News

Banks Commit to Cut Lending Rates
Court: Political Will Needed to Check MNS Violence
Court Put Brakes on Lake Privatisation
Reservation in Local Bodies Challenged as Unconstitutional
Agencies Mooted for Professional Education
Lok Adalats for NREGA Grievances Under Study
Constitution Bench Starts Hearing Long-pending Pleas

Erosion of Law by Courts

Hillel Y. Levin, Everything I Needed to Learn About Legisprudence I Learned by the Time I Was Nine

Abstract:

Based on a true story, this piece starts with a proclamation by Mother, the Supreme Lawmaker, that "no food may be eaten outside the kitchen." What follows is a series of rulings by Judges - father, babysitter, grandma (a liberal jurist, of course), etc. - who, using traditional tools of interpretation, eventually declare it to mean that all food may be eaten outside of the kitchen. Ultimately, the supreme lawmaker reacts and clarifies.The piece is meant to demonstrate the following:* We all regularly use the basic tools and modes of statutory interpretation;* When we interpret pronouncements in real life, we resort to a mix of textualist, literalist, purposivist, legal process, precedent, and other techniques and sources;* Although the various tools seem perfectly reasonable individually, in the aggregate, they can lead to ridiculous results;* Even when we agree that the ultimate results are ridiculous, it is sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly where the error occurred;* The legislature can sometimes clean up after bad judicial opinions, but it often takes a long time.

[An interesting article which portrays how courts read and limit the applicability of a provision of law]

News

Behind the Triple Global Crises
An analysis of global crisis with hunger and impoverishment as referral points by Utsa Patnaik

Book Review

GLOBALIZATION OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, AND THE POOR

Joachim von Braun and Eugenio Diaz–Bonilla — Editors; IFRI, Washington. Oxford University Press

Parliamentary Panel Calls for Waqf Council Revamp

Liberhan Panel to Submit Report Before Term Ends in March

Legal Experts Counter Shivraj’s Stand on Rejecting GUJCOCA

Bofors Case and Suppression of Information by the CBI

Delhi High Court on Legality of Construction Work on Yamuna River Bed.

Government of India becomes a Party to the Dispute between RIL and RNRL over Natural Gas from KG Basin

News and Views

Transgenders to Get Free Education
It took a long while for such concerns to reach the "mainstream". This inclusive policy need to be replicated by other similar institutions and sectors.

Essay on Amartya Sen

Highlights the different economist that Prof. Sen is. Lauds the 'people-centred' approach this ecnomists has taken than the usual 'growth-centred' apporaches of the economists. The link Prof. Sen established between economic, social and political freedoms is a theoretical basis for policies for any nation. The public action notion which is a central theme in Prof. Sen's works draws the blueprint for a healthy democracy. See here for a select list of Prof. Sen's books.

Why the World Dislikes America

An analysis in the backdrop of world economic crisis. The title reminds a similar expression that was part of a racist hate speech against an ethnic group, now part of history. It is time that U.S rethink about it world policies and the efforts of redrawing the world map according to its penchants.

'China Handing Down Death Sentence to Tibetans'- Dalai Lama

These are the words of grief of loosing a civilisation and identity; ancient and precious.

Foreign Law Firms Set to Operate in India: CJI