Shivakantjha.org - Final Act of WTO: Abuse of Treaty Making Power by Shiva Kant Jha
Final Act of WTO: Abuse of Treaty Making Power by Shiva Kant
Jha
First edition and reprints 2006
Price Rs. 100
Published by Centre for Study of Gobal Trade System and Development, New Delhi
Review by:
Dr Rajeev Dhavan, Sr Advocate [www.patentmatics.org]
A recent monograph under the title “Final Act of WTO: Abuseof
Treaty Making Power” by Shiva Kant Jha, also author of“The Judicial Role in
Globalised Economy” has seriouslyreflected over our government's treaty-making
power withinthe context of experiences of developing countries such asIndia
now being subjected to a volley of economic andCross-retaliatory pressures under
what are summarilyreferred to as WTO/TRIPS/GATS dictated conditionalities.Through
a number of well-quoted legal-constitutionalstatutes, procedures and practices,
Jha is questioning “thepropriety, legality and constitutional validity of ourAcceptance
of the Uruguay Round Final Act which spawned theWTO designed to subjugate the
political realm to theeconomic realm to establish the sovereignty of the presentdayLeviathan,
Pax Mercatus.
THE BOOK'S PREFACE
Any citizen of the Republic of India has right to bring to
the notice of the Supreme Court acts which grossly violate the law and the Constitution
of India. This right emanates from the terms of the Preamble to our Constitution.
In fact, such a right is implied in the constitutions where the ultimate sovereignty
resides in the people. Art 20(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Germany even goes to say: “All Germans have the right to resist any person
seeking to abolish the constitutional order, should no other remedy be possible.”
Dr Meghnad Desai very aptly observed: “The hope of India lies not in its politicians
but in its citizens.” The role of citizenry in this phase of Economic Globalization,
is very perceptively suggested by Harold Pinter, the 2005 Nobel Prize Winner
for Literature, concluding his Nobel Lecture:
“I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching,
unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real
truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves
upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.”
It is time to reflect over our government's treaty-making power.
In some delirium our executive-government negotiated and ratified the Uruguay
Round Final Act which placed us under the WTO regime. The Peoples' Commission
on GATT ( consisting of V.R. Krishna Iyer, O. Chinnappa Reddy, D.A. Desai
and Rajinder Sachar, the former Judges of great distinction ) examined the Act,
and found India's obligations under it subversive of the basic features of our
Constitution. Only sometime back, our government entered into an Agreement with
Singapore, Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) , which is no
less devastating than the Final Act. Many more treaties are in the offing. Our
executive government's approach to treaty-making is dangerous. These days the
whole nation has the Indo-Nuclear Deal at the most conscious point. In this
phase of Economic Globalization, we must establish treaty-making procedure without
betraying the trust reposed by our Constitution. Some suggestions in the matter
have been mentioned in this book. There are good grounds to believe that in
these locust-eaten years circumstances are conspiring to effect a sort of genuflection
of our Constitution.
It is likely that a Writ Petition may be moved before the Supreme
Court agitating the issues above mentioned. But as this will be a Public Interest
Litigation, those who would be represented in the Court in making submissions
must know the stand their self-assumed representative takes in their name. Even
if, for any reason, this move does not materialize, the citizens should know
the problems of our day, so that some way some day ways can be found out to
solve them pro bono publico. We must not forget what Ella Wheeler
Wilcox said in Settle the Questions Right : “No question is ever settled
until it is settled right”.
Shri B. K. Keayla, Secretary General of the Centre for Study
of Global Trade System and Development, expressed his desire to publish my ideas
questioning the propriety, legality and constitutional validity of our acceptance
of the Uruguay Round Final Act which spawned the WTO designed to subjugate the
political realm to the economic realm to establish the sovereignty of the present-day
Leviathan, Pax Mercatus . I appreciated his ideas. I felt that the
entire citizenry is entitled to know what a citizen thinks about an issue of
the greatest importance in this phase of Economic Globalization, so that the
worth of his effort is evaluated by the political sovereign of our body politic.
Our great country cannot enact Beckett's play Godot in which nothing
happens. Its last lines and stage direction are very suggestive:
Vladimir: Well? Shall we go?
Estragon: Yes, let's go.
They do not move.
Our country must move with courage and imagination; it is now
or never.
The First Chapter of the Book link
Chapter
I of the book :
deals with Treaty-making power
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