New book review for Daniel Bell et al on Bridging Two Worlds Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China (University of California Press)

Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China
Daniel A. Bell
University of California Press
Published in January 2023
New book review available in April 2024 (Click here for details)

Abstract: The rise of China and India could be the most important political development of the twenty-first century. What will the foreign policies of China and India look like in the future? What should they look like? And what can each country learn from the other? Bridging Two Worlds gathers a coterie of experts in the field, analyzing profound political thinkers from these ancient regions whose theories of interstate relations set the terms for the debates today. This volume is the first work that systematically compares ancient thoughts and theories about international politics between China and India. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the growth of China and India and what it will mean for the rest of the world.

New Book edited by Ulrike Davy & Albert Chen: Law and Social Policy in the Global South: Brazil, China, India, South Africa (Routledge)

 Law and Social Policy in the Global South:
Brazil, China, India, South Africa
Edited by Ulrike Davy & Albert Chen

Routledge

Published in December 2022

280 pp.

Description: The book is an in-depth study of the origins and the trajectories of the law governing social policies in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa, four middle-income countries in the global South with a history in social policy making that starts in the 1920s.

     The policies of these countries affect almost half of the world’s population. The book takes the legal framework of the policies as a starting point, but the main interest lies behind the letter of the law: What were the objectives and goals of social policy over the course of the last 100 years? What were the ideas, ideologies, and values pursued by relevant actors? The book comprises four country studies and a comparative study. The country studies concentrate on the political and social context of social policy making in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa as well as on the ideas, ideologies, and values underpinning the constitution, statutory laws, and case law that frame and shape social policy at the national level. The country studies are complemented by a comparative study exploring and describing the commonalities and differences in the ideational approaches to social policies across the four countries, nationally and – in the formative decades – internationally. The comparative study also identifies the characteristics that make Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, and South African social policies distinct from European social policies. With its emphasis on law and drawing on legal scholarship, the book adds a new dimension to the existing accounts on welfare state building, which, so far, are dominated by European narratives and by scholars with a background in sociology, political science, and development studies.

     This book is relevant to specialists and peers and will be invaluable to those individuals interested in the fields of comparative and international social security law, human rights law, comparative constitutional law, constitutional history, law and development studies, comparative social policies, global social policies, social work, and welfare state theory.

Puja Kapai Delivers Keynote Speech at Plan for Every Child 2018 (India)

Puja Kapai, Associate Professor and Convenor of the Women's Studies Research Centre, was invited to deliver a special keynote address by Plan International India and the Government of India's Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment at the Plan for Every Child 2018: Girls Get Equal Conference​ held in New Delhi at the India Habitat Centre from 5 to 7 December, 2018. Other speakers included Mr Justice Lokur, Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Ms Mikiko Otani, member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, magistrates, government ministers, the police, academics, civil society leaders, media representatives, as well as children themselves. It was a multidisciplinary and interactive event which engaged thousands of stakeholders working with children across India, focusing in particular on the girl child, those at risk of trafficking and sexual and domestic abuse, street children, and juveniles in the criminal justice system.

   Puja’s keynote, ‘Pathways to Gender Justice: A Critical Intersectional Framework’, focused on the need for legal and social justice advocates to adopt an intersectional framework to address specific vulnerabilities which children who sit at the intersection of multiple sites of oppression experience. Drawing on gender as the focal lens, she presented specific examples of how such a lens enables an enriched understanding of the nexus of pull and push factors which impoverish the girl child’s access to a range of human rights, including education, freedom from violence, and access to justice. Puja also presented an intersectional assessment framework integrated with the Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) framework which she launched earlier this year with Plan International Hong Kong at the Conference on Safeguarding Children’s Best Interests . This serves as a shared tool for frontline responders, encouraging them to adopt a common language and framework for the identification and management of relevant and responsive interventions.

     Excerpt from the speech:

‘Critical intersectional inquiry urges the mapping of the various axes of inequity, oppression, discrimination or exclusion onto a framework. It then enables us to critically examine not only the prevalence of multiple vectors in the equation but more importantly, their inter-relationship and how they intersect to create the conditions which entrench individual children in a particular context to a life of deprivation. Using this framing and critical lens then, organisations and frontline responders working with children can build their capacities for more effective identification of specific environmental, substantive as well as structural challenges which warrant targeted interventions to formulate strategies to deliver responsive, accessible and meaningful justice. In essence, it means building up an entire ecosystem for the actualization of a unique model of justice which responds to intersecting axes of marginality in particular children or groups of children.

When we can accurately problematize issues, we render visible the invisible – the unseen, hidden, yet embedded – realities. We are able to capture within our analytical lens the aggressions, power, oppression or structurally entrenched constructs and relationships between issues. This knowledge presenting a fuller picture with all its layers of complexity enhances the prospects of justice, in particular, gender justice.’

Guanghua Yu on Open Access Order and Institutional Development in India (Austr J Asian L)

"Open Access Order and Interconnected Institutions: The Case of India"

Guanghua Yu
Australian Journal of Asian Law
2016, Vol. 17, No. 2, article 11

Abstract: This article uses the case of India to suggest that the explanations of North and his colleagues of open access orders do not fit well with contemporary developing countries. The political system of India after independence was mainly based on the British model, with influences from the US and French models. Despite India’s practice of Western style of democracy, its economic and human development record remained poor, until at least the late 1970s. In the 1980s, however, India started to liberalise the economy. Focusing on open access to economic organisations and activities has led to better institution building. While India still has a long way to go in terms of institutional development, it has now devoted more resources to the development of institutions in the areas of property rights protection and contract enforcement, the financial market, the rule of law, and human resource accumulation. This study of India argues that if a developing country has difficulty in achieving open access to both political organisations and activities and economic organisations and activities, prioritising open access to economic organisations and activities is likely to produce better economic and human development consequences.  Click here to read the full article.