International Journal of Law Management & Humanities
Globalization and Indian Legal Education: Toward a Locally Grounded Model of Global Competence
Globalization has altered the knowledge, skills, and professional environments for which Indian law schools prepare their students. This article examines whether the resulting transformation has produced a legal-education system that is globally competent without becoming institutionally unequal or intellectually detached from Indian constitutional and social realities. It adopts a qualitative doctrinal method and analyses the Advocates Act, 1961, the Bar Council of India Rules of Legal Education, judicial decisions on professional regulation, higher-education policy, and selected scholarship on globalization, clinical education, and decolonization. The study finds that globalization has widened curricula, encouraged interdisciplinary and experiential teaching, expanded international collaboration, and increased the value of research and digital competence. Yet these gains are distributed unevenly. Resource-rich institutions can translate global exposure into clinics, databases, exchanges, and employment networks, while many affiliated colleges remain constrained by faculty shortages, weak infrastructure, and formal compliance. A second tension arises when global relevance is equated with the transplantation of Western materials rather than the comparative study of Indian problems. The article argues for a layered-convergence model: a nationally enforceable professional floor; differentiated institutional support; locally grounded constitutional, customary, and socio-legal study; and global or technological specialization built above that foundation. It concludes that globalization should be judged not by the number of foreign subjects or partnerships a law school advertises, but by whether global knowledge improves professional competence, public service, research quality, and equal access across the legal-education system.
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From Training Data to Patent Thickets: Generative AI, Patent Concentration and Competition in the AI Economy
Patent filing in generative artificial intelligence has moved from a niche activity to one of the fastest-growing segments of the global patent system. The World Intellectual Property Organisation's 2026 update records that published generative-AI patent families rose from roughly 14,000 in 2023 to over 37,800 in 2025, with more than 56,000 families published across 2024 and 2025 combined, a volume exceeding the entire preceding decade. Ownership is concentrated: China accounts for the largest share, SoftBank has become the single largest corporate holder with almost 3,000 families, and a small set of conglomerates dominate the remaining top ranks. This concentration, layered onto an already dense set of overlapping claims on model architectures, training methods and specialised hardware, has revived a long-standing competition-law concern: the patent thicket. The April 2026 launch of the Shared AI License (SAIL) Foundation by Anthropic, IBM, Meta, Microsoft and Genentech, pooling more than 33,000 patent families, is the clearest institutional response to date, but its scope is narrower and its internal distribution of bargaining power more skewed than the coverage it has received suggests. This paper examines whether Indian law is equipped to respond. It reviews the Patents Act 1970 and the Competition Act 2002, situates them against the compulsory-licensing, FRAND and essential-facilities doctrines developed in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and China, and incorporates CCI's October 2025 market study on AI and the Supreme Court's September 2025 order in the Ericsson/Monsanto litigation, which narrowed rather than expanded the Commission's jurisdiction over patent-licensing conduct. The paper argues that India's principal statutory tool against patent aggregation, the compulsory licence under Chapter XVI of the Patents Act, is structurally unsuited to a thicket problem, and that competition-law intervention is now a weaker prospect than earlier commentary assumed. It closes with a set of remedies assessed on their actual, rather than assumed, capacity to work.
Technology and Courtroom Advocacy in India: E-Filing, Video Hearings and the Constitutional Case for Hybrid Justice
This paper examines how e-filing and video hearings have altered courtroom advocacy in India and asks when digital procedure advances, rather than weakens, constitutional justice. It adopts a doctrinal and analytical methodology, drawing on legislation, Supreme Court decisions, the e-Committee's model rules, official policy documents, and comparative scholarship on remote adjudication. The study finds that e-filing can reduce transaction costs, improve document control, and make case management more transparent, while video hearings can preserve continuity and remove geographical barriers. These gains, however, are uneven. Connectivity failures, inaccessible platforms, inadequate lawyer-client communication, diminished control over witnesses, data-security risks, and the loss of some non-verbal interaction can materially affect participation and equality of arms. The paper argues that the binary choice between physical and virtual courts is conceptually mistaken. Its principal contribution is a functional-suitability model: routine, document-centred, and case-management proceedings should ordinarily remain digitally accessible; credibility-sensitive evidence, serious criminal trials, and matters involving vulnerable participants should attract a rebuttable preference for physical hearing. Any departure should be supported by recorded reasons and effective participation safeguards. The paper concludes that technology is constitutionally legitimate not because it is faster, but because it can expand meaningful access without reducing fair hearing guarantees. A rights-sensitive hybrid system, supported by assisted digital access, interoperable filing standards, secure infrastructure, reasoned mode-selection, and continuing professional training, offers the most defensible path for Indian courts.
The Psychology of AI Dependency: A Conceptual Analysis of Cognitive Offloading and Human Decision-Making in the Generative AI Era
The widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly transformed the way people acquire knowledge, solve problems, and make decisions in both academic and professional settings. While these technologies improve efficiency and accessibility, their growing use has raised important psychological concerns regarding excessive reliance on AI for cognitive tasks. One emerging issue is AI dependency, where individuals increasingly shift mental effort to AI systems, a process commonly described as cognitive offloading. This study presents a conceptual analysis of how sustained engagement with generative AI may influence human thinking, reasoning, and decision-making. Drawing upon theories from cognitive psychology, distributed cognition, metacognition, and human–AI interaction, the paper examines the psychological mechanisms through which generative AI encourages the transfer of cognitive effort from individuals to intelligent systems. It further explores the potential impact of this shift on critical thinking, independent problem-solving, cognitive autonomy, and the quality of human decision-making. The study also discusses the circumstances under which cognitive offloading can serve as a beneficial strategy for improving efficiency, as well as the conditions in which prolonged dependence on AI may gradually weaken essential cognitive skills. Particular attention is given to factors such as user expertise, task complexity, and patterns of AI use that may shape these outcomes. By integrating insights from existing interdisciplinary literature, this paper develops a comprehensive conceptual framework explaining the relationship between generative AI use, cognitive offloading, and psychological dependency. The study aims to provide a theoretical foundation for future empirical research while offering practical insights for educators, technology developers, and policymakers seeking to encourage responsible AI use, strengthen AI literacy, and preserve human cognitive autonomy in an increasingly AI-driven society.
Predictive Policing and Artificial Intelligence in India's Criminal Justice System: Constitutional Limits and a Framework for Accountable Use
Artificial intelligence is entering Indian criminal justice through expanding data infrastructure, analytics and machine-learning tools. Predictive policing promises better deployment of scarce police resources, earlier identification of crime patterns and faster investigation. Its constitutional difficulty, however, is not confined to technical error. Police data are produced by earlier enforcement choices; a model trained on such data may convert unequal visibility into a forecast of unequal risk. Opacity can then prevent an affected person from discovering or contesting the basis of surveillance, intervention, bail or sentencing. This paper uses a doctrinal and comparative method to examine predictive policing under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, the emerging Digital Personal Data Protection framework, the United States decision in State v. Loomis, and the European Union's risk-based regulation of artificial intelligence. It argues for a constitutional permission line: place-based analytics may assist non-coercive resource allocation when supported by law, necessity, audited data and public oversight, but a person-based score must never create suspicion, justify coercive police action, or determine a judicial outcome. The paper proposes statutory authorization, algorithmic impact assessment, data-quality and equality audits, meaningful disclosure, contestability, human responsibility, procurement controls, independent supervision and sunset review. These safeguards treat efficiency as a legitimate public objective while preserving the rule that coercive state power must rest on lawful, individualized and reviewable reasons.
The Future Architecture of Criminal Law: Redefining Culpability and Jurisdiction from Neuro-Criminology to Planetary Ecocide
The advent of the twenty-first century has precipitated an ontological crisis within the traditional architecture of criminal law. Historically anchored in the foundational pillars of individual moral culpability (mens rea) and strict territorial jurisdiction, contemporary penal jurisprudence is increasingly ill-equipped to address the unprecedented challenges posed by rapid technological advancement and systemic environmental degradation. This article critically examines the shifting paradigms of criminal liability across two distinct frontiers: the internal erosion of human agency and the external expansion of spatial jurisdiction. By analyzing the nascent fields of neuro-criminology and algorithmic predictive policing, the study investigates how structural brain imaging and machine learning are challenging the classical legal presumption of free will, forcing a precarious transition from retributive justice to pre-emptive, biological, and risk-based models of culpability. Concurrently, the paper addresses the dissolution of traditional terrestrial boundaries by evaluating the jurisdictional voids inherent in extra-terrestrial space crimes and the urgent normative imperative to codify planetary ecocide as a strict liability international offense. Adopting a rigorous doctrinal and analytical methodology, this research synthesizes emerging legal theories, international frameworks, and contemporary moral debates surrounding decriminalization and genetic manipulation. The central thesis argues that the existing legal architecture cannot merely be amended; it must be fundamentally reconstructed. The article concludes that securing justice in future decades demands a recalibrated jurisprudential model, one that mandates neuro-algorithmic transparency to safeguard the constitutional presumption of innocence, while simultaneously establishing a robust framework of “Planetary Jurisdiction” to prosecute transnational and extra-terrestrial harms.
Consent or Coercion? Dark Patterns and the Illusion of User Autonomy under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Framework
Consent is the principal legitimating device of contemporary data-protection law, yet digital interfaces increasingly shape rather than merely record individual choice. This article examines whether consent obtained through dark patterns can satisfy the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) and the constitutional requirement of informational autonomy. It adopts a doctrinal and interdisciplinary methodology, analysing the DPDP Act, the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, Indian constitutional privacy jurisprudence, consumer-protection regulation, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and behavioural scholarship on interface manipulation. The article finds that section 6 of the DPDP Act imposes a demanding cumulative standard requiring voluntariness, purpose specificity, adequate information, freedom from impermissible conditions and unmistakable affirmative conduct but the framework does not expressly identify manipulative design, specify interface-neutrality duties, or create a direct evidentiary presumption against consent collected through prohibited dark patterns. Fragmented enforcement between data-protection and consumer-protection institutions may therefore permit formal compliance while substantive autonomy is impaired. Comparative experience also shows that disclosure and consent alone cannot correct structural power, cognitive overload and dependency on dominant platforms. The article argues that dark patterns materially affecting a data decision should create a rebuttable presumption that consent is invalid. It proposes coordinated enforcement, symmetrical choice architecture, purpose-specific consent, auditable consent records, design-risk assessments and fiduciary-style duties for high-risk data fiduciaries. The conclusion is that Indian data-protection law should retain consent, but reposition it within an accountability framework in which data fiduciaries bear responsibility for proving not merely that a click occurred, but that the digital environment enabled a genuine choice.
Online Gaming and Gambling Laws in India: The Need for a Uniform Legal Framework
The growth of online gaming in India has created new legal challenges for lawmakers, courts, businesses and players. Online games have become increasingly popular, particularly games involving money, rewards and competition. India long lacked a single uniform law regulating all forms of online gaming and gambling: different States followed different rules, and games were treated differently according to whether they depended on skill or on chance, which produced uncertainty for players and for gaming companies alike. This article examines the legal framework governing online gaming and gambling in India and the difficulties caused by divergent State laws. It discusses the distinction between games of skill and games of chance, the constitutional position of gambling, consumer protection, online fraud, addiction and the protection of minors. It considers the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which now supplies a central framework and prohibits online money games, and asks how far that framework answers the difficulties identified. The article argues that India requires a clear and balanced regime for online gaming, one that separates legitimate games of skill from gambling, establishes standards of responsible gaming, protects users from financial and other harm, and provides effective mechanisms of monitoring and enforcement, so as to reduce legal confusion and create a safer and more transparent online gaming environment.
Redefining Justice: Strategies for Legal System Improvement
In a rapidly evolving society it is essential that the legal system adjust to meet the needs of the people it serves. The system is confronted by challenges that hinder its effectiveness: delay, intricate procedure and a substantial backlog have left litigants frustrated and have eroded public confidence in the courts. This article proposes a series of reforms designed to simplify legal processes, reduce delay and enhance transparency, and it identifies the domains in which reform is most needed, from revising long-standing statutes to enacting more effective legislation for an emerging modern world. Simplifying procedure would improve access to justice, and clearer language in legal documents would allow individuals to navigate the system independently and understand their rights and obligations. Efficiency matters equally, and modern technology should be integrated into legal processes to expedite proceedings. Promoting alternative mechanisms such as arbitration and mediation would relieve the strain on the courts, which in turn requires education and awareness campaigns that emphasise the benefits of alternative dispute resolution. Reforms of this kind would not only address the challenges the legal system faces but would strengthen the administration of justice, uphold the rule of law and secure equal access to justice for all. The process is a continuing one, and because of its complexity and its capacity for controversy every step should be taken only after thorough discussion and understanding.
Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (OCSAE): Emerging Challenges Before India's Juvenile Justice Framework in the Digital Age
Over the last few years children’s use of the internet has increased rapidly. Online classes after the COVID-19 pandemic, affordable smartphones and easy access to social media have made digital platforms a regular part of everyday life. Children now use the internet to attend classes, talk to friends, watch videos, play games and search for information. Digital technology has made many everyday activities easier, but it has also exposed children to risks that were far less common a few years ago. Among these risks, Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (OCSAE) has become a major concern. Offenders use a range of online platforms to contact children and gradually gain their trust. In many cases children are threatened through sextortion, or their abusive images and videos are circulated without their consent. The misuse of artificial intelligence has made the situation more worrying still, because deepfake technology and other AI tools can now create fake but realistic abusive images and videos within a very short time, which makes detection and investigation more difficult. India has enacted a number of laws to protect children, and these laws provide the legal basis for dealing with offences committed against them. Most of them, however, were enacted before the present pace of technological change. As technology continues to change, investigating agencies face new problems such as encrypted messaging, fake online identities, foreign servers, cross-border cyber offences and AI-generated abuse material, and these developments have made investigation, prosecution and victim protection considerably harder than before. They also show that the existing legal system must continue to evolve if it is to address new forms of online child exploitation. This study examines the nature and different forms of OCSAE and analyses whether India’s juvenile justice framework is capable of dealing with these emerging digital offences. It also discusses the forms of online child sexual abuse and exploitation, their causes and the relevant international legal instruments.
Cyber Crimes Against Women in Tamil Nadu: Examining Legal Safeguards and Challenges Faced by Women
The advancement of digital technology has significantly changed how people communicate, learn, work and obtain information. That advancement has also produced unequal opportunity, a gender divide and continuing barriers to women's participation. Women who use online platforms are increasingly targeted by cyber offences such as online harassment, cyberstalking, identity offences, cyberbullying and financial fraud, and these offences threaten women's privacy, freedom and safety in the digital sphere. This study examines the relationship between the digital gender divide and cybercrime against women in Tamil Nadu. It analyses the legal provisions and institutional mechanisms designed to address cyber offences and to promote digital equality, and it draws on a small self-selected online survey of 48 respondents. The study considers the place of cyber law, digital education, awareness and gender-focused cyber security measures, and it examines social restrictions, limited digital awareness and unequal access to technology. It concludes that stronger legal safeguards and wider awareness are needed if women are to participate safely and confidently in the digital world without fear of discrimination or cyber abuse.
When Does Cybercrime Become ‘Organised Crime’? Interpreting the Threshold of ‘Continuing Unlawful Activity’ under Section 111 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
Section 111 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) places organised crime within India’s general penal law and expressly includes cyber-crimes among the forms of conduct capable of falling within that offence. The inclusion is consequential, but it can also mislead. A cyber offence does not become organised crime merely because it is technologically sophisticated, financially large, committed by several persons, or spread across multiple jurisdictions. Section 111 requires a more demanding combination: continuing unlawful activity, an organised crime syndicate, a legally relevant nexus between the accused and that syndicate, specified unlawful means, and a material-benefit objective. This paper examines that threshold through the text of Section 111, the jurisprudence developed under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 and the earliest High Court decisions applying the BNS provision. It argues that Section 111 should be interpreted as an enterprise-oriented offence rather than an aggravated form of ordinary cybercrime. Particular attention is given to recurring phishing and investment-fraud networks, mule-account structures, ransomware groups, decentralised digital syndicates, and the evidentiary problem of attributing membership or knowing participation in online criminal networks. The paper proposes a seven-part judicial framework designed to preserve Section 111 for durable criminal enterprises while preventing its routine use in ordinary multi-accused cyber-fraud prosecutions. Such an approach gives effect to legislative purpose without sacrificing legality, proportionality and individualised criminal responsibility.
Reflecting Buddhist Philosophy in the Fundamental Rights of the Constitution of Nepal
Buddhist philosophy is rooted in the ethical norms of compassion, non-violence, equality, justice, and the welfare of all sentient beings. Although these values are widely recognised as essential principles of modern democracy and human rights, they were taught by Gautama Buddha more than two thousand five hundred years ago. As the birthplace of the Buddha, Nepal has a distinctive historical and cultural connection with these teachings. This study examines the extent to which Buddhist philosophy is reflected in the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Nepal. The analysis shows that many constitutional rights, among them the rights to life, freedom, equality, justice, education, health, religious freedom, and social justice, are consistent with the ethical principles of Buddhist philosophy.
Legal Certainty and Enforcement under Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Framework of Nigeria
The Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017 (STMA) of Nigeria is a major reform of the secured-credit architecture of the country. It provides a statutory framework for the creation, perfection, registration, prioritisation and realisation of security interests in movable assets. The reform is significant because it enables borrowers to use tangible and intangible movable property as collateral without necessarily surrendering possession of productive assets. This article examines whether the STMA provides a sufficiently certain legal framework for creditors, borrowers, grantors and competing claimants, with particular emphasis on the relationship between statutory rights and practical enforceability. The study adopted a doctrinal legal research methodology and analysed the statutory provisions of the STMA alongside relevant regulatory materials, authoritative institutional publications and verified scholarly literature. The 2020 documentary report on secured-transactions and credit-reporting reforms is employed as contemporaneous evidence of implementation concerns, particularly those relating to judicial capacity, creditor confidence, enforcement and dispute resolution. The article found that the STMA established a relatively comprehensive statutory architecture, particularly through its rules on security creation, registration, prioritisation and realisation. However, legal certainty is weakened where the statutory regime intersects with other registration systems, including company-charge registration, and where the effectiveness of enforcement depends upon judicial interpretation, institutional capacity and procedural clarity. The article further argued that the emphasis by the Act on registration-based priority creates substantial predictability but also makes the accuracy, accessibility and interoperability of registration systems central to the integrity of the legal framework. The article concluded that the principal challenge is no longer the absence of a statutory basis for movable-asset security but ensuring that the statutory framework operates coherently across institutions and produces predictable enforcement outcomes. It recommended greater institutional coordination, continuing judicial specialisation, clearer procedural mechanisms for dispute resolution, and closer harmonisation between the STMA and related legal regimes.
Ensuring the Protection of Personal Data in the Use of Cloud Computing Services: Legal Obligations and Responsibilities of Relevant Stakeholders
In line with the global digital transformation trend, economic organisations and State management agencies are increasingly moving data to cloud platforms because of significant advantages such as lower costs, faster deployment and execution, and substantial improvements in employee productivity. In the context of data being stored across multiple countries, the involvement of numerous intermediaries, and the growing risk of cyberattacks, clearly defining the legal obligations and liabilities of actors throughout the cloud computing service supply chain has become an urgent requirement. Based on an assessment of the current legal framework in Vietnam, the author identifies legal gaps concerning the allocation of liability, cross-border data flow governance, and mechanisms for compensation for damage. On that basis, the article proposes solutions for improving the legal framework so as to balance the objectives of digital economic development and the protection of fundamental human rights.
Hermeneutic Sovereignty under Generative AI: A Humanities Framework for Protecting Human Meaning-Making from Interpretive Foreclosure
Generative artificial intelligence increasingly mediates not only what institutions decide, but how institutions interpret people. Large language models draft case summaries, student feedback, performance reviews, clinical notes, policy briefs, creative text and administrative explanations. Existing AI governance frameworks appropriately emphasise accuracy, fairness, transparency, accountability and human oversight, yet these categories do not fully capture a distinct humanities problem: a fluent machine-generated interpretation can become institutionally authoritative before the person concerned has meaningfully articulated, contextualised or contested the account. This paper develops a person-centred framework of hermeneutic sovereignty for generative AI. Using an interdisciplinary conceptual methodology, it synthesises philosophical hermeneutics, epistemic injustice, narrative identity, human factors research, empirical studies of generative AI and contemporary governance frameworks. Hermeneutic sovereignty is defined as the situated and relational standing and capacity of persons and communities to participate meaningfully in constructing, contextualising, contesting, pluralising, revising and, where appropriate, refusing interpretations of their own experiences, identities, intentions, reasons and circumstances when those interpretations are mediated by AI. The paper identifies four mechanisms of AI-mediated interpretive foreclosure: interpretive pre-emption, hermeneutic compression, authority laundering and recursive fixation. It then proposes six dimensions for evaluating hermeneutic sovereignty and an Interpretive Foreclosure Test for institutional workflows. The analysis shows that human oversight is insufficient when the human merely approves a machine-framed account. Responsible adoption requires governance of the meaning-making process itself, including human-first elicitation, source-to-summary traceability, visible uncertainty, plural framing, contestability, correction propagation and time-bounded interpretive records. The paper concludes that trustworthy AI must preserve not only a human role in decisions, but a meaningful human standing in the production of the interpretations on which decisions depend.
Funding Democracy or Undermining It? The Electoral Bonds Verdict and the Future of Transparent Political Financing
The Electoral Bonds Scheme, 2018 was introduced by the Union Government as a mechanism through which individuals and companies could make anonymous financial contributions to registered political parties using interest-free bearer instruments issued by the State Bank of India. On 15 February 2024 a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India held unanimously that the Scheme was unconstitutional, on the ground that it violated the right to information implicit in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The Scheme, created through the Finance Act, 2017, secured the anonymity of the donor through instruments that were bearer in character. The Court found that it abridged the right of voters to know the sources of political finance, and that it did so selectively, undermining a structural precondition of free and fair elections. This paper examines the doctrine on which the verdict rests, the constitutional design of the regulation of political finance in India, and the implications of the decision for electoral democracy. It traces the history of campaign finance law in India, analyses the reasoning on informational rights and on quid pro quo corruption, and examines the proportionality test the Court applied. It places the Indian experience in comparative context by reference to the United States, Germany and South Africa. It concludes that the verdict is a significant doctrinal advance, but that its long-term effectiveness in securing democratic integrity will depend on the legislative response, on the quality of the disclosure regime that replaces the Scheme, and on the institutional capacity of the bodies charged with securing genuine openness in political financing.
From Ex-Post Enforcement to Ex-Ante Regulation: Rethinking Competition Law for Digital Markets in India
The rapid expansion of digital markets has transformed the structure of competition, replacing many conventional market characteristics with network effects, economies of scale, data-driven business models, multi-sided platforms and rapidly evolving technological ecosystems. Digital platforms generate substantial benefits for consumers and businesses by reducing transaction costs, expanding market access and facilitating innovation. At the same time, the concentration of economic power within a limited number of technologically dominant enterprises has generated new forms of anti-competitive conduct, including self-preferencing, anti-steering restrictions, bundling and tying, exclusive arrangements, data exploitation, deep discounting, the manipulation of search rankings, restrictions on third-party applications and algorithmic collusion. This article examines those practices within India's competition law framework and considers the institutional challenges confronting the Competition Commission of India. It asks whether conventional ex-post enforcement is adequate for digital markets and argues for a calibrated transition towards ex-ante regulation, evaluating the Competition Act, 2002, the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023, the evolving role of the Commission and comparative regulatory developments. The article does not contend that the Commission has failed or that conventional competition law has become irrelevant. It contends rather that the structural characteristics of digital markets require competition regulation to become more anticipatory, more technology-sensitive and more institutionally specialised. It proposes a Digital Market Wing within the Commission, a digital competition observatory, periodic compliance reporting by systemically important platforms, greater algorithmic transparency, obligations of interoperability and institutionalised settlement and commitment mechanisms. It concludes that the optimal model for India combines the strengths of ex-post enforcement with proportionate ex-ante obligations rather than replacing the existing regime.
The Authorship Dilemma: Navigating Copyright Ownership in the Age of Generative AI
Copyright law rests on the premise that a protected work originates in the intellectual labour of an identifiable human author, and it allocates ownership, economic rights and control by reference to that authorship. Generative artificial intelligence unsettles that premise by producing expressive work through algorithmic processes in which the human contribution may be confined to a prompt, a selection among outputs or a subsequent refinement. This article examines the resulting dilemma. It shows that the traditional doctrines of originality, human authorship, the idea and expression dichotomy, ownership, work made for hire, joint authorship and derivative works yield inconsistent or indeterminate results when applied to machine-generated material, and that the difficulty is one of incompatibility rather than of interpretation. It maps the possible claimants to authorship, being the user, the developer, the platform owner and the contributors of training data, and finds that none satisfies the classical test, so that the public domain becomes a plausible default. It compares the positions taken in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, China and Australia, and considers the philosophical theories of personality, labour and utility. It concludes that the answer lies not in deciding whether a machine can be an author but in reforming copyright to separate authorship, creative contribution and ownership, and proposes a tiered framework calibrated to the degree of human creative control.
The Transparency Mandate: The Efficacy of Watermarking and Disclosure Labels in AI-Driven Influencer Marketing
Transparency in advertising has long rested on disclosure: tell the consumer that a message is commercial and the deception is cured. Influencer marketing driven by artificial intelligence unsettles that assumption, because what is concealed is no longer only the commercial relationship but the nature of the speaker. This article argues that transparency in such settings must be reconstructed as a multi-dimensional condition rather than a single act of disclosure. It sets out the conceptual foundations of transparency across consumer protection law, persuasion theory, information economics and technological governance, and then disaggregates the problem into its legal, ethical, economic, technological, social, governance, rights, liability, privacy and jurisdictional dimensions. It identifies the conflicts of principle that make coherent regulation difficult, and compares the disclosure-based model of the United States, the data protection and artificial intelligence model of the European Union, the co-regulatory model of the United Kingdom and the private ordering of the platforms. It then proposes a normative framework built on a dual transparency mandate, commercial and ontological, supported by a layered regulatory structure, standardised mechanisms, distributed liability, rights-based protection and ethical design. That framework is converted into an operational model comprising a multi-factor legal test, an institutional allocation of responsibility, an enforcement architecture, a registration scheme for commercial artificial influencers and mechanisms of international coordination. The article concludes that the shift from disclosure regulation to transparency governance is necessary if the law is to address persuasion in which the identity of the speaker is itself synthetic.
Blanket Injunctions in the Digital Age: The Jurisprudence and Proportionality of 'Ashok Kumar' Orders in India
The emergence of blanket and dynamic injunctions in India must be understood against the enforcement crisis created by digital infringement. Traditional injunction law rests on specificity, on notice and on the capacity to bind an identified party, and those requirements are difficult to satisfy where infringers cannot be found when a suit is filed. Indian courts responded with injunctions against unknown defendants, known here as Ashok Kumar orders, and later extended them into website blocking and dynamic injunctions reaching mirror and redirect sites not yet in existence when the order was made. This article traces that development from Taj Television Ltd. v. Rajan Mandal to UTV Software Communication Ltd. v. 1337X.to, and examines its constitutional implications. It argues that the difficulty lies not in the idea of an injunction against an unknown defendant but in the unstructured manner in which blanket and dynamic injunctions are granted. Measured against the four-part proportionality standard, such orders satisfy the requirements of legitimate aim and suitability but frequently fail those of necessity and balancing, because whole sites are blocked where individual addresses would serve, because affected parties are not heard, and because continuing blocking operates without periodic judicial review. Drawing on the practice of the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States and Singapore, the article proposes a structured framework: a mandatory proportionality inquiry, a distinction between rogue and mixed-content sites, procedural safeguards for intermediaries and third parties, periodic review, transparency, and a remedy for wrongful blocking.
Bail as a Rule and Jail as an Exception: A Comparative Analysis of Pre-Trial Liberty in India and the United States of America
The principle that bail is the rule and jail the exception is a cornerstone of modern criminal jurisprudence, securing the presumption of innocence and the right to pre-trial liberty. This article presents a comparative constitutional and statutory analysis of pre-trial bail in India and the United States of America. It examines how both jurisdictions, despite different constitutional frameworks and procedural traditions, have moved towards protecting the liberty of accused persons awaiting trial. Through examination of statutory provision, case law, constitutional guarantee and the difficulties of implementation, the article shows that both have embraced bail as the rule subject to narrow exceptions, though with significant variation in application and enforcement. Indian bail jurisprudence, grounded in Article 21 of the Constitution and in the code of criminal procedure, has developed substantial protections through decisions of the Supreme Court, while the United States, operating within the framework of the Eighth Amendment and the federal bail reform legislation, has similarly given priority to liberty while weighing considerations of public safety. The article identifies convergences and divergences, evaluates the exercise of judicial discretion, addresses socio-economic barriers to obtaining bail, and recommends practices for both jurisdictions. It contributes to the wider discourse on criminal justice by identifying exemplary practice and suggesting reforms to strengthen the right to pre-trial liberty.
Media Discourse, Legal Consciousness and Women's Inheritance Rights: A Study of Perception and Awareness Mapping in Greater Noida
The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 brought a significant change to inheritance law for women by conferring equal coparcenary rights on daughters in ancestral property, thereby advancing gender justice and the objectives of women's empowerment. The success of a reform of this kind, however, depends not only upon the statute itself but also upon the level of public awareness and acceptance of it. Media discourse is instrumental in that process, shaping legal knowledge and the reception of the law by the public. The study draws on media discourse analysis and legal consciousness, and situates the enquiry within Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5. It employs a small mixed-method design that combines doctrinal analysis of the substituted section 6 and the case law interpreting it with a convenience-sample questionnaire administered to women professionals and media users in Greater Noida, alongside observation within a focus group and a comparison of traditional and digital sources of awareness. Twelve completed responses were received and analysed, and the quantitative findings are accordingly exploratory rather than representative. Within those limits, respondents report social media as both the most common first source of information about inheritance rights and the medium they consider most effective for raising awareness, while pressure within the family emerges as a recurrent reason why women hesitate to claim. The study argues that media operates as an agent of legal empowerment rather than as a passive mirror reflecting social norms, and it offers suggestions for strengthening media engagement in the dissemination of legal rights so as to narrow the gap between formal entitlement and the substantive equality the Act was intended to secure.
Mental Cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955: Judicial Trends and Contemporary Challenges
Mental cruelty is one of the most significant and frequently litigated grounds of divorce under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Unlike physical cruelty, mental cruelty may occur through words, conduct, persistent neglect, humiliation, false accusations, denial of companionship, character assassination, or other behaviour that causes serious psychological suffering. The statute does not provide an exhaustive definition, and the Supreme Court of India has therefore developed the concept incrementally through judicial interpretation. This research examines that development with particular attention to the movement from an early emphasis on matrimonial conduct to a more contextual and cumulative assessment of psychological harm. The study adopts a doctrinal research design and analyses the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, selected Supreme Court decisions, and secondary legal materials. Particular attention is given to N.G. Dastane v. S. Dastane, Shobha Rani v. Madhukar Reddi, V. Bhagat v. D. Bhagat, Samar Ghosh v. Jaya Ghosh, K. Srinivas Rao v. D.A. Deepa, and Raj Talreja v. Kavita Talreja. The research finds that Indian courts have deliberately avoided a rigid definition because matrimonial relationships differ substantially in their circumstances. At the same time, this flexibility creates uncertainty in predicting outcomes and raises evidentiary difficulties. Contemporary disputes involving social media, digital communications, allegations of character misconduct, and multiple legal proceedings have further complicated the inquiry. The study concludes that a fact-sensitive judicial approach remains preferable to an exhaustive statutory list, but that greater consistency in evaluating the gravity, duration, context, and cumulative effect of conduct is necessary. It proposes clearer judicial guidance, careful assessment of digital evidence, timely matrimonial adjudication, and a balanced approach that protects genuine victims while discouraging reckless or demonstrably false allegations.
Indian Constitutional Feminism: A Comparative Study
Indian constitutional feminism offers a distinctive lens through which to examine the role of legal frameworks in advancing gender equality. The Indian Constitution provides significant protections and guarantees for women's rights through provisions such as Articles 14, 15 and 16, which secure equality before the law and prohibit discrimination on the ground of sex. In practice, however, these protections are often undermined by religious personal laws, socio-economic inequality and patriarchal norms. This study compares Indian constitutional feminism with other national frameworks: the United States, where gender equality depends largely on judicial interpretation in the absence of explicit constitutional guarantees; South Africa, which commits robustly to gender rights through express constitutional provisions and gender equality institutions; and the Nordic countries, which integrate gender equality directly into constitutional and societal norms. The Indian model reflects both progressive ideals and significant challenges. Judicial activism has played a crucial role in advancing women's rights, as the Vishaka guidelines and the invalidation of instant triple talaq illustrate, but legal reform is often met with resistance grounded in cultural and religious tradition. Intersectional questions of caste, class and the rural-urban divide further expose the limits of constitutional feminism in addressing the needs of all women. This comparative study reveals that while India's constitutional framework for gender equality is among the most progressive in the Global South, its implementation is hindered by deep-seated cultural practices and legal complexity. The study highlights the need for reforms that not only advance legal rights but also address the socio-cultural factors that prevent Indian women from fully realising their constitutional freedoms.
The Taxation of AI Agents: Can India Tax Autonomous AI-Commerce Without Recognising the AI as a Taxable Person?
The rapid development of autonomous artificial intelligence agents is transforming commercial activity. Unlike conventional software, such agents can negotiate prices, select counterparties, execute purchases, provide services and complete transactions without contemporaneous human intervention. That development creates significant difficulty for India's tax framework, which assumes that taxable income, taxable supplies, withholding obligations and permanent establishments are connected to an identifiable legal person. This article examines whether India can tax autonomous AI-commerce without recognising the agent itself as a taxable person. It analyses the application of agency principles under the Indian Contract Act, 1872, business connection and significant economic presence under the income tax legislation, the rules governing a dependent-agent permanent establishment, transfer pricing founded on the analysis of development, enhancement, maintenance, protection and exploitation of intangibles, and reverse-charge obligations under the goods and services tax together with withholding at source. It argues that existing doctrines can in most cases attribute tax consequences to the human or corporate operator that develops, deploys, trains, controls or economically benefits from the agent, and it proposes a rule of operator attribution, operationalised thresholds for significant economic presence, enhanced transfer-pricing disclosure and a ratification-based framework for agent-to-agent commerce. Fully autonomous, diffusely owned, self-funding or collectively governed agents nonetheless expose a genuine gap in attribution. The article concludes that India should defer the question of personhood for artificial intelligence and pursue targeted statutory clarification and international coordination.
Patriarchal Society but Women Centric Law
India has enacted several special laws to protect women from domestic violence, dowry harassment, sexual offences and other forms of gender-based discrimination. These enactments were introduced to address the historical and social disadvantages faced by women and to secure their constitutional right to equality and dignity. While those protections remain indispensable, judicial decisions have acknowledged that in certain cases such provisions may be misused through false or malicious complaints, resulting in hardship to innocent persons. This paper examines the misuse of protective laws in matrimonial and other gender-related disputes, with particular reference to the discourse on male victimisation. It considers judicial precedent and statutory provision in order to evaluate whether the existing framework provides adequate safeguards against abuse of process while continuing to protect genuine victims, and it notes the social stigma faced by male complainants, the problem of under-reporting and the absence of specific remedies in certain situations. The paper does not question the necessity of laws enacted for the protection of women. It argues rather that the administration of justice must remain fair, impartial and evidence-based, and concludes that strengthening procedural safeguards, ensuring fair investigation and considering gender-neutral measures where appropriate would better uphold the constitutional principles of equality before the law and the equal protection of the laws under Article 14, while preserving the rights and dignity of all persons irrespective of gender.
Navigating the Orbital Economy: Reforming India's Dispute Resolution Framework for Contractual Commercial Outer Space Activities
The New Space Age is characterised by a dynamically evolving global orbital economy shaped by diverse outer space opportunities, technologies and actors. That change acts as a catalyst, facilitating a marked transition of the outer space sector from a state-centric model to a multi-stakeholder, commerce-oriented ecosystem. India, with its significant activities and distinctive aspirations, stands at the forefront of this paradigm shift. The expansion of the Indian outer space sector enables the progressive participation of private entities throughout the space value chain, producing a transformation that outpaces the national legal infrastructure and creating an urgent need for specialised dispute resolution mechanisms governing contractual commercial outer space activities. At present the Indian space sector operates under executive policies rather than comprehensive national legislation, which leaves stakeholders in the commercial outer space sector without adequate statutory or institutional guidance in the event of a dispute. The existing international and domestic space law mechanisms remain structurally ill-equipped to govern private commercial liability, and that complexity is compounded by the limited functional autonomy of IN-SPACe, the absence of space-specific adjudicatory expertise, and enforcement difficulties under existing dispute resolution mechanisms. Through an exploratory doctrinal analysis of India’s existing legal framework and its interface with international space law, this article identifies critical gaps and proffers a coherent statutory architecture for contractual commercial dispute resolution in the outer space sector. Examining the typology of contractual disputes, the adequacy of existing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and the structural weaknesses of India’s space governance framework, the article proposes the enactment of comprehensive national legislation. It underscores the importance of incorporating mandatory arbitration clauses and of the statutory recognition of the PCA Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Outer Space Activities 2011, working towards a sector-specific approach to outer space dispute resolution in India.
Constitutional Rights in Action: An Analysis of Public Protests and Their Impact on Law and Governance
Protest is an essential component of a democratic society and plays a significant part in securing the meaningful participation of citizens in the governance of the country. In India the right to express dissent and to assemble peaceably provides citizens with an important means of communicating grievances, questioning governmental policy and demanding accountability. The constitutional recognition of freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) and of the right to assemble peaceably and without arms under Article 19(1)(b) reflects the importance accorded to public participation and dissent within the democratic framework. Protest enables individuals and groups, particularly those whose concerns may not be adequately represented through conventional political institutions, to bring social, economic, political and constitutional questions to the attention of the State, and peaceful demonstration has historically contributed to social awareness, changes of policy, the protection of rights and governmental accountability. Protest therefore functions not merely as an expression of opposition but as an instrument through which citizens participate in democratic governance. The right is nonetheless not absolute, since the Constitution permits reasonable restriction in the interests of public order and other legitimate State interests, and the difficulty lies in maintaining a constitutional balance between the right to dissent and the preservation of public order, security and the rights of others. This article examines the place of protest in Indian democracy and analyses its role in strengthening participatory governance, accountability and constitutional values, and it argues that peaceful protest exercised responsibly within the constitutional framework strengthens rather than weakens democracy.
Regulation of Human Cellular and Gene Therapeutic Products Incorporating Genome Editing Technologies in India
New and advanced cellular and gene therapeutic (CGT) products using genome editing technologies have emerged in recent years as a curative treatment option for rare and genetic diseases. CGT products that edit the genome of human somatic cells are making it possible to treat the root cause of many rare and genetic diseases previously regarded as untreatable, and clinical trials of such products are under way worldwide. At present the only approved CGT product using genome editing is Casgevy, which is approved in the United States, the European Union and several other jurisdictions for the treatment of sickle cell disease and beta thalassaemia. In India a closely comparable therapy, BIRSA 101, has been developed indigenously for sickle cell disease and is expected to secure approval in the coming years. The Government of India has notified the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019 under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 to accelerate the approval of CGT products. Under the 2019 Rules the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation grants commercial approval of stem cell derived products and gene therapeutic products as new drugs. Alongside their curative potential, CGT products that edit the genome of human somatic cells carry additional risks, because they make permanent changes to the human genome and may produce off-target effects and other adverse events. The legal framework and the guidelines issued by the regulatory bodies must secure the safe and ethical application of these products, while timely approval is equally necessary if the unmet need for these lifesaving therapies is to be met. This article critically examines the legal framework and offers suggestions for addressing the challenges now facing India.