Usha Ramanathan works on the jurisprudence of law, poverty and rights. She writes and speaks on issues that include the nature of law, the Bhopal Gas Disaster, mass displacement, eminent domain, civil liberties including the death penalty, beggary, criminal law, custodial institutions, the environment, and the judicial process. She has been tracking and engaging with the UID project and has written and debated extensively on the subject. In July-September 2013, she wrote a 19-part series on the UID project that was published in The Statesman, a national daily.

Her work draws heavily upon non-governmental experience in its encounters with the state; a 6 year stint with a law journal (Supreme Court Cases) as reporter from the Supreme Court; and engagement with matters of law and public policy.

She was a member of: the Expert Group on Privacy set up by the Planning Commission of India which gave in its report in October 2012; a committee (2013-14) set up in the Department of Biotechnology to review the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012; and the Committee set up by the Prime Minister's Office (2013-14) to study the socio-economic status of tribal communities which gave its report to the government in 2014.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

63 - Pragmatism over principles is the norm today: Usha Ramanathan - India Together


VIDEO: DAKSH ANNUAL LECTURE


Pragmatism over principles is the norm today: Usha Ramanathan

What does state sovereignty really stand for? Does it downplay the role and status of the individual by making him a 'subject' of the state? Watch Usha Ramanathan, as she deconstructs the complex entity of the state in the Daksh Constitutional Day Lecture.

20 February 2014 -
Restrictions, rather than rights, are what’s fundamental today in citizens’ lives, feels prominent human rights lawyer, academic and activist Usha Ramanathan, echoing the thoughts of another great civil rights activist and lawyer, the late K G Kannabiran.

In November 2013, Ramanathan delivered an address titled "Sovereign, Citizen, Subject: An exploration of the relationship between the people and the state” at the annual Constitutional Day Lecture organised by Bangalore-based non profit organisation Daksh, which has been working to improve accountability in politics and governance.

Any constitution is only as good as it works, says Harish Narasappa, co-founder of Daksh, and in order for it to function well, it is important to reiterate the fundamental values it espouses and explore new agendas and methodologies to have those values reinforced. That is one of the core-objectives of the lecture series conceived of by Daksh and organised on 26 November every year, where eminent speakers articulate all that needs to be done to renew and reinvigorate the values enshrined in the Indian constitution.

In her lecture, Ramanathan drew upon various axioms postulated by academics such as Kannabiran as well as examples from the contemporary Indian juridical landscape to show how pragmatism has gained precedence over Constitutional principles. In a scathing critique of both state functions and recent trends in jurisprudence, she asserts that “One thing that keeps getting forgotten or overlooked all too frequently is that the Constitution is not about the powers of the state but about the limits to the power of the State.”

Studded with references to incidents and judgments most people are familiar with, Ramanathan’s talk illustrated how the state has changed from being a law-making body to a contractual one, and in the process vested in itself the sovereignty that should actually rest with the people.

Click below to view the complete lecture Video:

- See more at: http://indiatogether.org/lecture-on-state-citizenship-video-government#sthash.OMfWROPG.rgzUT90j.dpuf


IndiaTogether
20 February 2014
Usha Ramanathan is a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, teaches environmental law, labour law and consumer law at the Indian Law Institute and is a frequent adviser to many non-governmental and international organizations. The Daksh Constitutional Day lectures are organised each year on 26 November, the anniversary of adoption of the Indian Constitution.

- See more at: http://indiatogether.org/lecture-on-state-citizenship-video-government#sthash.OMfWROPG.rgzUT90j.dpuf
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