Abstracts from the International Seminar on Research and Legal Research Trends

The National Law College Civil Law and Human Rights Research Center organized a seminar on ‘Research and Legal Research Trends’ at National Law College in collaboration with Manipal University, Jaipur. There were eight presentations on vastly different topics submitted by students as well as faculty members from National Law College and Manipal University. Due to some unforeseeable circumstances, the presenters from Manipal University were not able to come to Nepal, but their abstracts were presented to the panel.

Abstracts from the seminar have been provided below.

1. A challenge to Nepalese legal society and an opportunity to legal concerns; PACER

Priya Lamichhane , National Law College, BALLB (2^nd semester)

PACER simply denotes the act of making Public Access to Court Electronic Records to provide a ground for researchers in a legal field. The timely updates and newer information are very important in the present context which gets a slow functioning due to the transfer of responsibility from courts to departments of the press. In this context, providing URL to courts to immediately update them could be a genuine step in strengthening legal researches and the fast flow of legal activities.

Keywords: Access, acknowledgement, feasibility, pros, cons, challenges, solution 

2. Development And Research Prospect in SAARC Region; Bandana Joshi, National Law college[Librarian]

SAARC is an economic and geopolitical organization of eight countries located in South Asia. The founding nations of this institution are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and the latest one is Afghanistan. However there are many persistent problems in the region i.e.  population growth, poverty, illiteracy, climate change, terrorism, flood and environmental degradation. There are various issues in SAARC that development can be achieved in SAARC region i.e. bilateral issues between India and other nations, cross border issues among the SAARC nations, political instability, instability among the nations, the cultural and religious challenges are finally the dominance of certain nations in SAARC 

Key words: Research, SAARC, Challenges, Development, Bilateral

3. Child Rights Convention in  Nepal And Progress At Glimpse, Bhagawatti Sharma Bhandari LLM 1^st Semester, National Law College 

Child Rights are the rights implemented especially on the children to ensure rights from their prenatal stage to the stage of adolescent. CRC has made provisions that fulfillment of the responsibilities related to the Child Rights lie both on the guardians and the State.

Keywords: Child Right, Child Right Convention

4. Self-plagiarism, Dikshya Adhikari, Student, B.A.LLB 4^th Semester, National Law College

Plagiarism is regarded as evident mistake to avoid while carrying out research and preparing research reports since long. Plagiarism is unauthorized appropriation of ideas of other people’s ideas, processes or text without giving correct credit and with intention to present it as own property. But what about using own text or work that has been already submitted to a platform as a new work in other platform i.e. self-plagiarism.

 Self-plagiarism means plagiarizing one self. Self-plagiarism means reusing work that once has already published or submitted for a class. It can involve re-submitting an entire paper, copying or paraphrasing passages from own previous work, or recycling old data. In recent context self-plagiarism is gaining a lot of attention in research sector.

Key words: Research, Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, Consequences, Case example.

5. Marriage: Institution to Liberty or Constraint to Liberty, Garima Arora, B.A.LLB 4^th Semester, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan

Rape is a crime poorer than murder as it is assassination of women’s dignity which she is destined to suffer throughout her life. Common perception is that marriage gives husband constant consent for sex. Though the Indian constitution guarantees equality to everyone, yet Indian criminal law discriminates against those  female victims who have been raped by their own husbands. The government seems to have found some strange and unusual correlation between saving the institution of marriage and not criminalising marital rape. It is quite difficult to understand that how rape of a woman is less cruel than triple talaq or polygamy, which the present government seems to have been much concerned about. To put in other way, women in a patriarchal society, end up being perceived as baby making machines. Many countries including U.K who drafted and enacted our Indian penal code 1860 have criminalised Marital rape while India is among those 36 countries who still refuse to do so as they think it will be a blot on holy institution of marriage. Rape is rape, why our penal code still treats ‘she is my wife’ as a defence? Marital rape is not  injury only to body of spouse, it is not just physical assault but it scars the soul and shatters the trust and faith of an individual. The purpose of this study is to find out whether sexual intercourse without consent of wife should be considered as rape.

Keywords : Marial Rape, crime, assassination, sexual intercourse, consent, spouse, marriage

6. The more blunt your axe the more you are protected, Gaurav Sethi, B.A.LLB 4^th Semester, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan

The problem of environmental pollution in an increasingly world concerns all countries irrespective of their size, level of development or ideology. It is said that man is natures best promise and worst enemy. Progress and pollution go together their can be no end to progress and consequently, no escape from problem. For countering the inevitable problem of environmental pollution, the term sustainable development was coined by “Stockholm Declaration on Human Environment 1972” which inspired India’s first Smt. Indira Gandhi which resulted in insertion of concept of environmental protection in directive principles of state policy in form of 42nd constitutional amendment. Although specific Acts have been enacted for environmental protection but relief can also be sought under various general laws like IPC, Torts, CPC etc. environmental protection is of great economic importance to mankind and maintains the environment as self-sustaining system. Our current Prime Minister is the torchbearer of the vision of clean India and he launched various schemes such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Garmin Swachh Bharat, Bal Swachhta Abhiyan, Namami Ganga Yojana etc. India has been in the forefront of taking all possible steps for the protection and improvement of the environment and aiming at sustainable development. However, the fundamental question before us is whether we can allow the destruction of the environment leading to the destruction of all living creatures including human being on the planet? This paper deals with environmental degradation and it’s conservation through statutory measures and public efforts.

Keywords: Environment, pollution, sustainable development, ecosystem, biodiversity, statutory remedies, deforestation, National Green Tribunal.

7. Breaking of shackles, Richa Gandhi, B.A.LLB 4^th Semester, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behaviour among the people of the same sex. The common term used for homosexuals are ‘gays’, ‘lesbians’, ‘bisexuals’, or ‘transgenders’ and collectively they are known as LGBT people .The legal struggle related to the decriminalising of homosexuality has begun. Today this is the most debatable issue as the duty to do justice lies on the Supreme Court of India as the issue involves the concern of the fundamental rights of the LGBT people. LGBT people were struggling beneath the ground for their existence, identity and sexual orientation. Many people are in support of decriminalising the section 377 while there are many others who are in view to criminalize the homosexuality because of the moral values and culture of Indian society. People belonging to this groups used to face various kinds of physical and mental torture which are been mentioned in the reports referred in this article. Thereforee, we can say that the fundamental rights of the LGBT community must be protected in the interest of the humanity.

Key words: – Homosexuality, fundamental rights, gender identity, sexual orientation, LGBTQ.

8. Anti dowry laws : a perspective preventing dignity of men, Saumya Arora, B.A.LLB 4^th Semester, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan

India repeatedly gets trawled over  coals for its behaviour towards women. Although women have to fight against discrimination, prejudice and violence till their death. But are men not susceptible? Do they not face discrimination? Can they not be covalscent? Wronged women must get justice at all costs. No women should be denied of her rights, but at the same time, one should not turn a blind eye to the flagrant misuse of these laws. Laws like Indian penal code S-498A, Domestic violence act,2005 have number of provisions to intimidate men and their families. Over the years, Section 498A have got the status of being the “most misused law in the history of Indian jurisprudence”. According to the Times Of India, each year more than 10,000 charges of dowry harassment are found to be false. These laws were made with noble intensions but a law that was made to save lives has taken many lives. Men’s rights activists claim that anti-dowry laws in India are frequently being misused to harass and extort husbands, and attributed this to the high suicide rate among married men in India,which is almost twice that of women.Due to the detrimental effect of abusal of law being made these days for the protection of women demands ,many men are suffering.The purpose of this study is to recognize this problem as a social and public health issue and develop appropriate strategies and interventions. Male victims of violence can be save through appropriate intervention such as recognition of violence against men by women as a public health issue; helpline for the male victims and legal safeguards.

Key words: Discrimination, prejudice, dowry harassment, extort, misuse, suicide, dignity.

Further information on the seminar can be found here.