Mohammed Ridwanul Hoque

Mohammed Ridwanul Hoque, is Associate Professor, Department of Law, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr Hoque's doctoral research [2007] at theUniversity of London (School of Oriental and African Studies) was entitled "Judicial activism as a golden mean: A critical study ofevolving activist jurisprudence with particular reference toBangladesh"; and current research interests include Public law;comparative constitutional theory, Islamic family law, corporate lawand corporate governance. A list of publications is provided below.

PUBLICATIONS

Articles

2007a. “Criminal law and the Constitution: The relationship revisited”, Special Issue
(Nov 2007), Bangladesh Journal of Law, pp. 45-78.

2007b. “Judicial activism and Islamic family law: A socio-legal evaluation of recent trends in Bangladesh”, Vol. 14 (2), Islamic Law and Society, pp. 204-39. (Co-authored).2006a. “Taking justice seriously: Judicial public interest and constitutional activism in Bangladesh”, Vol. 15 (4) Contemporary South Asia, pp. 399-422.

2006b. “The judicial invocation of international human rights law in Bangladesh:
Questing a better approach”, Vol. 46 (2) Indian Journal of International Law,
pp. 151-84. (Co-authored).
2003. “Suo motu jurisdiction as a tool of activist judging: A survey of relevant issues
and constructing a sensible defence”, Vol. VIII Chittagong University Journal
of Law, pp. 1-31.
2000. “Corporate governance: Mapping the territory for Bangladesh’s visit”, Vol. V
Chittagong University Journal of Law, pp. 35-71.
1999a. “Jurisdictional problems of the International Court of Justice: Towards an
alternative framework”, Vol. 3 (1) [June 1999], Bangladesh Journal of
Law, pp. 49-89.
1999b. “Right to post-divorce maintenance in Muslim law: The Shamsun Nahar
revisited”, Vol. IV Chittagong University Journal of Law, pp. 1-32. (Co-authored).
1998. “Province of the law of contempt of court undetermined”, Vol. III Chittagong
University Journal of Law, pp. 181-203.

Shorter Articles (selected)
2007 “Problems of judicial affairs in Bangladesh”, followed by “Bangladesh
strengthens independent judiciary”, Vols. 11 (Nov. 2007); 12 (Dec. 2007), D + C Development and Cooperation, respectively at p. 426, and p. 447.
2006 “Judicial stance against polygamy: Some reflections on the case of Dilruba
Aktar 55 DLR 568”, (2006) 58 Dhaka Law Report, Journal section, pp. 51-54.
2005 “Recent decisions of the International Court: Saving International Law from its demise?”, Issue 9, [2004-5] Law Vision, pp. 14-19, Chittagong University Faculty of Law.
2005 “On coup d' etat, constitutionalism, and the need to break the subtle bondage with alien legal thought: A reply to Omar and Hossain”, Law & Our Rights, The Daily Star, Dhaka, 29 October 2005 available at: http://www.thedailystar.net/law/2005/10/05/alter.htm
2004 “On freedom of religion and the plight of Ahmadiyas”, Law & Our Rights, The Daily Star, Dhaka, 21 March 2004, available at: http://www.thedailystar.net/law/2004/03/03/index.htm
2002 “State liability for judicial mistakes: A new avenue for judicial accountability or a mere dream?”, Issue 8 [December 2002] Law Vision, Chittagong University Faculty of Law, 8-13.
2000 “Court declares unauthorised fatwa illegal”, Issue 6 [December 2000] Law Vision, Chittagong University Faculty of Law, 12-13.

Translation (English to Bengali)
“Torture in Bangladesh: 1971-2004”, a report by REDRESS, London.

Book Reviews

2008 Review of Hans Dembowski, Taking the State to Court: Public Interest
Litigation and the Public Sphere in Metropolitan India. www.asienhaus.de/taking-state-to-court. Online edition of a controversial book originally published by OUP in 2001, D+C Development and Cooperation, forthcoming.
2008 Review of Joseph M. Jacob, Civil justice in the age of human rights (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, vol. 22 (1): 91-92.
2007 Review of Usha Jumani, Empowering Society: An analysis of business, government and social development approaches to empowerment (New Delhi: Foundations, 2006), Journal of South Asian Development, forthcoming.
2006 Review of Marc Hertogh and Simon Halliday (eds.), Judicial review and
bureaucratic Impact: International and interdisciplinary perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), and of Simon Halliday, Judicial review and compliance with administrative law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), Cambridge Law Journal, Vol. 65 (1): 231-34.
2005a Review of Salman M A Salman and Kishor Uperty, Conflict and cooperation on South Asia’s international rivers: A legal perspective (London et al: Kluwer Law International, 2002), South Asia Research, Vol. 25 (2): 230-32.

2005 Review of Jona Razzaque, Public interest environmental litigation in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (The Hague et al: Kluwer Law International, 2004), South Asia Research, Vol. 25 (1): 114-15.

Gauri Nanayakkara

Gauri Nanayakkara, State Counsel, Attorney General's Department, Sri Lanka is a doctoral researcher at the University of Kent, UK. She is researching in the area of Copyright Law focusing on the Performers' Rights in South Asia for her doctorate.

Panelists sought for LASSNET conference

Seeking panelists for the LASSNET conference who would want to contribute a paper for a panel on either 1) aspects of governance of contemporary Family Law in India or 2) laws relating to sexual violence or domestic violence, and their adjudication. Since there is still some time before the conference submission deadline, I've left these topics deliberately broad and vague so that we may define our common focus together.

Srimati Basu

New Member Introduction: Srimati Basu

I am presently working on Family Courts, Women's Grievance Cells and Mediation Counseling, based on data in Kolkata. I am an Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies (and affiliated with Anthropology) at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, in the US.
Srimati Basu

BHOPAL SURVIVORS PROTEST MARCH TO DELHI, International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal

Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008

Press Statement : Bhopal Survivors Arrive on Foot to Remind PM of Unkept Promises
28 MARCH, 2008. NEW DELHI – Marking two years since their last padayatra from Bhopal to Delhi, 50 people, including survivors of the 1984 gas tragedy, their children, people exposed to contaminated drinking water and their supporters, today concluded their second 800 km march by walking from Nizamuddin park to Jantar Mantar. "We were forced to undertake this grueling walk because the PM failed to keep his word. This time, we are not going back until we get a public declaration from him that he will deliver on his promise," said Hazra Bee, a survivor and one of the padayatris.

The PMO has rejected a request for an appointment with the PM, and two further requests have not elicited a reply. However, international support for the survivors is pouring in. More than 1300 faxes from 18 countries have already reached the PMO, prompting officials there to threaten survivors with legal action. Yesterday, members of the Scottish parliament marched to the Indian High Commission in Edinburgh, even as other Bhopal supporters in London went to the High Commission there to submit a memorandum urging the Prime Minister to meet the Bhopalis' demands.

On April 16, 2006, the Prime Minister ended a 21day strike, including a 6-day hunger strike by the Bhopalis, by promising to meet the demands of the survivors. The survivors had demanded an empowered Commission to implement social, medical and economic rehabilitation schemes for survivors and their children, in addition to cleaning up Union Carbide's toxic wastes, providing clean water to water-affected communities, and taking legal action against Dow Chemical and Union Carbide. However, the PM suggested a Coordinating Committee to oversee implementation of rehabilitation schemes and environmental remediation.

Over the last two years, the Coordination Committee has had three meetings and accomplished nothing. More than 25,000 people continue to consume poison-tainted groundwater in the absence of reliable and good quality water supply. More than 5000 tons of toxic wastes remain buried and spread in and around the factory site, and no efforts have been taken to contain them or export them to the US for final disposal. No rehabilitation schemes have been implemented.

Government inaction on rehabilitation and environmental remediation has placed Bhopalis at the receiving end of two disasters – the 1984 gas leak and the ongoing water contamination -- both with pronounced effects on children and future generations. Despite a 1991 Supreme Court order directing the Government to extend insurance benefits to 100,000 gas-affected children, not one child has been covered, leading to a spurt in destitution among families with sick children. In contamination-affected communities, congenital deformities among newborns is a rising trend.

The future generations are in danger. That, say Bhopal survivors, is why any Commission that is set up has to execute its schemes over at least 30 years. The Bhopalis estimate that the Government needs to invest in a corpus of Rs. 2000 crore to provide an annual budget of Rs. 100 crores for the Commission throughout its term.

In contrast to the inaction on Bhopal, the Government has, in the last two years, openly advanced the cause of Dow Chemical and Union Carbide. Information unearthed from the PMO through RTI indicates that ambassador Ronen Sen, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Ratan Tata, P. Chidambaram and Kamalnath have all written letters supporting Dow Chemical. In response, the Cabinet Secretary has suggested exonerating Dow Chemical keeping in mind the scope of investments by Dow and other US companies in India.

In less than a decade, Dow Chemical has chalked up an impressive list of violations of law and due process. In February 2007, Dow caught for paying more than Rs. 80 lakhs in bribes to Indian agriculture ministry officials to register three toxic pesticides. In 2005, Indian Oil revoked a technology deal with Dow after it found out that Dow was trying to sell Union Carbide's technology by lying that it was its own. Recently, Dow has managed to convince Government of India to approve the sale of Union Carbide's technology to Reliance Industries despite the fact that a 1992 court order directs the Government to confiscate all Union Carbide's assets in India.

"This is a repeat of the betrayal of 1989 where the Government colluded with Union Carbide to shortchange the people of Bhopal on the compensation settlement," said Satinath Sarangi, another padayatri and a long-time Bhopal activist from Bhopal Group for Information and Action. "23,000 people have died, and the collusion still continues. We're determined to break this corporate-Government nexus that plays havoc with people's lives."

For more information, contact:
Nityanand Jayaraman. 9717516003.
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
B5/136, Sadurjung Enclave, New Delhi-29
For the PMO files (Right to Information), visit: www.bhopal.net/pmo.html
For PMO files in Hindi, visit: http://www.bhopal.net/Hindi%20PDF.pdf

Saheli organises protest againt Judicial and Govermental Apathy to Rape Survivors

from Saheli Women: saheliwomen@gmail.com
Dear friends,
Please see the statement below that we have issued to the press.We are also planning to do a protest in Central Park (Connaught Place, NewDelhi) on Wednesday 2nd April, 6 pm onwards. Do join us so we can raise our voices together against these incidents of violence and moralistic reactions of the society, the media and the state. The statement below will be distributed in the form of a leaflet. If you would like to endorse it, please let us know latest by 1st April.

Women's group condemns moralism by the Judiciary, State and Media in cases of rape. In case after case of sexual violence against women we are witnessing troubling trends within the judiciary, state machinery and the media which raise serious concerns for women's safety and hope for justice. In a Sessions Court in Delhi, Additional Sessions Judge, A.K Mendiratta passed a judgment on 18 February 2008, regarding the rape and subsequent forced marriage of a young girl. A student of Class 9, the victim was lured by her friend's brother to his house and raped. When she threatened to file a case, he confined her until his parents returned, whereupon shewas forcibly married to her rapist. Then the judgment states, "under pressure, her father left her at the house of the accused wherein she was subsequently sexually assaulted by the accused Vikas". Finally, the victim was abandoned while she was pregnant. It was only then that criminal proceedings began. 2 years later, the victim took back her testimony and the accused was acquitted.Despite being aware of the horrific facts of the case, in his judgment ASJ Mendiratta fails to recognise what the victim must have suffered, choosinginstead to describe her now as, "married… and blessed with a child". Healso fails to deal with the crimes by accused or his parents, and instead shockingly issues a "warning" to parents, advising they "monitor" theirdaughters to avoid such a "slip in teenage" in our "opening society".We strongly object to the language and tenor of this judgement that seeks to police women instead of prevent or punish crimes against them. This is particularly ironic, given that the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil told the Lok Sabha last week that about 75% of rapes happen within the family.Such moralism has been equally evident in the case of the rape and murderof British tourist, 15 year old Scarlette Eden Keeling, in Goa. Stateofficials and the police have victimised the family with constantspeculations on the 'character' of Scarlette and her mother, FionaMackeown. On one hand, have been threats to never allow the family to re-enter India, and on the other hand, bland reassurances regarding the 'safety of all tourists' in Goa. Clearly, the real concern is to protect the tourism industry at the cost of justice. It is only after immense pressure that the Chief Minister, Digamber Kamat has finally agreed toallow a CBI enquiry into the matter. Also of great concern has been some of the regressive media coverage around the incident (especially on TV), marked by voyeuristic speculationsabout the mental state, habits, sexual life, etc. of the victim...building up towards a moral response that the victim 'deserved it'. Media reports and state officials have also systematically targeted Fiona as anirresponsible mother and hence tried to shift the onus off the perpetrators of the crime. Under such circumstances, the possibility of justice gets severely compromised. It is essential that the Government of Goa ensure a fair trial and punishment for those responsible for the rapeand murder of Scarlette.Both these cases are an urgent reminder that we need to examine the waycrimes against women are dealt with by the state, judiciary, media andsociety as a whole. We stand in solidarity with the struggles of victims,as well as those like Fiona Mackeown, fighting for justice under suchhostile circumstances.

Samia Bano

Dr. Samia Bano is a lecturer in Family Law at the University of Reading. She obtained her PhD at the University of Warwick, Department of Law where her doctoral research explored the relationship between ‘Muslim Family Law and South Asian Muslim Women in Britain’ (Sept 2005). Her research interests include, gender, migration, human rights and the law. She has worked on a number of research and policy initiatives in the area of gender, migration, multiculturalism and the law, most recently contributing to the CIMEL/INTERIGHTS project to develop legal strategies to combat ‘crimes of honour.’ Her current work explores the relationship between informal religious legal systems, state law and gender relations within South Asian Muslim communities in the UK and is due to be published as a book in Spring 2009 (Palgrave MacMillan).

Aisha Gill

Dr Gill (B.A., M.A., PhD (University of Essex)) PGCHE) is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Roehampton. Her main areas of interest and research are health and criminal justice responses to violence against Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) women in the United Kingdom. She has been involved in addressing the problem of violence against women for the past decade. She is currently the Chair of Newham Asian Women’s Project, London, a management committee member of Imkaan (a second-tier national VAW charity) and a member of Liberty’s Project Advisory Group and their ‘End Violence Against Women’ group (EVAW). Dr. Gill has also served on numerous government committees dealing with so-called ‘honour’ killings and forced marriages, and has challenged politicians to be more inclusive of BME women's voices in policy-making on issues of gender-based violence and human rights. Her current research interests focus on rights and marriage, familial homicide and femicide, trafficking, missing women and violence. She has also published widely in refereed journals.

Arudra Burra

Arudra Burra is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Princeton University, and has a JD from the Yale Law School.His philosophical interests are in moral and political philosophy,broadly speaking: his dissertation is on the relationship betweenexploitation, coercion, and consent.Though the dissertation touches on a number of legal themes, Arudra's main area of interest vis-a-vis the law is in South Asian legal history, particularly around the period of Indian independence in 1947. He also volunteers as webmaster of the Right to Food Campaign, India (www.righttofoodindia.org), which is currently involved in a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court of India

panel proposal

Dear all
Under the theme ‘Terror, Law and Bio-politics’ I would like to organise a panel on ‘extra-ordinary/ anti-terror’ laws. We can explore the content and substance of such laws, the politics and ideology which informs the framing and working of extraordinary laws (viz., the specific ways in which such laws unfold), the relationship between specific constitutionalisms (viz., Nepali, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Israeli, South African, Australian, USA etc.) and extraordinary laws, examining the relations between socio-cultural communities and state as they are mediated through extra-ordinary laws, the specific ways through which people support, negotiate and resist these laws. We can frame our papers around the broad theme ‘Politics, ideology and extraordinary laws’.

Ratna Kapur

Ratna Kapur is the Director of the Centre for Feminist Legal Research, New Delhi, and on the Faculty of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations. She is also a part of the Global Law Faculty at NYU School of Law. She is currently on mission as the Senior Gender Advisor for the United Nations Mission in Nepal, during the period of the constitutent assembly elections. She has written and published extensively on law from a postcolonial, feminist legal theory perspective. She has focussed specifically on international and human rights laws. She has held chairs and been a fellow at a large number of law schools around the world, including Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Centre, Dalhousie Law School, Zurich University, National Law School of India University, and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. She teaches courses on feminist legal theory, constitutional law, international law, and human rights law.

Kapur is the author of several books, including Erotic Justice: Law and the New Politics fo Postcolonialism (Cavendish, 2005), Secularism's Last Sigh? Hindutva and the (Mis) Rule of Law, (co-authored) (Oxford University Press, reprint, 2001), Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagements with Law (Sage, 1999). Her latest book Alien Insurrections: Gender, Migration and Law is forthcoming from Routledge in 2008.

She has contributed articles to several edited collections and also published extensively in law school journals. Her most recent articles include "Human Rights Impact of Anti-Trafficking Laws: A Case Study of India", in Collateral Damage, (Global Alliance Against the Trafficking of Women: Bangkok, 2007);"Migrant Women and the Legal Politics of Anti-Trafficking Interventions" in Human Trafficking Chapter 5 (Edward Newman and Jyoti Sanghera, eds., United Nations University, forthcoming, 2007); "Challenging the liberal subject: Law and Gender Justice in South Asia " in Gender Citizenship and Development 116-170 (Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, ed., IDRC and Zubaan: New Delhi, 2007); "Faith and the Good Liberal: Construction of Female Subjectivity in Anti-Trafficking Discourse" in Sexuality and the Law: Feminist Engagements (Vanessa Munro and Carl Stychin, eds, Cavendish:London, 2007);"The Prurient Postcolonial: The Legal Regulation of Sexual Speech in India in The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India (Brinda Bose and Subhabrata Bhattacharya, eds., Seagaull: New York, 2006);"Speaking from the Margins: The Legal Regulation of Sexuality in Postcolonial India, in Gender Justice in India : A Reader (in Karen Gabriel, ed., Katha: Delhi, 2005); Revisioning the Role of Law in Women's Human Rights Struggles in The Legalisation of Human Rights, (S. Mekled-Garcia, ed., Routledge: London, 2005);"Citizen and the Migrant: Postcolonial Anxieties, Law and the Politics of Inclusion/Exclusion" Theoretical Inquiries (Tel Aviv University) (2007); "Normalizing Violence: Transnational Justice and the Gujarat Riots" 15:3 Columbia Journal of Gender and Human Rights 885-927 (2006); "Dark Times for Liberal Intellectual Thought", 11 Professions Modern Language Association Journal, 22-32 (2006); "Human Rights in the 21st Century: Taking a Walk on the Dark Side", 28:4 Sydney Law Review 665-687 (2006); "Travel Plans: Border Crossings and the Transnational Migrant Subject" in 18 Harvard Human Rights Journal
85 (2005);"The Legal Regulation of the Family in a Transnational World", Proceedings of the Ninety-Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, 198 (2003) ;"Un-veiling Women's Rights in the `War on Terror'", in special issue on Gender and War, 9 Duke Journal on Gender, Law and Policy 211 (Summer, 2002) (partly reproduced in Human Rights and the Global Marketplace: Economic, Social, and Cultural Dimensions, a textbook by Jeanne M. Woods & Hope Lewis, 2005);"Collateral Damage: Sacrificing Legitimacy in the Search for Justice", 24:1 Harvard International Review 42 (Spring 2002);"The Tragedy of Victimization Rhetoric: Implications for International Women's Rights and Post-Colonial Feminist Legal Politics", 15 Harvard Human Rights Journal, 1 (Spring, 2002) (partly reproduced in Human Rights and the Global Marketplace: Economic, Social, and Cultural Dimensions, a textbook by Jeanne M. Woods & Hope Lewis, 2005).

Daniela Berti

Daniela Berti is a social anthropologist working on North India, and a researchfellow at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, Paris).Her PhD (1997) was focused on the linguistic interactions which takeplace during possession rituals and on what gives effectiveness tothis particular type of utterance. Other work has covered thedevelopment of divine iconography, local representations of the ritualefficacy, the persistence in contemporary state institutions of politico-ritual roles and practices associated in the past withkingship. In 2002-2005 she coordinated a research programmefinanced by the CNRS entitled The Cultural Entrenchment of Hindutva.Local Mediations and Forms of Resistance. She is editing (with N. Jaoul)a volume related to this project which will be published by Pearsons. She is currently working on a project focused on the ethnography oftrial proceedings in Indian District Courts. She carried out my firstpreliminary fieldwork for this project in November 2006, when she a District and Session Judge's Court in a small town inHimachal Pradesh. She is especially working on criminal cases (drugstrafficking and cultivation, dowry cases or sexual harassments), withthe intention of analysing how two opposing versions of facts arebuilt up during the trial: how the examination and cross-examinationof the witnesses are held, how statements are put into written form;how juridical proof is produced; how lawyers defend their case duringthe 'arguments'

Srila Roy

Srila Roy, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Nottingham, UK. Research interests include gender/feminist theory,violence and conflict, cultural memory and trauma, emotions, social movements.

Contributions to Indian Sociology: Posted by Nandini Sundar

Dear Lassnet members,
Please write for Contributions to Indian Sociology. We are keen to carry articles on law and society in South Asia. I notice that several of you work on other interesting issues too. We look forward to lots of interesting submissions in the new year. With regards
Nandini Sundar (Co-editor CIS) cisjournal@yahoo.co.in

Vacancy, WATER LAW POLICY AND SCIENCE: Posted by GAIL PEARSON

From: regulation-bounces@listserver.cc.huji.ac.il on behalf of Michael Hantke DomasSent: Wed 3/5/2008 9:02 PMTo: regulation@listserver.cc.huji.ac.ilSubject: [Regulation] Position announcement: Senior Research Fellow in WaterServices Regulation
Hi all,
The UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, is currently looking for a Senior Research Fellow in Water Services Regulation. Applications are invited for a person with expertise in law and economics to investigate the legal issues surrounding the economic regulation of water utilities at a national scale within the global context.
For more information, please visit http://www.jobs.dundee.ac.uk/vacancies/20080331_00001-y.html
The closing date is 31 March 2008
Kind regards
Dr Michael Hantke-Domas