India’s and Australia’s different experiences in the British Commonwealth revolved around race: British India and White Australia were based on race ideologies that justified forms fo colonialism and exclusion. (p 234) This month, Law and …
Continue readingDouglas McDonald-Norman

Foreigners Tribunals, Refugee Status Determination and the ‘Surveillance of Authenticity’
A woman in Assam is determined not to be a citizen of India by the NRC. She seeks review by a Foreigners Tribunal. She faces a formidable task. She bears the burden of proving that …
Continue reading
The Citizenship Amendment Act and ‘Persons Belonging to Minority Communities’
The Citizenship Amendment Act alters the definition of ‘illegal immigrant’ for the purposes of the Citizenship Act 1955. It provides that ‘persons belonging to minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from …
Continue readingSeeking Refuge in India: Ulaganathan and ors v Ministry of External Affairs
Introduction In August, the Supreme Court will hear petitions on whether “illegal immigrants” in India are entitled to recognition as refugees. These proceedings are intrinsically linked to the Centre’s broader efforts to remove stateless Rohingya …
Continue reading“Intensely Human”: A Brief Biographical Sketch of Edmund Elmar Mack
This post is the fourth in a loosely-linked set of posts on colonial continuity in the Indian judiciary. Previous posts can be found here, here and here. In my previous post on India’s ‘British judges’ …
Continue reading
Seeing Persecution: Koushal, s 377 and Evidence of Human Rights Abuses
Suresh Kumar Koushal v Naz Foundation (“Koushal”) is a bad decision which must be overturned. This is not a new or an original observation. (See, for example, most of December 2013 on this blog.) This …
Continue reading
Review: Abhinav Chandrachud’s Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India
Abhinav Chandrachud’s Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India (2017) is not Gautam Bhatia’s Offend, Shock and Disturb: Free Speech under the Indian Constitution (2016). Admittedly, both books are examinations of free …
Continue readingThe Exception: Ferdino Rebello and a Call for Help
My first post for this blog was about Indian judges who had previously served in state and Central legislatures. At that time, I noted that ‘despite the fact that no Supreme Court judge appointed since …
Continue reading
South Asia, South Pacific, South Australia: Resistance to Imperial Racial Hierarchies and Australian Politics
I note at the outset that this blog post does relate back to this blog’s remit regarding ‘India’s laws and legal system’. (Or, at least, to the question of Indian political history and culture.) It …
Continue readingWho Was Basil James?
This is the third of a series of posts on colonial continuity in the Indian legal system. Previous posts in the series can be found here and here. Basil Reginald James was admitted to the …
Continue reading