Prepare for CLAT : How To Kickstart Your General Knowledge

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November 28, 2016

Prepare for CLAT 2011: How To Kickstart Your General Knowledge

This has been republished from A First Taste of Law archives.

A few days back, Aymen Mohammed, who is joining NALSAR this year, wrote to me saying that he would like to write something for A First Taste of Law. What I didn’t anticipate back then was that he would write something so useful, in a very precise and easy to follow manner, and time it so perfectly! This is the time when a lot of students are just starting to prepare for CLAT 2011, and wondering where to begin. Aymen gave a brilliant starting point for them. This would go a long way in solving the usual GK worries. The best thing is, this will help not only law aspirants, but anyone looking to build a good GK for any competitive exam!

G.K. – Nothing frightens NLS aspirants like these two letters put side by side. What scares a lot of us is the fact that the subject is very vast and needs constant study. While it mightn’t be the easiest subject on the CLAT paper, it remains very important. And people who are at least partially comfortable with the idea of General Knowledge will surely make it.
The General Knowledge section in recent times has seen a trend, with Static GK(History, Geography, Sciences) seeing a decline and Current Affairs rising. The CLAT 2009 and 2010 papers have also seen the anomalous replacement of Legal reasoning by Legal Knowledge.
This article is intended for people who still haven’t answered the important questions w.r.t GK: “Where should I start from?”, “What should I read?” and “How am I supposed to remember so much of info?!”

I. Where should I start from?

I am assuming that most of us have already been recommended a whole library of “helpful books” which are in fact colorless, thick sleep-inducing books. While it might’ve helped a certain person, it might not be of any help to you. Chuck them, asap.
Start with the basics, and scale up quick. Keep your GK prep simple.
Start by reading a good newspaper every day. I personally recommend The Hindu. Add it with the Times of India if you have the time – it has amazing Legal reports. A quarter of your GK prep is complete if you read the newspaper every day, without fail!

Read everything you come across in the paper, although it might be consuming, it is necessary that you read it.[I even checked the Government-issued Advertisements, that is how you’ll know about various government schemes in the country and the names of various self-obsessed Ministers and their portfolios.]

Make it a point to follow certain contributors/correspondents in the newspapers[especially their editorials]. Excellent examples being V. Venkatesan, N. Ram, Siddharth Vardarajan and Atul Aneja of The Hindu and Dhananjay Mahapatra of The Times of India. I recommend this because their articles are loaded with background information that’ll help you get a complete understanding of the issue besides the quality of the language will greatly help you with vocabulary and grammar.

A lot of Headlines and News reports will make no sense to you. Here is where Google and Wikipedia will come to your aid. Let’s take the example of Kyrgyzstan’s recent political crisis. The first thing that came to my mind was “Is that even a country?” it is. That is not where the questions should, that is where they must begin. Find out the name of the present Prime Minister, the name of the ousted prime minister, visit the BBC website and read out everything you can about the country’s recent history and reasons for the present crisis. In short explore, don’t stop. Keep asking: “Do I understand the issue completely?”

[Ramanuj: and, also, “is the story complete?”] If the answer is No, then continue Googling.
Next, follow a Monthly Competitive Exam Magazine. Pratiyogita Darpan is perhaps the best one I know of. What happens is, when you read the magazine, you’ll come across a lot of reports(albeit concise) that you’ve already gone through. This will aid you in revision and will probably make a permanent impression in your mind. Use a Highlight marker or make notes of all the important reports. When the next issue is on stands, first go through your last month’s notes. By the time you write CLAT, you’ll have enough revision of the whole year, enough to last a lifetime!

MAKE NOTES:

Get yourself a big, clean notebook. Divide it into neat topics – allotting 10 pages to each. Whenever and wherever you get important information or relevant tidbits add it to the specific topic.[The topics I had were Personalities and Organizations, India: Static, India: centreCurrent, Books & Literature, Awards and Recipients, Business, Intl Affairs, Misc., etc]

II. What should I read?

If you have joined a CLAT coaching center, I am sure they will have regular updates with “GK Supplements”. But as I’ve emphasized earlier, you need to explore. So here’s a small list of publications and websites that you can follow – doesn’t take much of your time. Alternate weekends should be good enough.
Penguin Yearbook(Don’t go for the Manorama Yearbook – terrible stuff with more advertisements than information).
GK Modules of your Coaching Centre(Something that I wish I had read them earlier and not procrastinated.
Legal Websites like lawandotherthings.blogspot.com, Legally India, and Bar and Bench. Best thing – join their respective groups on Facebook [if they exist].
Magazines like the Frontline, Outlook and the Economic and Political Weekly, EPW being an excellent source to enrich your knowledge and your language skills. PS – It has an FB group. Join it, it’ll keep you posted
International Media – I recommend this for better understanding of international/western issues. Keep tabs on the BBC, NYT and The Guardian websites, they have excellent articles on nearly every issue. Almost comprehensive.[I remember being clueless about the Lisbon Treaty, this is how BBC came to my rescue – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ europe/6901353.stm]The Ultimate Guide to L.L.B by Nisa Facial and M.A. Rashid – published by Lexis-Nexis.Take two pages at a time, answer them, and then correct them by referring the answers given at the end of each chapter. Nothing helps like a self-taken-test does.This list is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive. Neither should you let the list scare you into believing that it is “too much”.

III. How am I supposed to remember?

DISCUSS current issues with a group of friends. Every week, pick a topic that’s important(like the Bhopal Gas tragedy, the attack by Israel on the Freedom Flotilla, Naxalbari, Communalism, etc) and ask your friends to get good points on the history of the issue, the legal aspects of it and other related information.

WRITE notes on relevant information from time to time. Like I’ve mentioned, making regular notes helps you remember. For example, last year there was a coup d’etat [what does it mean, btw?] in Honduras[where is it?] so, I’d write, in the “Intl Affairs” section of my GK notes, this: Honduras’ present President – Manuel Zelaya. Months later, there was a regime change through elections, so right beside Zelaya’s name – I write: Porfrio Lobo(National party):succeeded Zelaya. So we have quiet a little information that we will remember.

QUIZ your friends and ask them to quiz you every week. Each friend could get 10-20 random questions, with options. Keep the options related and relevant. Once the quiz is over. Each person must explain the rest of the options as well. Here’s an example:
Q: Which armed resistance outfit did the late Vellupillai Prabhakaran lead?

Hamas(Armed resistance group,also a political party, fighting against the Israeli siege on Gaza, and for the “complete liberation” of Palestine, and the elimination of Israel as a political entity, find out who it’s leader is)
Hezbollah(A Shiite Lebanese armed resistance group, also a political party, liberated Southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation, also fought Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, find out its leader, and google more about the legal aspects of the 2006 war)
LTTE(Armed resistance group, was once the world’s largest, fought for a separate Tamil Eelam, was completely wiped out by the Sri Lankan Army)
FARC(a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization based in Colombia, which is involved in the ongoing Colombian armed conflict, headed by Alfonso Cano)

So each question will give you at least 3-5 extra doses of GK.

STAY AWARE: Issues have the tendency to affect our lives in weird ways. So always keep tabs on raging issues and don’t keep it stagnant. Take an INFORMED stand on all issues that matter. Naxalbari, Tribal rights, Human rights, communal-ism, minority politics, Politics, religion, everything. You’ll research more often, you’ll learn more often.
You’ll learn a lot of it by simply keeping your ears open. An example being me learning about Apartheid -Remember Eddy Grant perform on IPL’s closing night. The song he sang “Gimme Hope Joanna” was exactly about that[She got a system they call Apartheid, which keeps a brother in a subjection]. Who knows, you might learn something from a movie like Legally Blonde. 😛

FINALLY:

REVISE what you already have studied. Chances are, you’ll forget everything if you don’t go through all the stuff you’ve written – you’ll get confused. [Happened to me in NLU-D’s paper, THRICE. I didn’t revise, don’t make the same mistake] Reading up, Googling, and looking up topics is time consuming. But give it time, and enjoy it. Because unlike AR,

CR and Math – GK and Legal GK will/might help you immensely in Law School

FOLLOW UP on everything you read in the papers. For example, you read Varun Gandhi’s insipid hate speech during Elections ’09. You read up on the Model Code of Conduct, you read up on him being booked under the National Security Act, find out if the Act was misused or was applied appropriately, check the sections under NSA, read up everything. Including the place where he gave the speech(Pilibhit).

CHECK UP on the Past Years’ papers. While you’re going through them, solving them you’ll understand what’ll be important for you to read up from various magazines and publications, and what you can afford to leave out.

USE ANECDOTES to remember difficult names, records, etc. Usain Bolt’s record making run in Olympics was 9.69 seconds. The MTV Tickr had loads of jokes on his 9.69 record, a few months later he broke his own record, by slashing off .11 seconds from his old record making the new record to be 9.58.

That’s about it. Work sincerely and give it a little time. Take interest, take a stand on issues that matter, and enjoy the process – because if you don’t, you won’t learn anything, if you don’t learn – you will not retain.

Keep it simple and make it fun. Don’t slog, enjoy!

All the best for CLAT. Cheers!

Talk To The World

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November 28, 2016

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What do you have to say to the world today?

What if you were asked to stand at a podium to speak of the best things you would want to share with the world? Will you have something good to say? Will you decline to speak?
Some people have burning desires to communicate with the world. People who have been tortured, wronged, destroyed – people who hate the world. The mad people, they stand on the road and shout at the world generally.

There are people with brilliant ideas, revolutionary thoughts – they are trying to find ways to communicate with the world.

There are people who put themselves in a position so that what they say is heard by the entire world – not that they always say things that are worth hearing. Sometimes it is about what they feel about fashion trends, sometimes about their skiing trip.
There are people who write poems about their feeling and hope that someday the entire world will read it.

The point is, if you are living an unique life, if you are capable to think on your own, if you are an intelligent person – you probably have something to tell the world.
So why don’t you tell? Why don’t you prepare a speech, sharpen your phrases and go ahead and share it with the world?

How? hint: blog.

This is something I had to tell the world today.

The Art of Writing Projects in Law School: How to Research and Structure Your Paper

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November 28, 2016

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The Art of Writing Projects in Law School: How to Research and Structure Your Paper

Projects are an inevitable part of law school life – there is no escape. There might be some occasional exceptions, but by and large, every once in a while, the old familiar feeling sets in during project submission time. Here are a few secrets – about projects, how to do them well and how to do them efficiently. I will ask you to keep an open mind while reading this. Trust me, it is not as bad as you think. Let’s go step by step.

The background research

Background research is the key to an efficient and successful project. And this is not about the project topic itself. This is a necessary due diligence that is often overlooked. Let’s face it – the main objective of writing project papers is scoring well. Therefore, it is important to know what the professor wants. Some might want imaginative projects. Some others might prefer a thoroughly researched project exhausting all the available scholarly works in the bibliography. Some others might focus on the small details like footnoting and formatting. While all aspects of project writing are important, some are given a greater weightage than others by individual professors. Find out what your evaluator is looking for – ask your seniors, or if you could tactfully phrase it, ask your evaluator.

The project topic

In most cases, project topics are assigned by the course teacher. In some rare cases, you might be asked to choose your own project topics. I would recommend putting in some thought at this stage if that is the case. In that case, the rest of your assignment becomes significantly easier, as you already have an idea about what you want to do and if you’re lucky, maybe you even have an idea about how you want to go about it.
In some other cases (and you might come across this as you progress through your law school tenure), you might have worked on a topic or a related area in a subject, be it in an internship, or another project or some paper that you have worked on before. In such cases, you might want to write a project on that topic. In such cases, it is mostly safe to approach your course professor for a change in he project topic, provided you can satisfactorily convince him. For instance, “I have worked on the social impact of homosexuality in my sociology paper, and therefore, for my family law paper, I would like to work on the family law rights of sexuality minorities since I am planning to write a paper on this area for a journal” is a good argument. “I have a project of a friend who has written on family law rights of homosexuals, and I plan to submit that as my own” is not.
Another thing is the scope of the project. You might find that the topic you are working on is either too broad (for instance, “Relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”), or too narrow. You may discover this at the very outset, or only after some preliminary reading. In either case, in such situations, it is a good idea to consult with your professor, as otherwise, there is a substantial risk that things could go horribly wrong. You could either convince him to let you restrict or expand the scope of your project as the case may be, or find out exactly what he wants.Structuring a paper

So how do you start writing your project? Read your project topic. Carefully, and several times. If you do not know anything at all about the topic, do some basic reading. A friendly textbook or a simple internet search. Write down the primary thoughts that strike you about the topic. What do you want to say about the topic in the project paper that you are going to write? Trust your instincts. Continue reading on your topic, but don’t get lost in the objective.

The objective is simple – frame a question; answer it. It’s as simple as that.

Well, not that simple. The other important thing is to structure your paper. Once you have your primary research question and your thesis, continue your research, but as you do so, structure your thoughts logically and plan them out. Identify the components and the layers of your argument, and use headings and sub-headings, wherever required. The focus should be on arranging the components of your argument to make it logical and effective. A well-structured paper not only looks organized and impressive but also is also extremely easy to write.

Argue, no one pays a lawyer for reporting

Again, keep it simple. It helps to have some clarity of thought. Know what you want to say, and say it upfront. Use simple arguments to support it. Outline the structure of your argument, and tie up loose ends. The reader should not waste time and effort to figure out what you want to say in the first place.
In my opinion, you should avoid being ambivalent. It is acceptable to present both sides of the argument, but draw your conclusions, and rebut arguments that go against you, if you decide to argue both sides. Another practice that is best avoided is to use authority to make an argument. It is, in a manner, placing the cart before the horse. It is much better, purely logically speaking, to make an argument and support it with an authority.
Most importantly, all your arguments should be connected, and the reader should have a complete picture, and figure out the strength and purpose of your arguments. Spend time reading your project after you are done with it to ensure that it reads logically, and easily.

Some useful tools

At some point of time, you must have looked for ways to make your project sound “smart”. Here are a few tricks of the trade that you could try:
Case comment
This is one of essential skills that you will pick up from your stint at law school – the art of making a case comment. What is important, is to read a case that goes on for a fair number of pages, and to pick up the essence of it. To figure out the most relevant facts, the main issues, the main arguments and the holding. Very few authorities can be used as effectively as case laws and precedents if you manage to perfect the skill. And with time and practice, it comes instinctively. More importantly, it can look really impressive in your project.

Comparative analysis

This is another pet tool to make your project more impressive: make a comparative analysis of laws in other jurisdictions. Unsurprisingly, the USA and UK are the top favourites for this. But there are a host of other jurisdictions that you could also consider, if relevant – for example, South Africa (this is a gem for Constitutional Law), Canada, Australia, to name a few. For instance, say, a comparison of the system for inter-state water dispute in federal states like the USA, Autralia and South Africa can be very effective for a project on inter-state water disputes in India. This also works for international law – for instance, for a project on the African Court of Human Rights, a comparative study of the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights can be very useful.

You can look at what works in other jurisdictions/syatems, and what lessons we can draw from them and make suggestions. Or, you could look at why things haven’t worked in other jurisdictions, and make suggestions to avoid similar failures.

Economic analysis

This is perhaps my favourite tool. There is a whole school and a very well developed jurisprudence on the economic analysis of law. While at advanced stages it could be very complex, at its most basic, it is very intuitive, logical and simple. Basically, it is using small tools of economics, like calculation of efficiency, or a basic cost-benefit analysis, or predicting behavioural outcomes through a game-theory analysis to make arguments. More on that in another post. From the perspective of writing a project, it can be very useful for streamlining your arguments, making them effective, and earning your brownie points, if you do it right.

The finishing touches

You must understand that although you may have finished writing the content of you project, this last aspect is just as important. In fact, if you ignore this, a large part of your endeavors may be overlooked. Here, I am talking about the technical aspects. Write a good research methodology (if you are required to write one), introduction and conclusion – your evaluator is most likely going to read these parts more carefully than the whole of the rest of your project. Format it and proofread it well so that your work does not come off as shoddy. And be meticulous about your footnotes. “www.google.com” is not a proper footnote. Make the effort to have good authorities, and to cite them in your project and include them in your bibliography.

The secret sauce

Writing projects could be fun. Think about the learning experience, and try to have fun. The projects in which I have scored well have always been the ones which I had a lot of fun writing. And you will like the learning experience, if you are sincere about it.
Also, projects once written can be extremely useful. You should seriously think about converting a well-researched and well-written project for submission to law journals for publications. Approach friendly seniors – they are more often than not, happy to help you out.

How to ask for help

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November 28, 2016

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The rules of asking for help

I meet both kinds of people. I have probably belonged to both classes of people at different points of my life, and maybe you did, too.
The first type will never ask for help – they think it is a sign of weakness, equivalent of stooping before someone for profit. Some of them are just afraid of rejection; others find a sense of dignity in silent suffering.
There was this junior of mine in college. She was a great friend (until it lasted) – we’ll hang out after dinner and talk about our lives and dreams. She would sometimes talk about things that she is working on, and my incessant questioning will reveal some points where she could do with some help. If I ever suggested that she should seek help from someone who has already done what she is trying to do – she’d reject it outright. Why would that guy help me? He worked hard for his success – what right do I have to bypass the tough ride? Isn’t that a shortcut? Why will I go with bowed head and ask for something he can easily refuse?
There was an instance where she got into trouble with a student committee – I volunteered to offer help, and she refused. Taking help was an immoral conduct as far as she was concerned.
There is the other extreme too – people who thrive on favours and think it is their birthright that everyone will help them through everything. If they are refused the help they sought, often asked for in an improper manner – they will be shocked and feel that they have been denied something that was owed to them.
Apart from these two types of help-rejecting and help-seeking extremists, there are the people who know when, what and how of seeking help. I have come to believe that it is an essential life skill.

Morality of asking for help

Is asking for help a shortcut? It is in a way. No one can help taking that shortcut. Everyone would start in the stone age if they had to start everything from scratch. Some help is institutionalized, you get them without asking. help when you are unwell, help when you are emotionally down, help when you lost your wallet on the way or people standing up for your rights and dignity in ways you don’t not even come to know. Helping and seeking help is a way that allows us to prevent reinventing the wheel. It also allows a person who is capable of doing something very easily to do it easily, so that the time you would have wasted at it fiddling around is saved and you have the theoretical possibility of using it in a better way. Help keeps the world going – it’s the grease that keeps the wheels moving when friction could stop it. If no one would ask or give help, life would suck.

Little known things about help

It is very important to know a few things about help:

Everyone can help – from the most successful person to someone who has been a complete failure so far.
Most people would like to help, but the number of willing people is usually higher amongst the successful people.
No matter how self-made a man or woman is, it is common that he or she has been helped along the way on critical junctures at some point. They remember it. They want to contribute and make a difference to others.
Almost all human beings have a desire to touch other people’s lives in a positive way.
Everyone wants to help if they can do so easily. The potter may help you to mend your broken dish, but if you want him to come and deliver it to your house after repairing, you are asking him to do the job of a courier. A potter is not a courier.
People who can help you the most are the very successful ones. The powerful, the famous, the rich, the wizards. They like to help, but they are busy, and in all probability always approached for help. You need to respect their time, privacy, feelings and state of mind. You need to be crystal clear about what you want and how they can help you, and you must not waste their time at any point.
The fact that someone is rich, powerful, famous or beautiful is not a reason to not approach them for help.

People who refuse a help that they have no reason to refuse are called assholes. People know that, and they do not think they are bad guys. Don’t give them reasons to not help, and they will feel compelled to help.
Do you want God to help you? Give mortals a chance.
No one can help you, save God himself perhaps, if:

a. you don’t know yourself what help you are looking for. Be precise and upfront about what will help you and what could ‘they’ about that.
b. You ask for help in a manner that cost of helping is too high for them. If you are asking someone for help – make it easy for them to provide the help.
c. You are trying to trick them into helping you. People help you out of generosity and positive state of mind. Rig it and you lose.

The three golden rules of seeking help. Just to recap:

1. If you know what help you need, and who can give it, then reach out and seek it.
2. Make it easy for the person to help you, as much as you can.
3. Don’t be stupid, or disrespectful (of a person and his time), or too needy. Reasonableness is the key.

The Company You Keep – Winners or Losers

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November 28, 2016

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The Company You Keep - Winners or Losers

You may have heard that man is a social animal (so are women), but what you probably didn’t hear as much is this:

The key to success often hides in the company you keep.

Many people who initially struggle with their lives, find their feet back later on and transform themselves. Sabyasachi Mukherjee in fashion for instance. Boman Irani or Nigella Lawson. Eminem. Jeffry Archer. They suffered drug problems, went to jail or failed miserably in their youth, but then emerged like the phoenix. What is the secret to this? Ratnakar to Valmiki transformation always has one common feature.

If you look into what they did right, you’d see that they changed their friends along the way. Changing friends does not sound exactly like something honorable to do – but it is like a lever – it can make the train of life go one way or the other.

Studies by psychologists show that during childhood, almost everyone makes a conscious decision to make friends with a certain category of people – winners or losers. The outcome of their life, almost always, depend on this one single event, unless they change track somewhere later. Those who keep the company of successful, hard-working, confident kids tend to value and display those traits themselves.

The problem is that in the beginning, for a teenager, it is not always obvious as to who are the winners and who are the losers. People carrying guns or involved in organized crime may seem cooler than the kids spending most of their day working on their skills. Classmates who spend more time gossiping than productive pursuits may appear closer and kinder.

What is important here is that people can change the company they keep at any later point in their lives, and this seems to alter how they deal with the world in fundamental ways. If successful, confident and optimistic grown up men or women are surrounded by people who are unproductive, fatalist and negative in their general outlook, it is highly likely that they would lose the confidence and optimism, and subsequently their success.

If you want to be great at martial arts, hang out with black belts. If you keep the company of the rich, you would probably learn to manage your money much better.

What is the takeaway from this?

Be careful about the company you keep, it affects you in ways beyond you can perceive.

Here’s a small exercise: THINK, IMAGINE, WRITE DOWN

Who are your friends? Who are the people you hang out with the most? Are they striving, optimistic and successful? Are they negative in their approach to life? How do you think the company you keep is affecting you?

If you could, who would you spend more time with – at work, or during leisure?

If you were on a mission of self-development, whose traits and qualities will you like to pick up the most?

If you were going to crack an exam, should you spend more time with people who are proactive about handling the exam, or those who are spending their time procrastinating? If you would appear in an interview, should you collaborate with the most ambitious people, maybe those who are more advanced than you, or the ones who make you feel good to hang out with because you know more than them? Those choices are likely to make or break your career.

The Application of The Supreme Principle of Morality (of Immanuel Kant) In The Decisions We Take In Everyday Life

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November 28, 2016

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The Application Of The Supreme Principle of Morality (of Immanuel Kant) In The Decisions We Take In Everyday Life

This article was written by Shweta Rath of Symbiosis Law School as a part of her internship application for interning at iPleaders.

In the realm of philosophy researchers have always tried to find the absolute motivation of our acts and judgments which is why scholars like Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant find a place in the discussion. Their theories are considered to be the foundation of the human behaviour in today’s world. To elaborate on Immanuel Kant’s theory of “Categorical Imperative” it is necessary to comment on John Stuart Mill and Bentham’s theory of “Consequentialism”. These theories merely say that our actions should be performed keeping in mind the consequences in the future. The consequence of one’s conduct is the ultimate basis for any judgement about the rightness in that conduct1. This is where Immanuel Kant presented theories which are completely in contrast with the above.

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who wrote on philosophy and anthropology during the 18th century.

All his works gave rise to his most fundamental notion of “Categorical Imperative”.

He said “nothing can be regarded as good without qualification except goodwill.”3 The things that cannot be regarded as good without qualification are talents of the mind, courage, perseverance, power, riches etc. Ancient virtues of moderation and self control also cannot be considered as good. This is because being intelligent, rich and bold will help one to achieve the goals which don’t determine what the goals are. They magnify the effectiveness, but they don’t determine one’s value. For example: A rich, moderate, intelligent thief would be an outstanding thief, but that doesn’t make his work best. Each act gains value as far as goodwill is a part of it. Good is not about what it accomplishes. Good is good in itself.

As far as his contrasting views go, he has always been a critique of Consequentialism.

He doesn’t seem to give much importance to the outcome. Kant says that goodwill remains good, even if the goal lacked the power to accomplish its purpose. Even if a person with goodwill is frustrated with his goals, the actions still have worth. Even if the goal is not achieved, it will shine by itself with full value. His theories have raised various questions regarding how morality doesn’t depend on the outcome of the act. This was justified well by the two points he laid down

Action must be done from duty in order to have moral worth.

Its not about the outcome, but under what characterization did one perform the act. He said that duty is the necessity of modern deontological theory

Duty is a necessary action done out of respect for law.

It is only when one subjects oneself to the law that you make for yourself, it is only then that you are free and autonomous.
To justify the first point he said that there are three kinds of motivation to do an act: a. Duty b. Self interest c. Inclination. He said that only pure cases of the first kind have the moral worth. If you obey the law out of self interest, your obedience doesn’t have moral worth. For example: if one rescues drowning children because of a sign that says “rescuer shall get a reward”, he has no moral worth. The same conclusion can be derived for stealing, murdering, lying etc. Actions performed from self interest keeping with the duty without inclination at that point also lacked moral worth. For instance, we all pay taxes, but only because if we don’t pay taxes, in the future we will have to pay more taxes. If Mill says these actions have moral worth, Kant denies the fact. Duties performed with inclination also do not find moral place in Kant’s theories. He says that there is no moral worth in being kind to gain sympathy. Even though these acts are moral, they are not done because they are the right thing to do. They are done because the inclination matches with morality. Duties without self interest or inclination are the supreme acts or morality. For example: Acting with kindness without any expectation in return. Inclination matched with duty helps in not doing the wrong thing, but doesn’t let you test your character. We should act because that is what morality demands out of us, not what self interest or inclination demands out of us.

To justify the second point he said that you should work according to the laws you set for yourself and not because of contingent forces.

There should be no heteronomity in our decisions. And we should not use other people’s notions as a means to our end. This raises the biggest question in the community. What is MORALITY? Because setting laws for one is very subjective in nature. What is right for me may not be right for the other person. Kant justifies it by giving the ultimate definition of Categorical Imperative i.e. “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law”4. In other words, never do the act that you couldn’t will everybody to do at the same time. Certain examples to explain the theory are:

If I say “I will never keep my promises”, this would be considered to be immoral because it cannot be applied to all people, for if it were, no-one would keep their promises and promises would lose all meaning.

Do we have a duty to cultivate talents?

Suppose nobody did that, then world in which we lived in would be the one in which nobody with creativity will be there.

If the duty is to not give money to someone in need and nobody did that, then it would lead to breakdown of an orderly world.

To determine morality we should will that a maxim of our action becomes a universal law. When we infringe, we do not will that our action should become a universal law, but rather the opposite. For example: Stealing depends on the fact that other people respect property. When you make an exception to yourself, you violate morality.

Kant’s theories were definitely a breakthrough, but they seem to be too wide and too unqualified.

It is purely formal and leaves out any understanding about the content or material aspect of morality. In our practical lives, since we live in a society, it becomes very hard to ignore the external influences and act purely without self interest or inclination. The categorical imperative constitutes a necessary condition for being a valid moral principle, but it does not provide us with a sufficiency criterion. It doesn’t help us to choose between two absolutely universal laws. That decision has to do with the material content of morality, and we must use other considerations to help us decide about that.5 Nevertheless, Kant presented a deontological moral system, based on the demands of the categorical imperative, as an alternative.

REFERENCES

1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism

2 Crane Brinton. “Enlightenment”. Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Vol. 2, p. 519. Macmillan, 1967

3 quotations from Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

4 Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 3rd ed. Hackett. pp. 30

5 Ethics Discovering Right and Wrong by Louis P Pojman
BOOKS AND WEBSITES REFERRED

Ethics Discovering Right and Wrong by Louis P Pojman
http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/phil/phil_11.html
Critique of pure reason by Immanuel Kant
Yale Lectures on YouTube by Professor Grendel on “Deontological Theories”
I would also like to thank my professor Mr. Arun Krishnan for his lectures on this topic and my senior Rupali Bansal for helping me compile this report.

National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam: The Wind Of Change

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November 27, 2016

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National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam: The Wind Of Change

This article is written by Sylvine Sarmah. Republished from A First Taste of Law archives.

Optimism is predominantly the prime state of mind of students who find themselves allotted to any National Law University.

I could say the same for myself (well, almost) when I was allotted National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam. However, quite a few acquaintances of mine were skeptical about the idea of me handing over my fate to a 3 year old infant university.

The first month in this university passed by in a haze and a recollection of those days only bring to my conscience snippetsof memories marked with misplaced enthusiasm, a determination to succeed and a desperate hunt for means to pursue this quest for success. It was only after me and my batch mates were halfway through the 1st semester that the reality began to sink in. It struck me and my peers hard – “how do we advance towards our success inthis university with our limbs chopped off?” We were appalled by the suffocating authoritarian administration, the non-existence of opportunities and most importantly, cognizance of the fact that we might be shoving almost ₹ 1.7 lakhs of our money down the drainpipe.

A very vehement accusation, I know. But any attempts on our part then to bring about a change in the administration of the university were quashed, remarkable proposals thrown into bins. Initiative after initiative taken by the students to participate in moot court competitions, organize fests, form a functional Student Bar Association (which are an integral part of law schools) or get ourselves published were subtly discouraged by the university. Inadequate and incompetent teaching staff made matters worse. Lack of any sort of aid from the university, excuse being paucity of resources and infrastructure slowly pushed us all towards a vapid existence confined to a handful of books in an under stocked library.

High scores in academics were preached to such an extent that by the time me and my mates got promoted to the 2nd semester, most of us were down on our hands and knees scraping for some kind of intellectual stimulation outside the choking walls of the 4 modules of our syllabus. We literally dragged ourselves through the humdrum of the 2nd semester brain dead. It was in our third semester 2 months ago that the students of this university reawakened from their drunken stupor.

The former Vice chancellor of the university Prof. (Dr.) Gurjeet Singh had completed his tenure and a new Vice chancellor was yet to be appointed. Conniving manipulations and deceptive assurances from the authorities that things would get better eventually once the permanent university campus became functional could console us no more. Zeal of fervour, resolute and determination brought the students of the entire university together. This agitated cohesive whole thrummed with an undercurrent of dissatisfaction, agony and rage which had accumulated over the years. We made up our minds – something has to done.

The foresight of a bleak future drove the students of the 7th semester to sit for a protest on the 20th of September 2014 as they felt highly aggrieved due to the lack of books and irregular lectures for their subject specializations. Our mid semester exams were to begin in 2 days and our seniors claimed that they knew practically nothing about the subjects. An unresponsive and unapproachable administration added such fuel to the fire that the very next day, all of us from each semester sat down in protest boycotting all the proceedings of the university. The press was called; grievances were shared in public and each face glistening with tears of frustration screamed slogans demanding justice.

A group of students who took their grievances to the Gauhati High Court in order to meet the Chief Justice (who is our Chancellor ) were turned away in such an undignified manner that the collective efforts of the incandescent students took the protest to a complete new level, thus forcing the then registrar to bring the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court to us. And he did come!

He sat down with us and one by one, we students poured our hearts out – an understocked library, incompetent and inadequate permanent staff, absence of a permanent Vice Chancellor, harrowing class timings, non-existent university journal and placement officer, refusal of the authorities to let us form a Student Bar Association, highly congested temporary campus and most importantly, exorbitant fees. Name a problem and we have it.

He heard us, calmly, patiently and empathetically. An official meeting was organized the next day comprising of all the students and the Chief Justice along with the then acting Vice Chancellor of the university sans the university authorities and staff. A manifestation of each demand and aspiration of the students was submitted to the Chief Justice in the form of a draft and he assured us that all our requirements would be met. But after all these years of oppression and hopelessness, mere assurances weren’t enough to pacify us. We gave an ultimatum of 3 days to the panel of higher authorities who were supposed to discuss this matter at length and demanded that we be given an official written notification stating that our demands have been complied with. After a lot of negotiations and debates, the meeting was concluded and the students en masse decided to boycott the mid-semester exams and sit on a hunger strike until a final resolution was chalked out by the panel of authorities adhering to a major part of our pressing demands.

After 3 days of starvation and bunking out in the open, the protest came to an end on the 25th of September, 2014 when late in the evening, the we were officially notified that the Executive Council of NLUJAA complied with most of our demands and immediate measures toward improvement have begun. It was believed that there would be visible changes after the Durga Puja vacations which were to commence from the 28th of September, 2014.

The university resumed from the 7th of October, 2014 and the system overhaul was remarkable! Class timing was reduced by almost 2 hours and in a span of 3 weeks on 21st October 2014, a new Vice Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) Vijender Kumar who was the former Registrar of National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) was appointed. He took office and as of now, things have never been better.

Steps toward setting up of an SBA, stocking of the library, appointment of competent teaching staff, changes in the exam pattern, improvement in services, progress towards a university journal, resumption of the construction of the permanent campus among other things have set the wheels for the evolution of an outstanding National Law University in motion with excellent prospects in the legal field. After 3 years of stagnation, gloom and despair, the cheerful atmosphere of enthusiasm, healthy competition and hope has restored itself. Once more, the future of this university, which is so entwined with ours, seems bright. I guess my decision of studying in this university wasn’t wrong after all.

The Inexorable March of Change : How To Bounce Back to Speed Grid After A Failure

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November 27, 2016

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Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success.
– Thomas A. Edison

How can you make a quick, noticeable change in your life? Something that will make you feel better, maybe help you cope with some bad luck, get over a failure or tragedy and give you the strength to move on to the next big thing. Have you felt this urge to change things about you after a failure/ underachievement/ heartbreak? I did, and I have come to believe that change sometimes is the only way to cope with tragedies, disasters or a surge of negative feeling that you suddenly find has crept into your life. Change. Reorganise. Alter a few things around you. Feel better, and jump back into the fight.

Think of a boxer who could not perform well in his first round – he was taken by surprise. He has a brief period after which he is going to face the same opponent – what do you think he will be looking for?

He will look for a change that works in his favour.

Change in his opponent and situation is not under his control, so he must change something about himself.

There are certain things he can not change about him in the short term – like stamina, strength, skill set.

There is something that he can, however, change that can hugely affect his performance– his mindset. He can decide to be more cautious, or he can try some more risky moves. He can decide to inspire himself by getting very angry, which often brings out the maximum potential performance. He can also calm down absolutely and try to pick up technical points one by one and not make any further mistake.

He will certainly go for some kind of change, but what change is going to work for him is something he must take a call on.

Now let’s assume the boxer lost the match. There’s a rematch in one month. He will again want a change is a situation. Again the same rules decribed above will apply, only this time he can change more things about himself, and he will try to change those to his advantage. Change is almost inevitable – he would not find himself in the same situation in the next match. It can get better, or it can get worse. There will be newer variables in play. The only thing that he can do is to change himself for better.

We find ourselves in the same position as that of the boxer many times in our lives. Beaten, caught by surprise, defeated.

What should be our priority then? The answer is clear: CHANGE. You do not just wait around for the situation to get better, or someone to rescue you if you have an opportunity to change. This is the most natural and rational thing to do, still a lot of us resist change instead. Sometimes it is a moral dilemma: I was not at fault, I am not the bad guy, something bad happened to me, maybe by chance. Why should I change? At other times, the confusion is about the ways to change things.

Why should you change

First, when your psyche has recognized a failure or a tragedy, it is painful to remain in that psychological state. The first self-preservation technique that is triggered in our brain is the instinct to change. The catch is that there is no particular dimension this change is necessarily going to follow…your psyche could very well do a nosedive into depression rather than creating any positive change. The job of an alert and educated person is, therefore, to channel this immense psychological momentum into the positive track. To channel it right is to harness your mental strength and launch into a potential bounce back into success.

From accepting to crafting change:

Let’s get into the specifics – what could you possibly do?

Embrace the need of change – there can be a phase when you have accepted the failure or tragedy but have a moral objection to change. Why should you change? It was bad luck, or bad people, or bad timing, whatever! Does it justify a change in you? Well, you need not be wrong or bad to need a change – we are changing all the time anyway. You just need to strategise the change now – you need to be in control of how you change. And you are going to fast track the process to reach a vantage point suited for your current situation.
If nothing else, a bit of change in your life will enable you to look back objectively and know what went wrong. We feel vulnerable until the true reason of a failure or a tragedy is understood and addressed if addressing it is possible or reasonable. You truly close the chapter when you look back and say, well that was why things sucked, but it is not going to happen again.
Run lean, drop the baggage, optimize – when we are doing well, there would be high resistance to change. During continuous success, our competitive edges get blunt, our creative risk-taking instincts are suppressed by our need to rebel at the moment and maintain status quo. Remember how you are opposed to taking ‘unnecessary risks’ when things are going right? It’s like superstitious refusal to drop a member from a continuously winning side – even if it is a member who has not performed particularly well.
Once you have lost, once something went wrong, that excuse of a winning combination is gone, and you must begin the witch hunt. Who, why, where? Ask questions. Do you need that extra office space? Is the executive manager of any real use or can you do without him? Is your aggressiveness doing more harm than good? Is there any point spending time writing your blog or building a fan base on twitter? What is not needed, what is underused, what is creating too much stress? Identify, discard, organize the rest like a fighter jet. Streamlined, nothing but the raw power to propel forward.
Add new skills/abilities: Once you find success, keeping it is a full-time job. You stop adding new weapons to your arsenal, and the armour is not as well maintained as it could be. Well, now you are going to war again, so get ready. Learn new skills, experiment with your existing ones, introspect to find the strength in you. Adding the extra edge is going to give you the confidence to think hard and work hard again. Do not stop until you discover what you have been packing but did not realise the potential of, for there must be something. Get that setup and set out searching for leverage.
Make the best of your pinnacle of creativity – Not everyone is creative in equal measures. There’s something about a disaster though. It can draw the most and the best of your creativity. Failures and tragedies teach us things that nothing else could. In the ensuing waves of change, often the blocks that frustrate our creativity are swept away. Once you have embraced change and are crafting it rather than just letting it happen, you should be at your creative best. This is the time to get cracking and make the best of it.

#3 Perfect Ways To Let Change Take Place Without Hurting You:

Travel: Removing yourself from the usual scene is a great idea. Get away from all of it, give your body and mind time to ease into the changing process. Removing yourself from your natural environment can also be a great away to kickstart those faculties and instincts that you kept shut away to focus on the work at hand.
Play: Another great way to sharpen those instincts and strengthen those emotions that help you in the transition is to pursue any physical sport. Competitive team games or combat sports give you a lot of scopes to be on your feet, feel adrenaline rushes and prove your worth to yourself all over again by invoking your fighting spirit, skills, ability to adapt and respond quickly. You will fight to win, and that gives a whole new direction to your energy and mindset. A lot of people, however, prefer other sorts of sports and physical activity that involve skill, stamina and determination – like running, ice skating, gymming, activities that put you under physical challenge, which is to be overcome with determination and stamina. Running works great for me – particularly a good mix of long-distance running and sprinting. A lot of opportunity for introspection, soaring adrenaline that comes with the sprints, and an ego boost when I achieve a new goal which seemed very nearly impossible to attain.
Help someone- voluntary work: You think you are distressed? I bet there are millions of people worse off. Bring a positive change in their lives, even in one life. Help someone with your expertise. Mentor someone young and enthusiastic, raring to scale the heights. We are usually more methodical and rational in solving others’ problems. Rationality is a habit. If you can solve another’s problem, there is no reason you can’t deal with yours.

The Rot in the Legal Education System: Is There A Cure?

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November 27, 2016

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The Rot in the Legal Education System

In early 2013, newspapers reported about a writ petition in Madras High Court which alleges that brokers are selling LLB degrees in the state for meager amounts. One can get these degrees even without attending classes as long as they pay a few thousand rupees. For those who are familiar with the legal system at the grassroots level, this would not be very surprising. In any lower court, and sometimes even at higher courts, you can find thousands of lawyers who just work as agents of other lawyers. Their role is limited to finding clients. For this, they<!–more–> are ready to make all sorts of unrealistic promises. Rarely one gets any quality legal representation from these so-called lawyers who have been licensed to practice in our courts.

The legal education system, with some notable exceptions, is failing. The quality of legal education offered in a large number of colleges is way below acceptable standards. The BCI had recognized this a couple of years back and started derecognizing some colleges. That process, however, is currently stalled. Mandated syllabuses and textbooks have remained the same over the decades and do not reflect the realities of the legal practice anymore. Legal education has stagnated, and rather than creating outstanding legal experts, it only churns out thousands of law graduates who are unemployable and clueless.

One well known Vice Principal of a Mumbai law college once lamented to me about how the syllabus of Mumbai University has remained more or less the same for the last 25 years, and why he cannot teach what ought to be taught to the budding lawyers. He tries his best to supplement their learning through as many extra seminars he can arrange, but with the core curriculum being what it is, he is fighting a losing battle.

If this is the situation in Mumbai, imagine what is happening in the hundreds of rural law colleges of the country. Out of 90,000 law graduates coming out of 900+ law colleges every year, barely a fraction is ready to serve clients even in the most basic matters. Except for a fraction, the rest is not even close to being employable. Lack of good faculty and irrelevant theory based syllabus that depend on rote learning and writing exams is the main reason for this. Classroom teaching in most cases means just narrating some notes which are copied down by students, meant to be eventually regurgitated in answer papers in University exams. Law students learn to crack some exams, but they have no idea how they can earn an honest livelihood after they get their degrees of the profession from other practicing lawyers. Very few are fortunate to find successful lawyers who are willing to and can spare the time to teach juniors about the craft of legal practice. The rest try to learn by being in the marketplace and observation. How many of them succeed is anybody’s guess.

Realizing the steady decline of the legal profession in India, visionary chairman of the Bar Council of India Gopal Subramaniam introduced the All India Bar Exam, despite massive protests and an array of legal challenges. Nothing exposes the sorry tale of Indian legal education more clearly than the results of the All India Bar Exam.

The Bar Exam itself is very easy. Students are asked questions on about half of what is the BCI syllabus mandatorily taught in law colleges. Students are allowed to carry any books, notes or material to the examination hall that they may like (electronic devices are not allowed). The questions themselves are elementary and just require one to flip through pages and find the correct answers. Questions are all multiple choice based, and objective questions. Many of the questions are so easy, that any self-respecting Indian citizen who has received a higher education will be expected to know the answers. Even then, 1 in every 3 persons who wrote the Bar Exam since 2010 has failed in it. The BCI has stopped publishing details of the performance of law graduates in the Bar Exam ever since.

Who gets to become a lawyer is not only the business of lawyers. If incompetent degree holders are given free license to practice law – we weaken the rule of law and the justice system, and we oppress the people who suffer at the hand of incompetent lawyers. The current situation is responsible for the steady decline of the legal profession, and its public reputation. A few good National Law Universities or stories of NLU graduates bagging intentional training contracts do not change this.<

What is the solution?

When there is deep rooted systemic inefficiency and culture of mediocrity, it is very difficult to bring a change. That said, it appears that little has been done by BCI, the regulator of undergraduate legal studies. One immediate solution in sight is to improve the quality of the All India Bar Exam and create resources for the continuous legal education of lawyers, with mandatory requirements. Also, regular and structured internships should make mandatory for law students as well. We definitely need a more proactive legal education regulator, and while BCI fights it tooth and nail – having the HRD working on improving standards of legal education may not be that bad an idea. It cannot get much worse anyway.

The Bar Exam is a unique opportunity to set right much of what is wrong with the Indian legal system as well as the legal education system. It can set standards for the law colleges and universities doling out useless law degrees for money. If too many of their students fail the bar exam, they should be taken to task and derecognized over time. The Bar Exam can also guide the law students themselves towards the right direction – as they would know what skills they need to learn to pass the bar exam no matter what they learn in college and focus on developing those skills early on. It can also save the common people from having to suffer the injustice of poor quality of legal representation.

However, for this we would need a well thought out curriculum for the Bar Exam, which tests necessary skills of young lawyers, rather than legal trivia in an open book exam. The open book exam itself is not bad – but combined with the kind of questions that are being asked in the Bar Exam, it has lost its meaning.

I started the only online training program for the All India Bar Exam called BarHacker. This may make me potentially biased towards wanting a more difficult bar exam, although I have attempted to write this article in the most logical and unbiased way.

The State Of Homosexuality Rights Around The World

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November 27, 2016

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The State Of Homosexuality Rights Around The World

This post is written by Hariharan Kumar of Jindal Global Law School

India has been recently added to the list of countries that criminalize homosexuality after the Naz Foundation Judgment yesterday. The Delhi High Court in 2009 had decriminalized the act and on appeal the Supreme Court held that it is the prerogative of the Parliament to decide whether s. 377 of the IPC is unconstitutional or not. It is for the Parliament to amend the laws. Hence, as a result, India has criminalized homosexuality once again. This law i.e. s. 377 which punishes unnatural offences has been in place since the British Raj. As is evident in the above map, mostly the Muslim majority countries have criminalized the act and in some countries, the ‘offender’ is given the death penalty as the punishment. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Mauritiana have decided to give the highest punishment i.e. death penalty to the person indulging in homosexual activities.

Here is a list of countries that have enacted legislations to allow same sex marriages.

23 countries in the world having some of the highest Human Development Index performances have recognized the rights of LGBT persons right to marriage or civil union. dozens of other countries does not provide right to marriage, but do not criminalize homosexuality either.

1. Netherlands: On April 1, 2001 the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, with the same rights as heterosexuals. This law also includes the right to adopt.

2. Belgium: Homosexual couples in Belgium have almost the same rights as heterosexuals. They won the right to marry in 2003 and in 2006 parliament voted into law a bill allowing homosexual couples to adopt children.

3. Spain: In 2005 Spain became the third member of the European Union to pass a law allowing same-sex marriages. Gay couples can adopt children, whether they are married or not.

4. Canada: Canada adopted a national law allowing gays to marry and adopt in July 2005, though most provinces had already allowed same-sex unions before that date.

5. South Africa: The country legalised same-sex unions and adoptions by gay couples in November 2006, becoming the first African nation to do so. South Africa is the only African country to have legalized gay sex and marriage even now. There are also countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and many others that have criminalized this act.

6. Norway: A 2009 law allowed homosexuals to marry and adopt children. Civil partnerships have existed in the country for 20 years.

7. Sweden: Sweden’s homosexuals have been allowed to wed in religious or civil ceremonies since May 2009.

8. Portugal: Under a 2010 law Portugal legalized gay marriage, while excluding the right to adoption.

9. Iceland: Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir married her long-time partner in June 2010 as a new law legalizing homosexual marriages came into force. Same-sex couples who have lived together for at least five years have had the right to adopt children since 2006.

10. Argentina: Gays in Argentina became the first on the South American continent to be able to wed and adopt, after legislation passed on July 14, 2010.

11. Denmark: Denmark, the first country in the world to allow gay couples to enter into civil unions in 1989, voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing homosexuals to marry in the state Evangelical Lutheran Church in June 2012.

12. Uruguay: Uruguay voted in April to allow same-sex marriages nationwide, making it only the second Latin American country to do so.

13. New Zealand: New Zealand on April 17 became the first Asia-Pacific country to legalise same-sex marriage, after a decades-long campaign.

14. France: France became the 14th nation in the world to legalize same sex marriage after President Hollande signed the measure into law. This law also allows gays to adopt children.

15. United States & Mexico: Gay couples can marry in sixteen US states, as well as in the capital Washington. The States that legalize same sex marriages by a Court order are California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and New Jersey. While in the states of Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont, the State Legislature passed laws making same sex marriage legal. In the states of Maine, Maryland and Washington, same sex marriage was made legal by popular vote. Parts of Mexico also allow same-sex marriage.

16. Brazil: Brazil this month gave a de facto green light to same-sex marriages after its National Council of Justice ruled that government offices could issue marriage licenses to gay couples without having to wait for Congress to pass a law allowing gay unions. Recently, Rio De Janeiro hosted mass gay weddings for 130 couples.

17. Britain: Britain: Same-sex couples in Britain have had the right to live in civil partnerships since 2005 and recently in July 2013, gay couples have been given the right to marry. It is expected that the first gay and lesbian wedding ceremonies will take place by summer next year. Interestingly, Prime Minister David Cameroon’s Conservative Party was one of the opponents to the Bill.
Civil Unions

A number of other countries have adopted laws that recognise civil partnerships and give couples more or less the same rights as heterosexuals. Countries to have recognised civil unions without yet accepting gay marriage include Germany (2001), Finland (2002), the Czech Republic (2006), Switzerland (2007) and Colombia and Ireland (both 2011).
List of countries/regions criminalizing homosexuality

Africa
1. Algeria
2. Angola
3. Botswana
4. Burundi
5. Cameroon
6. Comoros
7. Egypt
8. Eritrea
9. Ethiopia
10. Gambia
11. Ghana
12. Guinea
13. Kenya
14. Lesotho
15. Liberia
16. Libya
17. Malawi
18. Mauritania
19. Mauritius

20. Morocco
21. Mozambique
22. Namibia
23. Nigeria São Tomé and Principe
24. North Sudan
25. Senegal
26. Seychelles
27. Sierra Leone
28. Somalia
29. South Sudan
30. Swaziland
31. Tanzania
32. Togo
33. Tunisia
34. Uganda
35. Zambia
36. Zimbabwe
Asia
1. Afghanistan
2. Bangladesh
3. Bahrain
4. Bhutan
5. Brunei
6. Some parts of Indonesia (South Sumatra and Aceh Province)
7. Iran
8. Iraq
9. India (after yesterday’s ruling)
10. Kuwait
11. Lebanon
12. Malaysia
13. Maldives
14. Myanmar
15. Oman
16. Pakistan
17. Qatar
18. Saudi Arabia
19. Singapore
20. Sri Lanka
21. Syria
22. Northern Cyprus (internationally unrecognized)
23. Turkmenistan
24. United Arab Emirates
25. Uzbekistan
26. Yemen
27. Occupied Palestinian Territory
Latin America & Caribbean
1. Antigua and Barbuda
2. Barbados
3. Belize
4. Dominica
5. Grenada
6. Guyana
7. Jamaica
8. St Kitts & Nevis
9. St Lucia
10. St Vincent & the Grenadines
11. Trinidad and Tobago
Oceania
1. Kiribati
2. Nauru
3. Palau
4. Papua New Guinea
5. Samoa
6. Solomon Islands
7. Tonga
8. Tuvalu
9. Cook Islands
Countries having Anti- Gay laws
Recently, Russia was in the news for passing a law against gays. But it is not the only country having anti- gay laws. Some of the other countries having such laws are as follows:
Cameroon- Homosexuals, especially gay men, are regularly prosecuted in Cameroon, and it sometimes takes as little as a text message to another man expressing love or having an appearance perceived as overly effeminate to be put behind bars. Homosexual conduct there is punishable with a fine and up to five years in jail.

Uganda- Uganda, home to some of the harshest anti-gay laws in Africa—with sentences for homosexuality ranging from 14 years to life imprisonment—some political forces have been seeking to pass an “Anti-Homosexuality Bill.” The bill has been tabled for now.

Burundi- In April 2009, Burundi’s lower house of government passed a law outlawing homosexual activity, with prison sentences for the convicted ranging from two months to three years.

Iran- Under the penal code of the Islamic Republic of Iran adopted after the 1979 revolution, death is a potential punishment for homosexuality. Kissing another man or woman in public may result in 60 lashes. International human rights groups have collected evidence that Iran has executed men on homosexuality charges, and documented cases of arrests, imprisonment, and physical abuse of LGBT persons based on their sexual orientation or association with other members of LGBT community. An amendment of Iran’s penal code in May 2013 criminalized homosexual identity, rather than specific acts, making it punishable by 31 to 74 lashes.
Qatar- Qatari law considers homosexuality a criminal offense that’s punishable by up to seven years in jail (or a life term when one of the parties is under 16 years of age).

Jamaica- The Offenses against the person Act was instituted in 1864 in Jamaica. While almost never enforced, the laws carry with them a sentence of up to ten years of hard labor. “Buggery,” an archaic British term for sodomy, is limited to males, and lesbian relations do not face criminal sanction
Death Penalty for being Gay

Currently, the nations that prescribe capital punishment for homosexuals are Iran, Mauritania, the Republic of Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. South Sudan, the world’s newest country, may become a sixth nation to do so, while, if religious extremists have their way, Uganda may become the seventh. The death penalty also is carried out against homosexuals in certain parts of Somalia and Nigeria.

Gays in Military?

The Palm Center, a research institute that focuses on sexual minorities in the armed services, curates a list of countries that allow gays (both men and women) to serve in the military are USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Uruguay, South Africa, Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania, all of Scandinavia and rest of Europe west of the Czech Republic (sans Portugal). In total, there are 26 countries that allow gays to serve in their military.

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/12/11/a-map-of-the-countries-where-homosexuality-is-criminalized/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/30/gay-rights-world-best-worst-countries

Listed: the 80-plus states that criminalise homosexuality today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23033423

http://www.thewire.com/global/2011/09/map-26-nations-allows-gays-their-militaries/42843/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/rio-de-janeiro-gay-wedding-_n_4410348.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23338279

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/many-reasons-why-sc-verdict-criminalising-gay-sex-is-bad/article1-1161725.aspx

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131211-india-gay-sex-ruling-supreme-court-gay-rights-world/

https://christiangays.com/marriage/legal.shtml#countries1

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/same-sex-marriages-gaining-acceptance-14-countries-where-it-s-legalised/article1-1062305.aspx

http://news.nationalgeographic.co.in/news/2013/08/130814-russia-anti-gay-propaganda-law-world-olympics-africa-gay-rights/

http://www.globalequality.org/component/content/article/166

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-anti-gay-bill-passes-protesters-detained/

I. Where should I start from?

MAKE NOTES:

II. What should I read?

What do you have to say to the world today?

The background research

The project topic

The objective is simple – frame a question; answer it. It’s as simple as that.

Argue, no one pays a lawyer for reporting

Some useful tools

Comparative analysis

Economic analysis

The finishing touches

The secret sauce

The rules of asking for help

Morality of asking for help

Little known things about help

It is very important to know a few things about help:

The three golden rules of seeking help. Just to recap:

The key to success often hides in the company you keep.

Be careful about the company you keep, it affects you in ways beyond you can perceive.

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who wrote on philosophy and anthropology during the 18th century.

All his works gave rise to his most fundamental notion of “Categorical Imperative”.

As far as his contrasting views go, he has always been a critique of Consequentialism.

Action must be done from duty in order to have moral worth.

Duty is a necessary action done out of respect for law.

To justify the second point he said that you should work according to the laws you set for yourself and not because of contingent forces.

Do we have a duty to cultivate talents?

Kant’s theories were definitely a breakthrough, but they seem to be too wide and too unqualified.

Optimism is predominantly the prime state of mind of students who find themselves allotted to any National Law University.

Why should you change

From accepting to crafting change:

Let’s get into the specifics – what could you possibly do?

#3 Perfect Ways To Let Change Take Place Without Hurting You:

The Rot in the Legal Education System

What is the solution?

Here is a list of countries that have enacted legislations to allow same sex marriages.

Gays in Military?

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