It is a cautionary tale about an almost forgotten but hugely consequential piece of history that holds the key to understanding the position of civil liberties and individual freedoms in India today. It challenges conventional wisdom on iconic figures such as Jawaharlal Nehru, B.R. Ambedkar, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel and Shyama Prasad Mookerji, and lays bare the vast gulf between the liberal promise of India's Constitution and the authoritarian impulses of her first government.

A key challenge facing the overall women’s rights scenario in any remote region like Northeast India is availability of trained lawyers in local courts to assist the aggrieved women to fight their rights violation cases or otherwise guard their interests in a dispute. Such legal services, embracing both individual access to justice and public interest law transcending individual needs, contribute to the rule of law, good governance, human rights, empowerment of the poor and poverty alleviation. The women’s rights lawyers need special training and set of professional tools for forging the future of legal services and legal systems. In order to address this gap, a special training workshop was organized by PFI Foundation, Guwahati in February, 2012. This resource book is an outcome of that exercise. It may be used as a Women’s Rights Lawyers’ Handbook or a manual which is readily available for adoption by law schools to conduct similar programs and also act as a ready-reckoner for the lawyers, police officers, administrators, corporate human resource managers and chief executives of organizations. The contents of the resource book contains training materials used at the training workshop, individual research studies by the authors and a compilation of some important reference documents from different sources. The book mainly covers issues like social security legislations, free legal aid, constitutional remedies, marriage laws, separation, divorce, maintenance, offences of dowry, violence against women, rights at work place, sexual harassment at work place, Vishaka Guidelines, etc.

The fifth edition of this highly praised study charts and explains the progress that continues to be made towards the goal of worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The majority of nations have now abolished the death penalty and the number of executions has dropped in almost all countries where abolition has not yet taken place. Emphasising the impact of international human rights principles and evidence of abuse, the authors examine how this has fuelled challenges to the death penalty and they analyse and appraise the likely obstacles, political and cultural, to further abolition. They discuss the cruel realities of the death penalty and the failure of international standards always to ensure fair trials and to avoid arbitrariness, discrimination and conviction of the innocent: all violations of the right to life. They provide further evidence of the lack of a general deterrent effect; shed new light on the influence and limits of public opinion; and argue that substituting for the death penalty life imprisonment without parole raises many similar human rights concerns. This edition provides a strong intellectual and evidential basis for regarding capital punishment as undeniably cruel, inhuman and degrading. Widely relied upon and fully updated to reflect the current state of affairs worldwide, this is an invaluable resource for all those who study the death penalty and work towards its removal as an international goal.

Volume 6, Issue 1 of the Journal of Law and Cyber Warfare. Special Comment I. Instegogram: A New Threat and Its Limits for Liability Jennifer Deutsch & Daniel Garrie Articles II. A Democracy of Users John Dever & James Dever III. Is Uncle Sam Stalking You? Abandoning Warrantless Electronic Surveillance to Preclude Intrusive Government Searches J. Alexandra Bruce IV. Cyber Enhanced Sanction Strategies: Do Options Exist? Mark Peters Country Briefings V. North Korea: The Cyber Wild Card 2.0 Rhea Siers VI. Privacy and Data Protection in India Dhiraj R. Duraiswami