1. Constitutional Amendments is it too many?
Constitutional amendment in most country is not as fluid as it is india. No other country has had so much amendments to its constitution as india have.For instance American had only around 27th while french had once every two year since it was adopted in 1958, compared to them we have more than 100 in just 70 years of its existence.
Thomas jefferson on the founding father of american constitution opined that constitution should naturally expire every 19 year. he opined ''if it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right',
So what is in store fo indian constitution? would we have 1000 plus amendments in 200 years? it seems a possibility given the rate today. The questions remains whether it is justified or not.
There are two primary view, firstly, one can not have a static constitution as it protect the interest of major class in contemporary time when it was formed. as society evolves class interest change so should constitution. However critics argue that changing constitution may make it seem weaker in the sense it is subject to change. so anything written in it might not be a hundread percent guarantee.
Comparing indian constitution with American constitution is rather unfair, as our constitution not only creates different branch of government and define their basic power it also goes into other ancillary detail such as there interrelationship, providing for salaries, language etc, Given indian diversity things like language was needed to be dealt with fundamental law of land not an ordinary law of parliament, as later is even more easier to tweak with. So in that sense it might not be unwise to allow such easy amendment procedure.
Incorporating social changes
Social changes are remarkable things, for good or bad they brings more vibrancy to social life. One may argue that, even with increase in population we are less cruel as an society as we were hundreds year ago. We do not wars that wipe out entire continents and bloodshades for decades as we had in history. Social change make society more malleable and further incorporating those social changes in constitution, it is deeper rooted in society. Like recognising Gender rights of transgender or people with different sexual orientation.
2. Law and technology
Law and technology has been at crossroads once often outpaces the other. Till a law is passed to regulate a technology, it evolves making previous law redundant.
Technology has had a vast impact on mankind and on the society as a whole. Ever since mankind emerged from stone age to the industrial age, and finally to the technological age, there has been no looking back. Technology since then has grown in abundance.
Pegasus Incident
Snooping by govt on its own members as well member of judiciary is a very serious charge. It is classical case where exists a grey area of law. No law actually governs something like this specifically, true their is anti snooping laws but they are designed for medieval time when snooping were of actual people being involved like watching someone house, following someone's car or intercepting physical letters not virtual like introducing a malware and reading chat messages.
Clearly law have been unable to keep pace with technological developments. Julia Griffith, in her article, A Losing Game: The Law Is Struggling To Keep Up With Technology argues the same. She opines that this struggle is manifested in two major ways ways.
Firstly, law making process it self. According to her here are several potential reasons for this reality, one of which is that it is difficult, and many times impossible, for lawyers and lawmakers to predict new technologies before they emerge. Thus, the law is forced to play catch up after the fact. Cases are decided and laws are passed at a rapid pace, and there is no way of knowing how long they will survive.
Secondly, she blames outdated legal system and how it functions. She writes '' The legal community as a whole is, in many ways, outdated. Many large law firms still keep only hard copies of client files, versus the alternative of using a data management system. While storing confidential client information as data may be more secure than hard files, lawyers need to be aware of the dangers of data management systems as well.''
She cites interesting example of questions those were asked to Mark zuckerberg and sundar pichai a congressional hearing and how ignorant they were.
Way Forward
In Law & Technology: Risks and Opportunities from the Tectonic Forces at Work, Author argues that Rapid developments in technology are changing how people work, consume, play and interact. Government policy will influence the direction of technological developments, and laws and regulations will undoubtedly need to change to address the new reality.
Technology plays a massive role in hence government may follow two approach, They may leave it upto market forces for self regulation or can get involved and regulate them itself. there is danger in both, however a mixture of both can be a way forward, government may frame a overall framework and leave minor details to market forces.
See you Next week !
Aditya
