The resignation of academic stalwart PB Mehta in March this year stirred an extremely crucial and relevant debate on the state of Academic Freedom in India. When an eminent professor and VC of a leading liberal arts university resigns by mentioning that his writings have become a political liability for the institution, it certainly is [...]
The controversy surrounding the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 seems to have taken a global stage. WhatsApp, a California-based Facebook unit and also the most widely used social messaging platform in India, has filed a legal complaint in Delhi High Court against the Indian government seeking to block the [...]
The Boston Globe has a new series on Future Proofing the Presidency, making a case for prosecution of former President Donald Trump. Just for the record, in DC the basic Presidential criminality approach is: 1) The President gets an interpretation of the law from a lawyer somewhere such as in the Office of Legal Counsel [...]
The 21st century has witnessed significant and progressive changes with regard to the rights and acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community, with various legislations and policies being enacted/repealed for the protection of queer persons, and the increasing acceptance of sexualities and sexual orientations, other than those that have been indoctrinated as ‘normal’. This has also helped [...]
In late May of this year, the district court of Netherlands announced its judgment in Milieudefensie v. Royal Dutch Shell, which ordered the Royal Dutch Shell, a leading oil manufacturer, to reduce its carbon emissions by 45 percent (from its 2019 level) by 2030. This decision has been applauded by environmental activists who have called [...]
Inspired by landmark judgments like Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018) and NALSA v. Union of India (2014), India’s Madras High Court in S. Sushama v. Commissioner of Police (2021) has prohibited ‘conversion therapy’. Conversion therapy, also called “reparative therapy”, is the process of medically “curing” or changing the sexual orientation of LGBTQIA+ [...]
After successfully flattening the curve in late 2020, India witnessed a horrific resurgence of cases. Many attributed this to the “policy casualness” of the government of India, and the lack of effective measures taken by it to ensure social distancing and the wearing of masks. As restrictions were lifted, sights of holiday-goers reaching jam-packed airports [...]
In India, prior to the enactment of the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 (MHCA), health insurance for the treatment of mental health conditions had been a distant dream. In the absence of legal regulations, it had been standard practice for insurance companies to exclude mental health conditions from insurance coverage through standardized exclusion clauses in health insurance [...]
In May 2021, a major American energy pipeline faced a massive cyber-attack that caused the US to lose 1.2 million barrels of fuel a day. Shortly after the attack, US intelligence found that the party responsible for the attack was from Russia. However, in terms of the Russian government’s involvement in the hack, US President [...]
The Photo That Haunts All of the United States In a recent JURIST post commemorating Memorial Day, May 31, 2021, one of us wrote about a photo that haunts us. Thanks to the kindness of Alessio Parisi, we are now able to share that photo with you. It is above in black and white and [...]
