Gautam Bhatia @gautambhatia@mastodon.social
SF reader, editor, and writer.
Joined Nov 2019
Apropos of a thread I'd done a couple of weeks ago, here is an article by one of the foremost Latin American constitutionalists of our time, Roberto Gargarella, on why Chile is clamouring to rewrite its Constitution. (In Spanish, but the automatic translation is pretty decent)
https://www.clarin.com/opinion/chile-reforma-viene_0_t77lMOtE.html
His Dark Materials, Episode 5. Deliciously creepy, makes you fall in love with the world all over again - and, some particularly well-thought through departures from the text that serve to tell an important backstory. Don't miss it.
Zimbabwean High Court delivers a landmark judgment affirming transgender rights, relies upon both Navtej Johar and NALSA:
Fencing coach comes up with a new existentialist line each session. Last time it was "épée is about time and space."
Today it was "your movement is your language."
Maharashtra: How the Constitution was betrayed (and how every actor - the four political parties, the Governor, the President, and the Prime Minister - are all responsible) --
Comprehensive summing up of where we stand today with electoral bonds.
Oh my. Episode 4 of His Dark Materials is the best yet!
That soundtrack is killing me each time.
Which is your favourite rendition of this legendary song?
Just caught up to speed with the His Dark Materials TV series. Deliciously faithful to the book. The departures from the text are innovative and brilliantly done. And oh gosh, that soundtrack - legendary!
New blog post: "Engineering a constitutional crisis in Maharashtra" --
In this guest post, Ziauddin Sherkar discusses the Governor's actions ever since the Assembly Election results in Maharashtra. He argues that the Governor's discretion in this area is circumscribed by "constitutional conventions" - which, by their very nature, are difficult to enforce.
Nonetheless, going by precedent, the SC should mandate a floor test once a set of political parties stake claim.
Sometimes courts offer hope. On the J&K High Court's judgment striking down the Beggary Act, and the idea of punitive constitutionalism.
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/a-blow-against-punitive-constitutionalism/article30041511.ece
The Beggary Acts date back to "Vagabond laws" in medieval Britain when people who didn't live "settled lives" were deemed criminal (primarily because it was harder to tax them). The Brits introduced these laws to India, and the post-colonial state just carried on with them.
It's been seven decades, and courts are finally waking up.
For Strange Horizons, I reviewed Chen Quifan's Waste Tide, a near-future SF novel about an island off mainland China that has become the worldwide dumping ground for prosthetic waste, and its reprocessing. Quite a fascinating read.
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/reviews/waste-tide-by-chen-quifan-translated-by-ken-liu/
Gautam Bhatia
boosted
as promised, here's a reading list in the broad category of critical constitutional law.
this one is on constitutional argument - which are taught to us as modalities for establishing the truth of a constitutional proposition. this gels well with a judicial supremacy-lens of constitutionalism.
this reading list explores constitutional argument as geared to meaning-making and persuasion. this mode of constitutional argument would be apt for a popular constitutionalism.
Gautam Bhatia
boosted
RT @WIL_inequality
🚨 Access to #information and #data are crucial for #democracy. The Indian government has to comply to #transparency of #statistics to make this possible.
👉 Read the op-ed co-signed by @lucas_chancel and Thomas @PikettyLeMonde among the 200+ scholars: http://bit.ly/2KEOjNk
Brilliant stuff from @LiveLawIndia. Every hearing on the Article 370, the filings, and live tweets of arguments, compiled chronologically here. A complete record of what has happened in the Courtroom so far.
A lucid, clear, and excellent explanation from Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi on why the Supreme Court's order in Sabarimala is utterly without jurisdiction (i.e., illegal). Read through to the end.
From the High Court of Malawi:
"Another case in point, is that of Chidziwe v Republic, Criminal Appeal 14 of 2013 (unreported), where a person was arrested under section 184(1)(c) because he was found at an odd hour with a bottle of beer. The High Court overturned the conviction and held that there was no evidence that holding a bottle of beer implies an illegal purpose."
#TIL The Tanzanian Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of "station in life."
The Hong Kong High Court today handed down an important judgment in which it held that the government's prohibition on the use of face masks by protesters was unconstitutional. The government's "law and order" arguments were flatly rejected. This is what happens when constitutional courts work the way they are supposed to - and it's possible, even in the most difficult and trying of circumstances, with an authoritarian government sitting on their head. An analysis:
Here it is.
“A little brief authority”: Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and the Rise of the Executive Court --
SF reader, editor, and writer.
Joined Nov 2019
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