The anarchist Mikhail Bakunin in his work God and the State famously stated: “The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognised them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective… More Anarchism and Obedience to Law: On Systemic Incoherences
Man has long searched for a Promised Land in which the law could perfectly and impeccably reside. This pursuit is encapsulated in one question – “What is law?”[1] Thomas Hobbes, the father of the social contract tradition, attempted an answer with a sweeping dictum: “auctoritas non veritas facit legem” (authority, not truth makes the law).[2]… More Into the Promised Land of Authority?
In January 2010, the Supreme Court gave its judgment on HM Treasury v Ahmed.[1] The case involved the freezing of assets of five men who were suspected of financing terrorism. Given the constitutional significance of this case and its raising of issues related to abuse of executive power, human rights, and international terrorism, it is… More Opinion: Is HM Treasury v Ahmed [2010] the most significant human rights case heard by the UK Supreme Court to date?
“The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or individual.” (Mikhail Bakunin – Dieu et L’État) In the course of this… More Anarchism and Obedience to Law: On the Problem of Objectivity
Names noted in literature are presented as written, but efforts have been made elsewhere to indicate the correct Belarusian spelling or transliteration, as Russian versions are often used. Introduction Internationally-recognised indices of democracy and freedom give a pessimistic picture of the freedom of the Eastern European state of Belarus. Freedom House rates Belarus as convincingly… More Belarus and the Bialiatski trial: How a dictatorship manipulates the legal system against dissent
A traditional way to characterise the norms that govern the laws of war is that between ‘ius ad bellum’ (the right to engage in war) and ‘ius in bello’ (the law of armed conflict, i.e., the right which applies in a state of war). At first sight, these notions may seem unproblematic, at least semantically.… More The meaning of ‘ius in bello’
Introduction Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Although the brevity of Article 3 itself does not allow us to classify it as an absolute right, Strasbourg case law has shown that it has to be considered as such.[1] Article 3 proscribes three categories… More Exceptional Circumstances: Too Exceptional?
As India moves towards the most liberal era it has ever seen with economic, educational and societal developments seen taking leaps and bounds, there seem to be contradictions in the Indian social psyche with regard to certain issues that are still in the fetters of age old moral beliefs. The rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals… More Rights of LGBT- An Indian Overview
Introduction The concept of humanitarian intervention is slowly evolving into the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) doctrine.[1] Reaffirmed by Security Council Resolution 1894 and UN General Assembly Resolution 60/1, R2P shifts the primary obligation of monitoring and upholding human rights from the international community as a whole to the individual states.[2] Should they fail, the international… More Selective Humanitarian Intervention in the Arab Spring is Corrosive to the Universality of Human Rights
Introduction This article will examine the moral dilemma surrounding the use of torture, and particularly, whether torture is ever justified in the face of a resounding threat to national security. This is a morally questionable task to take on; Slavoj Zizek has argued that “essays … [that] simply introduce it as a legitimate topic of… More Should the prohibition against torture ‘give way’ in the present atmosphere of adjusting the balance between liberty and security?