Law


  • Australians Are Quietly Losing Their Right to Free Speech

    Australians Are Quietly Losing Their Right to Free Speech

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    In September, more than half of Australia’s environmental scientists working for the federal and state governments reported that they had been “prohibited from communicating scientific information” to the general public. Research on climate change, the extinction of animal species and pollution was all being suppressed. Despite the potential for scientific research to shape national elections,…

  • A Right to Life amidst COVID-19: non-existent for Palestinian prisoners in Israel

    A Right to Life amidst COVID-19: non-existent for Palestinian prisoners in Israel

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    Deeksha Sharma and Tirtharaj Chaudhary are both penultimate year law students at National Law University, Lucknow, India The Israeli Supreme Court (SC) recently ruled that Palestinian prisoners have no right to physical distancing protection against COVID-19, prima facie ignoring the outbreak in the overcrowded Gilboa Prison.The Palestinian legal advocacy group, Adalah, had petitioned the court to…

  • Uncovering patriarchal undercurrents in the quest for the ‘genuine rape victim’: A feminist legal theory narrative of the gendered perceptions on consent.

    Uncovering patriarchal undercurrents in the quest for the ‘genuine rape victim’: A feminist legal theory narrative of the gendered perceptions on consent.

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    Status of Indian rape laws: The harsh statistics The persistent growth of sexual atrocities in India has led to the formulation of seemingly uncompromising rape laws. However, increasing number of rapes and decreasing conviction rates paint a contrary picture regarding the efficacy of current rape law. In 2001 16,075 rape cases were reported, which more…

  • Safeguarding Sexual Minorities from Conversion Therapy in India: Judiciary as the Custodian of Constitutional Rights

    Safeguarding Sexual Minorities from Conversion Therapy in India: Judiciary as the Custodian of Constitutional Rights

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    September 2020 will mark the two-year anniversary of decriminalization of homosexuality in India. This progressive realisation of human rights was achieved by the Supreme Court of India (SC) in the landmark case of Navtej Singh Johar v Union of India and has since then been celebrated as a win against homophobia – a colonial inheritance…

  • Bostock v Clayton County, Georgia: [Only] One small step forward for LGBTQI+ rights

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    Bostock v Clayton County, Georgia: [Only] One small step forward for LGBTQI+ rights By Joshua Taylor and Alice Taylor-Kirby Last month, the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bostock v Clayton County, Georgia. Hailed as ‘a triumph for both the country and the court’ and ‘a simple and profound victory for L.G.B.T. civil…

  • Seasonality and Policymaking in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Seasonality and Policymaking in Sub-Saharan Africa

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    By Parth Ahya and Justin Graham Ahmadu is a farmer in northeastern Nigeria. His life is shaped by seasons. The best time of the year is October. In October, Ahmadu can sell several bags of his newly harvested grains for a small profit. Over the following 2–3 months, Ahmadu can afford to pay his children’s…

  • The Lorax and Legal Standing

    The Lorax and Legal Standing

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    The year before publication of Christopher Stone’s seminal article ‘Should Trees have Standing?’ in the Southern California Law Review, another American environmentalist made an important, if overlooked, contribution to the debate on public interest litigation. “I am the Lorax…I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” Apart from a recent US Court…

  • What COVID-19 Teaches Us About Big Tech

    What COVID-19 Teaches Us About Big Tech

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    In April, I published the following blog post here on my personal blog New Intrigue and on the Oxford Political Review. A few months later, I was told to take down the post or get fired from my then job as a public servant in the Australian Federal Government. Although the post had no criticism of the government…

  • Southeast Asia has a synthetic drug problem, China has key stake in fixing it.

    Southeast Asia has a synthetic drug problem, China has key stake in fixing it.

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    Barrels of precursor chemicals seized by Myanmar police and military in Shan State. Photograph: Myanmar Police/UNODC/via Reuters Beijing has gained momentum in its bid for regional dominance in Southeast Asia. Fuelled by notions of Chinese largesse, high-tech industrial and infrastructure development, and an ongoing surge of tactical investments pouring into the region in recent years,…

  • Are Human Rights Claims Mechanisms an adequate Social Justice tool to Address Inequality?

    Are Human Rights Claims Mechanisms an adequate Social Justice tool to Address Inequality?

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    Introduction:  Equality, as a concept, is not necessarily complex or abstract. It is grounded in the idea that ‘everyone counts as one and none is more than one’.1 Extrapolating from this idea, inequality exists where needs of some are disproportionately emphasised over others. This could be a result of numerous factors.2 It is likely that…