Department of Law

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    ItemOpen Access
    A study of the status of women in religious laws of the SAARC Nations
    (University of North Bengal, 2023) Kejriwal, Shruti; Chakraborty, Gangotri
    Equality for women has been a dynamic topic for centuries. Gender inequality is rooted in the societal practices, culture and custom of personal laws of all the SAARC nations. All the major religions of the SAARC countries are influenced by the patriarchal set up. The underlying basis of all personal laws, regardless of religion is, ‘Men and Women are not equal’. There exists discrimination in the personal laws relating to marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, adoption and guardianship in the SAARC nations. All major religions have deep influences upon the people that follow them and, in the countries, where they are dominant or where they are proclaimed as state religion. In the recent past, personal laws have witnessed advances with the constantly changing nature of human relations. In such a scenario, it is an impediment to hold onto the age- old beliefs and traditions of the personal laws, which were adhered to during those times but are a hindrance to today’s growth and betterment. Therefore, there is a duty on the legislature of every SAARC nation to reform the conservative personal laws that are biased against the women. The Judiciary has also through its pragmatic judicial pronouncements and judicial creativity developed and reformed the draconian gender unjust personal laws to meet the dynamisms of the society. Therefore, the need of the hour is to legislate progressive laws to mitigate every inequality that exists in the personal laws of the various religions. This mitigation shall gradually lead to the equality of personal laws for men and women in every religion. Every SAARC nation has a multi-cultural and multi-religious population. In this backdrop, to have a universal secular law for all the SAARC nations is presently a distant dream. However, every SAARC nation may obliterate the gender unjust personal laws by framing progressive laws for the women of each religion. Thus, a parity will inevitably be achieved for the women of every SAARC nation. The title of this thesis is A STUDY OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN RELIGIOUS LAWS OF THE SAARC NATIONS. The title of Chapter I is ‘Theoretical and Conceptual Framework of Religious Laws’. The chapter states the interpretation of the religious laws to be synonyms to the personal laws. It examines the nature of personal laws such as private laws, public laws, group rights or individual rights. The chapter also discusses the evolution of personal laws and the views of legal philosophers in context to the personal laws. The title of Chapter 2 is ‘Politics of Personal Laws’. The chapter explains the politics of personal laws in the British era. The chapter further elaborates on the democratic politics behind enacting the laws to regulate the personal laws in India during the 1950s and 1980s. The discussion on the recent politics involved in the Triple Talaq Case and the Sabrimala Case also finds place in the chapter. The two prime jurisprudential theories, centrist and pluralist, relating to the topic has also been examined in the chapter. The chapter also discusses the unpleasant politics behind the righteous policies framed in India. The title of Chapter 3 is ‘Personal Laws and the issues of Gender Inequality’. The chapter examines the personal laws prevailing in India and highlights the issues of gender inequality in them. The laws on marriage, nullity of marriage, maintenance, restitution of conjugal rights, divorce, judicial separation, inheritance, guardianship and adoption applicable to the Hindus, Christians, Parsis and Muslims in India have been critically examined on the basis of gender inequality. The title of Chapter 4 is ‘Judicial Opinion whether Personal Law is a ‘Law’ Under Article 13 of the Constitution of India’. The chapter has recorded the evolution of ‘Personal Laws’ in India starting from the neutrality of British towards the Hindu and Muslim law and then the gradual legislations passed by the Britishers. The chapter discusses the debates held in the Constitution Assembly in relation to the personal laws. The chapter analyses the interpretation of various judicial pronouncements on whether the Personal Laws are ‘Laws’ under Article 13 of the Constitution of India. The title of Chapter 5 is ‘Comparative Study of the Personal Laws of the SAARC nations’. The chapter provides with the interface of law and life lived by the women of the SAARC nations while being governed by the personal laws applicable to them. It examines the status of personal laws in the Constitution of every SAARC nation. The chapter critically examines the laws governing the aspects of marriage, maintenance, divorce, inheritance and guardianship of the SAARC nations on the basis of its application to the women. The title of Chapter 6 is ‘International Instruments relating to Gender Equality’. The universally accepted concept and meaning of ‘gender’, ‘sex’ ‘gender equality’ and ‘stereotypes’ has been discussed in the chapter. The chapter extensively elaborates on the gender inequality issues dealt by the various international instruments of the United Nations. The chapter also incorporates the agendas relating to the rights of the women discussed in the various SAARC summit. The Beijing Declaration and the follow-up action across the world, the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2021 and the Sustainable Development Goals also finds the place of discussion in the chapter. The title of Chapter 7 is ‘Scope, Ambit and Applicability of Secular laws in the SAARC Nations’. The chapter elaborates on the concept of secularism imbibed in the Constitution of all the SAARC nations. The chapter also provides with the gap in the metanarratives of secularism and the real time experiences of people belonging to the different religions in the same nation. The chapter also examines the shift in the conceptual meaning of secular laws as explained in different countries and the politics behind it. It studies the government and the societal respect for religious freedom in every SAARC nation. To substantiate, the recent occurrences relating to religious affairs have been incorporated in the chapter. In Chapter 8 the researcher has concluded the entire research work by providing a detailed description of each chapter. The chapter also incorporates suggestions and recommendations to ensure gender just personal laws. Therefore, this research work is carried out with an objective to study the status of the women in the SAARC nations and examine the major religions of the SAARC countries namely: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. The researcher has drawn out the understandings and inferences of the teachings of these religion to bring out the correct and favourable conditions for the women of the SAARC nations.
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    ItemOpen Access
    A study of the legal framework for accountability of individuals for crimer against humanity and the role of the international law enforcement agencies.
    (University of North Bengal, 2014) Ghosh, Satarupa; Chakraborty, Gangotri
    The principle that individuals are and can be held criminally accountable for violations of the laws of war dates back to many years. However, it was only after World War II and the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, set up to judge those German and Japanese military leaders accused of serious crimes during the war, that the idea of individual criminal responsibility for serious breaches of international law gained ground. In this thesis an attempt has made to trace the evolution of individual’s responsibility for crime against humanity, the present legal framework in national and international level and the role of various law enforcement agencies to deal with the problem. Evolution of the Problem: History is witness to the fact that wherever an individual or groups of individuals have become powerful, they have flagrantly tortured the weak and the defenseless. Even where power is legitimated and turned into a legally valid authority, abuse of power and torture of the weak and the defenseless has continued. In this back drop considerable legal mechanism has developed for the exercise of such raw power. An international crime has been broadly defined as “an act universally recognized as criminal, that is, an act that is considered a grave matter of international concern and for some valid reason cannot be left within the exclusive jurisdiction of the state that would have control over it under ordinary circumstances”. Crimes against humanity now are established as jus cogens norms and are implicitly recognized as such in the preamble of the Hague Convention, which served to codify the customary law of armed conflict. Unfortunately, despite several attempts for fixing liability to the individuals who have committed crime against humanity and subjecting them to trials like Nuremberg trials and Tokyo trials the legal framework for fixing liability to individuals guilty of the act of committing crime against humanity to this day remains obscure and vague and ad hoc mechanisms are used to settle such cases. In the face of recent developments in countries like Libya, Egypt, Iraq the lack of legal framework to deal with such matters has become a cause for international concern. The main thrust of this work is to study the existing legal framework for determination of individual’s accountability for the crime against humanity and to propose changes into the existing framework. Hypothesis There is insufficient legal framework for the control and regulation and for fixing liability on the individual for committing crime against humanity and the present mechanism works through international ad hoc tribunals internationalized or mixed tribunals, the International Criminal Court as well as national courts, military tribunals and ordinary courts which allows any state to try alleged perpetrators, even in the absence of any link between the accused and the state exercising jurisdiction which leads to miscarriage of justice on one hand and multiple trials on the same cause of action on the other hand. Research Questions 1. What is the genesis for global movement for accountability? 2. What are the shortcomings of the present legal framework for accountability of international crime? 3. What is the role of the International Law Enforcement Agencies to provide proper justice to the victims? 4. What are the shortcomings of the institutional mechanisms to prevent the growth and spread of the international crime? 5. What is the concept of global movement towards accountability and what is the scope of its growth? Methodology Having selected the above topic for this research, the work will perforce be based on theoretical doctrinal research. The methodology followed is traditional non-empirical research. Chapter Summary Chapter I: “ACCOUNTIBILITY OF INDIVIDUALS FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY: THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK”. The jurisprudential rooting of the present research work is discussed under this chapter. This chapter also explains the concepts used in this research and international legal theories. Chapter-II: HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE CONCERN FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY AND FIXING OF ACCOUNTABILITY: This chapter discuss about the preliminary concepts of international crimes, such as aggression, genocide, war Crimes and crime against humanity and the historical evolution of crime against humanity, this is also an attempt to establish individual criminal liability for the crime against. Chapter-III: CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS: PRE 1945 SPECTRUM: This chapter deals with the scenario of crime against humanity by individuals before 1945. Chapter-IV: CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS: A POST 1945 SPECTRUM: This chapter describes the scenario of the framework of the trials of individuals for crime against humanity after World War II (1939-1945). Chapter V: “A ROADMAP OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES FOR DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS ACCUSED OF CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY”. In this chapter the matter of discussion is about various international law enforcement agencies like International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, Ad Hoc Tribunals and Hybrid Tribunals. Chapter-VI: “A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE INTERNATIONAL AND INDIAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK RELATING TO CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS”. This chapter mainly deals with the Indian legal framework and also the various Indian incidents regarding the crime against humanity in comparison with international framework for accountability of individuals for crime against humanity. Chapter-VII: “A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL PRINCIPLES REGARDING LIABILITY OF INDIVIDUALS FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY IN SELECTED NATIONAL JURISDICTIONS”. The subject matter of this chapter is about the various national laws to combat crime against humanity and the implementation of those laws by the nation states. Chapter-VIII: “INDIVIDUAL LEADER’S LIABLE FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY: A COLLAGE”. In this chapter I have discussed about various specific instances of individual leader’s liability. It is a narrative chapter. Chapter IX: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS: In conclusion it can be summed up that the hypothesis that legal framework for the control and regulation and for fixing liability on the individual for committing crime against humanity is insufficient, has been proved and in this regard certain suggestion has been put in the thesis.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    A study of the legal framework for accountability of individuals for crimer against humanity and the role of the international law enforcement agencies.
    (University of North Bengal, 2014) Ghosh, Satarupa; Chakraborty, Gangotri
    The principle that individuals are and can be held criminally accountable for violations of the laws of war dates back to many years. However, it was only after World War II and the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, set up to judge those German and Japanese military leaders accused of serious crimes during the war, that the idea of individual criminal responsibility for serious breaches of international law gained ground. In this thesis an attempt has made to trace the evolution of individual’s responsibility for crime against humanity, the present legal framework in national and international level and the role of various law enforcement agencies to deal with the problem. Evolution of the Problem: History is witness to the fact that wherever an individual or groups of individuals have become powerful, they have flagrantly tortured the weak and the defenseless. Even where power is legitimated and turned into a legally valid authority, abuse of power and torture of the weak and the defenseless has continued. In this back drop considerable legal mechanism has developed for the exercise of such raw power. An international crime has been broadly defined as “an act universally recognized as criminal, that is, an act that is considered a grave matter of international concern and for some valid reason cannot be left within the exclusive jurisdiction of the state that would have control over it under ordinary circumstances”. Crimes against humanity now are established as jus cogens norms and are implicitly recognized as such in the preamble of the Hague Convention, which served to codify the customary law of armed conflict. Unfortunately, despite several attempts for fixing liability to the individuals who have committed crime against humanity and subjecting them to trials like Nuremberg trials and Tokyo trials the legal framework for fixing liability to individuals guilty of the act of committing crime against humanity to this day remains obscure and vague and ad hoc mechanisms are used to settle such cases. In the face of recent developments in countries like Libya, Egypt, Iraq the lack of legal framework to deal with such matters has become a cause for international concern. The main thrust of this work is to study the existing legal framework for determination of individual’s accountability for the crime against humanity and to propose changes into the existing framework. Hypothesis There is insufficient legal framework for the control and regulation and for fixing liability on the individual for committing crime against humanity and the present mechanism works through international ad hoc tribunals internationalized or mixed tribunals, the International Criminal Court as well as national courts, military tribunals and ordinary courts which allows any state to try alleged perpetrators, even in the absence of any link between the accused and the state exercising jurisdiction which leads to miscarriage of justice on one hand and multiple trials on the same cause of action on the other hand. Research Questions 1. What is the genesis for global movement for accountability? 2. What are the shortcomings of the present legal framework for accountability of international crime? 3. What is the role of the International Law Enforcement Agencies to provide proper justice to the victims? 4. What are the shortcomings of the institutional mechanisms to prevent the growth and spread of the international crime? 5. What is the concept of global movement towards accountability and what is the scope of its growth? Methodology Having selected the above topic for this research, the work will perforce be based on theoretical doctrinal research. The methodology followed is traditional non-empirical research. Chapter Summary Chapter I: “ACCOUNTIBILITY OF INDIVIDUALS FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY: THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK”. The jurisprudential rooting of the present research work is discussed under this chapter. This chapter also explains the concepts used in this research and international legal theories. Chapter-II: HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE CONCERN FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY AND FIXING OF ACCOUNTABILITY: This chapter discuss about the preliminary concepts of international crimes, such as aggression, genocide, war Crimes and crime against humanity and the historical evolution of crime against humanity, this is also an attempt to establish individual criminal liability for the crime against. Chapter-III: CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS: PRE 1945 SPECTRUM: This chapter deals with the scenario of crime against humanity by individuals before 1945. Chapter-IV: CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS: A POST 1945 SPECTRUM: This chapter describes the scenario of the framework of the trials of individuals for crime against humanity after World War II (1939-1945). Chapter V: “A ROADMAP OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES FOR DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS ACCUSED OF CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY”. In this chapter the matter of discussion is about various international law enforcement agencies like International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, Ad Hoc Tribunals and Hybrid Tribunals. Chapter-VI: “A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE INTERNATIONAL AND INDIAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK RELATING TO CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS”. This chapter mainly deals with the Indian legal framework and also the various Indian incidents regarding the crime against humanity in comparison with international framework for accountability of individuals for crime against humanity. Chapter-VII: “A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL PRINCIPLES REGARDING LIABILITY OF INDIVIDUALS FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY IN SELECTED NATIONAL JURISDICTIONS”. The subject matter of this chapter is about the various national laws to combat crime against humanity and the implementation of those laws by the nation states. Chapter-VIII: “INDIVIDUAL LEADER’S LIABLE FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY: A COLLAGE”. In this chapter I have discussed about various specific instances of individual leader’s liability. It is a narrative chapter. Chapter IX: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS: In conclusion it can be summed up that the hypothesis that legal framework for the control and regulation and for fixing liability on the individual for committing crime against humanity is insufficient, has been proved and in this regard certain suggestion has been put in the thesis.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Paradigm shifts in jurisprudential thoughts in Indian legal system: study of A.K. Gopalan to Maneka Gandhis case and beyond
    (University of North Bengal, 2021) Kundu, Indrani; Chakraborty, Gangotri,
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    Right to information act, 2005 : implication, impediments and challenges
    (University of North Bengal, 2019) Moitra, Sanyukta; Bandyopadhyay, Rathin
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    Study of the status of personal laws in India with reference to article 13 and judicial review under constitution of India
    (University of North Bengal, 2018) Bhutia, Denkila; Chakraborty, Gangotri,
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    ItemOpen Access
    Study of social security laws and policy relating to labour in organized sector in India
    (University of North Bengal, 2018) Gurung, Pramita; Chakraborty, Gangotri,