Dilution of the Presumption of Innocence Principle in India
In two cases decided in 2019, the Bombay and Calcutta High Courts adopted diverging positions regarding the applicability of the reverse onus clause contained in Section 29 of the Protection...
Supreme Court of Sri Lanka Recognises Custodial Death as a Violation of the Right to Life
In the landmark judgement of Rathnayake Tharanga Lakmali v Niroshan Abeykoon, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka held that the extra-judicial killing of a suspect in police custody violated the...
Machine Decision-making in the criminal justice system: The FATAL4JUSTICE? Project
The capacity to collect, store and process digital data in real-time on cloud servers, and to subject vast data sets to train and feed machine learning algorithms, have enabled the...
Re: Inhuman conditions in 1382 Prisons – Development in Indian Prisoner’s Rights
In June 2013, Justice R C Lahoti, a retired Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court, wrote to the then Chief Justice on overcrowding, unnatural deaths, inadequacy of staff and...
Diminishing Accountability, Corruption, and C.Y. Leung
The Hong Kong Bar Association formally issued a statement on 21st December 2018, regarding the Department of Justice’s choice to not obtain independent legal advice in its decision not to...
European Arrest Warrants and The Right to a Fair Trial: The Approach of the CJEU and ECtHR
A highly discussed issue within the EU is whether the extradition of individuals to Poland is permissible under EU Law. In December 2017, the European Commission submitted a reasoned proposal...
The Rule of Law in Poland and the European Arrest Warrant: A Blessing in Disguise?
On 25 July 2018 the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) ruled in Minister for Justice and Equality v LM that a judicial authority...
Discipline and Punish: How Anti-Beggary Laws in India are used to Criminalize Transgender Persons
The Delhi High Court in a landmark judgment (Harsh Mander v. Union of India and Karnika Sawney v. Union of India) has held the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959,...
Section 377: The Essence of Freedom
A country that routinely bans movies that attempt to speak of homosexuality is witnessing a historic discussion on the kind of sex Indians are legally allowed to have. The Supreme...
Indonesia’s New Counter-Terrorism Law and the Government’s Hidden Agenda?
Following the suicide bombings by attackers with links to the Islamic State in May, the Indonesian Parliament has finally approved the long-pending revisions to the counter-terrorism law. While the determination...
Indian Supreme Court Waters Down Legislation Protecting Scheduled Castes and Tribes from Unlawful Discrimination
On 20 March, a Two-Judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court diluted the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (Act) citing the ‘rampant...
Understanding the Indian Supreme Court Judgment on The Atrocities Act, Against Backward Classes
The Supreme Court of India recently rendered a historic judgment relating to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (Act). The Court in the case of...
