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Global constitutionalism reconfigured through a regional lens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2021

Rehan Abeyratne*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Faculty of Law, Monash University

Abstract

This article examines how global constitutional norms are received and reconfigured by South Asian judiciaries. It makes two central claims. First, it argues that India, as the largest state in the region, acts as a filter through which Bangladesh and Sri Lanka receive both structural and rights-based global norms. Second, it contends that Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan courts adopt distinct approaches to the Indian case law. While Bangladesh mostly converges with the Indian jurisprudence, Sri Lanka engages with it but does not wholly adopt its conclusions. The article puts forward a preliminary explanation for these distinct approaches based on differences in the constitutional structures and political histories of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka vis-à-vis India.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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2 See, for example, S Choudhry (ed), The Migration of Constitutional Ideas (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009); DS Law and M Versteeg, ‘The Declining Influence of the United States Constitution’ (2012) 87 NYU Law Review 762; KL Scheppele, ‘Aspirational and Aversive Constitutionalism: The Case for Studying Cross-Constitutional Influence Through Negative Models’ (2003) 1 International Journal of Constitutional Law 296.

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47 Bangladesh v Asaduzzaman Siddiqui, Civil Appeal No. 6 of 2017 (AD).

48 Constitution (Sixteenth Amendment) Act 2014 (Act XIII of 2014).

49 For a detailed comparative analysis of these judgments, see PJ Yap and R Abeyratne, ‘Judicial Self-Dealing and Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments in South Asia’ International Journal of Constitutional Law (forthcoming).

50 Yap (n 39) 157.

51 Constitution (Fifteenth Amendment) Act 2011 (Act XIV of 2011).

52 Ibid Art 7B.

53 Ibid Art 96.

54 In Re The Thirteenth Amendment (n 20)

55 Ibid 316–17.

56 Constitution of Sri Lanka (1978), art 83. Under Article 82, all other parts of the Constitution can be amended by a two-thirds majority in parliament.

57 In Re The Thirteenth Amendment (n 20) 317.

58 Ibid 329.

59 Ibid.

60 Kesavananda (n 18) 767.

61 In Re The Thirteenth Amendment (n 20) 329–30.

62 Ibid 330.

63 In Re the Nineteenth Amendment [2002] 3 Sri LR 85.

64 Ibid 94.

65 Constitution of Sri Lanka (1978) Art 4(b).

66 In Re the Nineteenth Amendment (n 63) 98.

67 Ibid 115.

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86 Ibid 584 (Krishna Iyer J. concurring).

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88 Ibid 205.

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91 Ibid 212.

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98 Mohiuddin Farooque v Bangladesh (1997) 26 CLC (AD) [505].

99 Ibid [20].

100 Bangladesh Constitution (1972) Art 102(1).

101 Mohiuddin Farooque (n 98) [48].

102 Ibid.

103 Ibid [81–83].

104 Hoque (n 95) 142–43.

105 One notable exception is that Bangladeshi courts have not used the non-justiciable Fundamental Principles of State Policy in the Constitution to aid in the interpretation of fundamental rights to the degree that the Indian Supreme Court has with the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution. See MJA Chowdhury, An Introduction to the Constitutional Law of Bangladesh, 3rd edn (Book Zone, Chittagong, 2017) 135–50.

106 Ain-o-Salish Kendro v Bangladesh (1999) 18 BLD (HCD) 488.

107 Dr Mohiuddin Farooque v Bangladesh (2003) 55 DLR (HCD) 69.

108 See, for example, Khushi Kabir v Bangladesh WP No 4685 of 2003.

109 BLAST v Bangladesh (2007) 57 DLR (HCD) 11.

110 Several PILs have been decided on issues of pollution and the right to clean environment in India, including MC Mehta v Union of India, (1997) 2 SCC 353 (Taj Mahal Pollution Case); MC Mehta v Union of India, WP (Civil) No 13029/1985 (Delhi Vehicular Pollution Case); and Almitra H Patel v Union of India, (1998) 2 SCC 416 (solid waste management).

111 Olga Tellis v Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985) 3 SCC 545.

112 Rudul Sah v Bihar (1983) 4 SCC 141.

113 BNWLA v Bangladesh (2009) 29 BLD 415.

114 Vishaka v Rajasthan (1997) 6 SCC 241.

115 State v Deputy Commissioner, Satkhira (1993) 45 DLR (HCD) 643.

116 Hoque (n 95) 152.

117 Baxi (n 74) 118.

118 AIR 1979 SC 1369.

119 Ibid.

120 Hoque (n 95) 155–57; Bhuwania (n 80) 43–44.

121 Editor, Daily Prothom Alo v Bangladesh (2003) 11 BLT (HCD) 281.

122 Md. Rustom Ali v State (2017) 5 CLR (AD) 154.

123 Constitution of Sri Lanka (1978), art 126(1).

124 Ibid Art 126(2).

125 Ibid Art 126(4).

126 Ibid Art 80(3).

127 Constitution of India Arts 13, 32, 226.

128 Constitution of Sri Lanka (1978) Art 17 (emphasis added).

129 Constitution of India Art 32.

130 Wijesiri v Siriwardene [1982] 1 Sri LR 171, 172.

131 Ibid 175.

132 Ibid.

133 Ibid 178.

134 Ibid 178–79.

135 Bulankulama v Secretary, Ministry of Industrial Development (Eppawela Case) [2000] 3 Sri LR 243 (2000).

136 Ibid 252.

137 Ibid 262.

138 Ibid 258.

139 Ibid 320.

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141 Ibid 382–85.

142 Ibid 377–78.

143 Ibid 378–79.

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145 SC FR No. 18/2015 (3 May 2016).

146 Ibid 13–14.

147 Ibid 14.

148 Ibid 14-15.

149 Bangladesh was under martial law from 1975 to 1979 and from 1982 to 1986, while emergency rule has been declared four times, resulting in the suspension of fundamental rights. See Yap (n 39) 157.

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158 Ibid.

159 Ibid 276 (noting that Sri Lankan ‘public opinion held that the accord was a sellout and that ‘big brother’ India had secured one third the island for one-tenth the population’).

160 See P Zumbansen, ‘Comparative, Global, and Transnational Constitutionalism: The Emergence of a Transnational Legal-Pluralist Order’ (2012) 1 Global Constitutionalism 16.

161 See, for example, R Albert, M Nakashidze and T Olcay, ‘The Formalist Resistance to Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments’ (2019) 70 Hastings Law Journal 639.

162 See JM Isanga, ‘African Judicial Review, the Use of Comparative Jurisprudence, and the Judicialization of Politics’ (2017) 49 George Washington International Law Review 749, 764–79, arguing that while the South African Constitutional Court does not rely much on other African courts, its jurisprudence is influential in those courts’ judicial review; C Bernal, ‘The Constitutional Protection of Economic and Social Rights in Latin America’ in R Dixon and T Ginsburg (eds), Comparative Constitutional Law in Latin America (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2017) 338–39, noting ‘the beginning of a practice of intra-regional migration of constitutional ideas’ and that the ‘innovative conceptual and methodological tools’ of the Colombian Constitutional Court have been adopted by judges across Latin America.