Vijay K. Tiwari

The Court’s directive to the Union government, in the Samay Raina case, to have a guideline to regulate ‘commercial speech’ can have a chilling effect on speech, which is inconvenient for the political establishment. For the disability movement, this is a moment to reflect on the limits of carceral disability justice.

Reading Nepal’s Gen Z upheaval in the light of Hans Kelsen’s idea of revolution and Grundnorm, as well as Merkl’s concept of Fehlerkalkul, provides us with a better understanding of navigating legal theories in uncertain times.

The former chief minister’s decision to boycott proceedings in a matter he says is pre-decided against him borrows on Gandhi’s ‘satyagraha’ at a moment of flickering trust upon the judiciary and the constitutional promise.

While elitist historiography has predominantly narrated the Constitution as a liberal achievement, its radical re-reading reveals an exclusionary framework towards religious minorities, sexual subalterns, the disabled and the labouring bodies.

An insistence on a ‘Swadeshi’ interpretation without addressing the question of social inequities in our society will roll back our progress on constitutional governance and liberties.

From Macaulay’s push for British conquest of India to the US’s takeover of Venezuela, the idea of peace has remained a crucial instrument of violent modern imperialism, all upheld through the structure of the liberal international legal order.