THE INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL LEGAL DEBATES -4 Introduction On 6th December 2017, the Office of the Press Secretary, White House issued the text of the speech of the US President Trump, in which he said: “[W]e finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality. It is also the …

Introduction Crime is a social phenomenon and response to it constitutes the very criminal justice system of a country. In Pakistan, the response to crime in a systemic manner suffers from many a problem. One of the weaknesses, as noted by various experts, is the protection of witnesses, who, in turn, feed into the testimonial evidence relied on by the …

This part of the debate proposes to discuss the much highlighted, but under-researched applicability of the international law to Myanmar crisis where Rohingya Muslims are being persecuted. The constitutional and international law perspectives have been briefly discussed from Pakistan’s viewpoint. 3. Pakistan-Myanmar: Applying the Int’l Law The media in Pakistan are inundated with material related to the persecution of Muslims …

Pakistan is a legal product. The nexus of its polity with constitutional and legal matters is unfathomable insofar as its composition, structure, spirit, ideology, characteristics and its borders are concerned. In terms of its composition and structure, the centrality of constitutional law cannot be underestimated. Likewise, in relation to its ideology, its relationship with Islamic Law (Shariah) and the relationship …

Introduction The history of criminal justice system reform efforts especially vis-à-vis police, the most important component of the system, has been replete with administrative efforts in both India and Pakistan. In case of Pakistan, as many as 21 commissions/committees/initiatives relating to police reforms were recorded till the year 2000. The implementation of these reforms is, however, a challenge in both …

Introduction Pakistan’s constitution is no stranger to amendments; extant written constitution of 1973 had as many as eighteen amendments till 2010. Much has been written about the amendments introduced to the constitution till that time; the purpose of this write-up is to consolidate and record the post-2010 (post-Eighteenth Amendment) constitutional amendments that have been made, and the draft amendments laid …

The international legal framework that deals with nuclear weapons may collectively be styled as the international nuclear law; and this framework obviously, like other areas of international law, is not static. One aspect that calls for a comment is that the international nuclear law falls in a shared domain of both the jus ad bellum (law of war) and the …

On 9th May 2017, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a press release according to which India instituted legal proceedings before it against Pakistan with reference to its national Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav. With this official press release, the hitherto political and military discourse of India-Pakistan relationship was subjected to legal analysis, encompassing both international law and national law. This …

Persistent Questions What binds the nations to each other in their bilateral, multilateral and international relations? Is it the legality, or some other factor? If it is legality, what is the source of it? Is it the international law? If yes, where is it to be found? What is its source? These questions, more often than not, recur continually. Another …

Background Article 140-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, was added through the Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment in 2010. The constitutional provision provided for three aspects related to the local government: a. It established the local government system within the constitutional framework of Pakistan; b. It provided for devolving of the ‘political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected …