CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE
Jawaharlal Nehru University
SEMINAR SERIES
Aman Hingorani
Lawyer, Supreme Court of India
on
Unravelling the Kashmir Knot
This talk examines the role that international law can play in helping to resolve the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Dating from the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947, the conflict has been driven by Indian bungling, Pakistani intervention and the political expediency of the major powers. With tens of thousands killed and millions rendered homeless, the Kashmir issue has poisoned relations on the sub-continent, given impetus to international terrorism and threatened all-out war between these two nuclear powers.
This talk is based on the book, Unravelling the Kashmir Knot, which relies primarily on British archives to show that the Kashmir issue was the end product of Britain's ruthless policies to satisfy its geo-political, defence and strategic interests in the Indian subcontinent. In this context, it may be noted that the result of the British colonial politics was the creation of modern day India and Pakistan within a constitutional framework contemplated by British statutes - namely, the Indian Independence Act of 1947 and the modified Government of India Act of 1935. While both India and Pakistan accepted these statutes, their stands on the Kashmir issue remain inconsistent with such constitutional law that gave them birth.
The book argues that the way forward on the Kashmir issue is to first depoliticize it. And a convenient way of depoliticizing any issue is by subjecting it to a legal analysis. While Kashmir is certainly a political issue, it is imperative to separate the legal from the political aspect of the issue, so as to test the legality of the stand of India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue before an international adjudicatory body like the International Court of Justice at The Hague. While law alone cannot resolve the Kashmir issue, a confirmation of the correct legal position by the International Court of Justice will help alter the current political discourse on this issue, so necessary for a just resolution. This is what the book does with the help of comprehensive analysis of court rulings, UN papers, political observer reports and international law. The book then details the steps that must be taken in Kashmir for restoring some semblance of accountability and governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law, and a clear, directed policy conforming to principles of civilized society.
3.00 PM, Friday, 3 February 2017
Conference Room, CSLG, JNU
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Aman M. Hingorani is a practicing lawyer and mediator in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. Dr. Hingorani has also acted as an arbitrator and as adjunct faculty to teach law students and run training courses for young law teachers, lawyers and judicial officers. He has taught in programs at various institutions in India (including National Judicial Academy, Bhopal; Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi; Indian Law Institute, New Delhi) and abroad (including Keble College, University of Oxford, UK; Law School, Warwick University, UK; South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh). He has prepared curriculum for law courses and other activities, such as the modules for the Indo-British Project on Advocacy Skills Training, British Council, New Delhi; the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) preparatory material for the All-India Bar Examination conducted annually by the Bar Council of India; and the ADR Manual for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry as its National Consultant. Dr. Hingorani has another 28 publications, both national and international, on varied subjects ranging from the grant of intellectual property protection to bioengineered life forms to the dynamics of missile proliferation globally.
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