Indian Journal of Law and Human Behavior

The international trade treaties especially the treaties and agreements under World Trade Organization (WTO) have challenged the very existence and livelihood of the farmers throughout the world especially in developing and least developed countries. These treaties undermined the rights of the farmers and subjugated them to the capitalist multinational farming and agri-business corporations which resulting in suicides of thousands of farmers especially in developing countries like India. Though there are multiple international conventions which uphold the rights of farmers are not sufficient to protect the human rights of the farmers as against these monstrous trade treaties especially the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is an international treaty of the WTO. It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),and entered into force with the establishment of the WTO on January 1, 1995. The Agreement on Agriculture has three pillars—domestic support, market access, and export subsidies. Domestic support includes the classification of subsidies into ‘boxes’ depending their effects on production and trade. Market access refers to the reduction of tariff (or non-tariff) barriers to trade by WTO members. Export subsidies are the third pillar. The 1995 Agreement on Agriculture required developed countries to reduce export subsidies. The Agreement is conceived as part of a continuing process with the longterm objective of securing substantial progressive reductions in support and protection. In this light, it calls for further negotiations in the fifth year of implementation which, along with an assessment of the first five years, would take into account non-trade concerns, special and differential treatment for developing countries, the objective to establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system and other concerns and objectives noted in the preamble to the agreement. The possible welfare gains and likely beneficiaries for the facilitation of agricultural world trade formulated by the Agreement on Agriculture remains a matter of debate and concerns. Therefore, the impact of the Agreement on Agriculture on production, price structure and trade in agricultural sector needs proper introspection and evaluation from Indian perspectives. The paper attempts to evaluate and analyse the impact of the agricultural reforms brought about by the Agreement on Agriculture on the Indian agricultural economy.

Keywords: Agriculture; Trade; Production; Market; Tariff; Subsidies, Farmers.
 

The concept of marriage and live-in relationship are two distinct ideas evolved out of human relations. The marriage promises factor of permanency in the relationship between man and woman whereas there is no guaranty of such permanency in live-in relationship. However, the trend of society is changing orienting towards the livein relationship as an alternate and convenient mode of relationship for same or similar type of enjoyment as marriage. So, the society and the judiciary are lenient towards the development of live-inelationship. The need of the hour is to have a suitable legislation to regulate such relations to safeguard the interest of the couple living in such relations and also the children born out of such relations. The day is not far away as considering changing social requirements the Parliament can take up the issue and may enact such law. The development of the concept of live-in relationship in the Society is a challenge to institution of marriage and Society shall find a solution to this emerging problem. The society will change in accordance with the time and no Society will remain stand still.

Keywords: Marriage; Live-in Relation; Recognition; Challenge; Society; Change.  

The French were the first to use the word Demonetize in the years between 1852. By demonetization former money is no longer legal tender,although in certain cases it may still be used as money of exchange i.e.,the actual metallic value may sometimes be accepted in discharge of indebtedness. The preamble of the Constitution guarantees economic justice to its people in the words to secure to all its citizens: Justice, social, economic and political. The concentration of wealth is the antithesis to the idea of economic justice. The issue of demonetisation may be examined in the context of the concentration of wealth as enshrined into the Part- IV of the Constitution of India.The Constitution of India states that the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment. Further, Art 39(b) states that the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good. This Paper aims at examining the constitutionality of the process of demonetisation in India.

Keywords: Constitution; Demonetisation; Common Good; Economic Justice; Concentration of Wealth.
 

Mental Cruelty constitutes threat of danger to the person on whom it is practised. This type of abuse can happen to anyone, yet the problem is often overlooked, excused or denied. Mental cruelty occurs whenever one person in an intimate relationship or marriage tries to dominate and control the other person. Hence when we deal with cases of mental cruelty we should not be biased towards any gender. In traditional Indian culture, males are more valued than females. When more western and Indian women are attaining higher education and securing higher paying careers, the traditional role of a wife as subservient to her husband and as the primary caretaker for the children is still practiced and expected of  women. Psychological distress and disorders are often explained in a religious framework, in terms of either spirit possessions or violation of some moral or religious principle. In a case in which , a series of acts have been alleged to amount to cruelty, physical or mental , the cruelty so alleged must be such as to cause mental anguish that would affect the health of the person and life , so that the Court could opinion that cruelty indeed was practiced. In absence of such a plea and evidence that cruelty practiced by wife was such as to cause health problems to husband endangering his life and person it cannot be said that mere series of incidents of quarrel between the husband and wife on account of presence of the mother-in-law or mostly on account of the fact that husband did not set up separate establishment of his own, would amount to mental cruelty. Here particularly the article is addressing the role of judiciary in striking a balance between ethical anxiety and mental cruelty.

Keywords: Mental Cruelty; Mental Pain; Agony and Suffering; Ground for Divorce; Domestic Violence.
 

Definition of sustainable development given by World Commission on Environment and Development’s (the Brundtland Commission) report which says ‘Development which fulfils the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ ushers here two essentialities. On one hand overarching significance should be given to meet the essential needs of the world’s poor, who usually do not have access to have the fruits of development. On the other hand, we have to be extremely cautious of resource depletion, which will deny the genuine needs of the future generations. But this paper is a thought piece that admits and acknowledges the thinking of Nobel laureate AmartyaSen on the very context of development (development as freedom), and at the same time asks whether the new conception
of sustainable development means for the subject of ‘how long?’ and ‘how much?’ realizing the scenario of present generation. To some extent, the value of the phrase does lie in its broad vagueness. That is, if we enunciate the development as the modern concept does, how can this conception help us better defining sustainable development? And what similitude is there in our Indian Mythology with regard to sustainable development so defined? (This paper starts with the plain foundation that sustainable development is the suitable and the most proper goal of trade and investment policies) Further, what would this sustainable development which is considered as a new concept means to those institutions who believe in a complete reverse philosophy in the service of sustainable development? The last few years have seen a dramatic transformation in the environment-development debate. The question being asked is no longer “Do development and environmental concerns contradict each other?”, but “How can sustainable development be achieved?” So here the very fundamental essence of sustainable development which has been tried to explain through mythology, perhaps this type of analysis is rare which has been portrayed here.This paper focuses on the application of mythology in modern India sustainable development practices.

Keywords: Development; Sustainable Development; Indian Mythology; Environmental Law.
 

The idea of criminal responsibility of any person for the commission of any international crime is absolved in self defence. The crime committed by the accused which is grave in nature will not work out as the act was illegal on the face of it which is the violation of the human values. ICC mentioned various defences for excluding the criminal liability like duress, necessity, self-defence, mistake, mental incapacity, intoxication or superior order. Apart from it, there are various case-laws in which courts and tribunals have interpreted the defences in mitigating the sentence. The jurisprudence of criminal law lies on some premises such as ‘a person will be innocent until proved guilty’ and ‘fair trial’ and ‘the court will consider whatever defences put forward by the persons who are being tried’.The researcher (s) intend that ICC have given a new horizon in the development of human rights by discarding the defences in furtherance of commission of serious crimes.

Keywords: Self-Defence; Military Tribunal; Doctrine of Mens Rea; Rome Statute; Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  

A detestable political countenance that has been concealed behind the ugly political manoeuvrings for long is women’s negligible representation in Indian politics. Whenever invoked about the matter, almost all political parties pay usual lip service sans any substantive actions. Of late, women’s reservation bill is largely obscured from getting voted in Indian parliament. This paper first examines the core factors that impede women representation in Indian politics, and then it analyses the impasses around women’s reservation bill which would most probably invigorate women’s representation in politics.

Keywords: Democracy; Reservation; Caste; Sphere; Culture.
 

Environmentally Displaced Persons by virtue of being human beings have human rights which must be protected. Though there is evidence of population migrating for environmental reasons there is still no comprehensive definition of Environmentally Displaced Persons. The CEDEW CRC and the Refugee Convention, 1951 were promulgated to protect the vulnerable class of people. Similarly, EDPs are at-risk population, whose fundamental rights must be protected. In this paper, the authors have dealt with the need to protect the EDPs as vulnerable population and their basic fundamental rights. The attempts have been made to throw light on the problem of EDP. The paper highlights and throws emphasis on to incorporated a model definition of EDP which can be adopted by the world community to give such population a definitive legal status.

Keywords: EDP; Refugee; Community; Population; Displaced; Protection; Women; Children.