23 Dec 2022: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: SECURITY

1. Global Response to Terrorism

Syllabus: Role of External State & Non-State Actors in Creating Challenges to Internal Security

Mains: Counter-terrorism policies

Context: Several meetings and conferences on the issue of countering terrorism were conducted in recent days across the globe.

Introduction:

• The United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, No Money for Terror Conference, and an Interpol Conference with the main focus on terrorism met recently to discuss various issues of counter-terrorism and to wage a coordinated fight against terrorism. 
• These meetings are conducted with the objective to achieve a world free from terrorism by adapting and innovating to counter terrorism by promoting multilateral cooperation.
• But these meetings seem to have neglected newer terror groups whose ambit of activities has widened and become more widespread and have focused majorly on al-Qaeda and the IS.

New Age Terrorism:

• The world witnessed several landmark terror attacks including the September 11, 2001 terror attack in New York, and the November 26, 2008 attacks on multiple targets in Mumbai which had profound strategic implications.  
  • The 9/11 attack came to be regarded as ‘new age terrorism’, while the Mumbai attacks showed the dangers of state-sponsored terrorism. These events changed the cognitive map of terrorism.
• Terrorist Attacks in Paris in November 2015 signalled the emergence of ‘new age’ terrorism and also the rise of new terrorist entities such as the Islamic State (IS) and al Qaeda — each with their own caliphs.
• Attacks by IS across Asia, Europe and North Africa indicate a new complicated pattern of relationships among various terrorist conglomerates. 
  • It has given numerous fringe extremist groups with a propensity for terrorism a boost.
• While several terrorist organisations continue to target Europe and Asia, al-Qaeda and IS militants have turned their attention to Africa and northwest Asia.
• Linkages among terrorist groups have strengthened in recent days. This can be seen in recent statements and activities by al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
  • Al-Qaeda is finding fertile ground in the Sahel region of Africa and in Eastern Africa, apart from Afghanistan. 
  • Taliban is one of the firmest allies of al-Qaeda today. The Haqqani Network within the new Taliban government provides many opportunities for al-Qaeda to find greater traction across the region.
• The declining level of serious terrorist incidents does not translate into a decline in terrorism.
  • Although scaled-down attacks of little-known targets may appear relatively insignificant, they are symptomatic of growing radicalisation and suggestive of the fact that a sizeable base is being built in the southern region of India, which could lead to the creation of organisations on the model of the Indian Mujahideen.

Way Forward:

• Constant and careful vigil by counter-terrorism experts is needed to keep track of these activities and the kind of links that are being established by smaller global terrorist outfits.
• The Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) which intends to criminalise all forms of international terrorism and deny terrorists, their financiers and supporters access to funds, arms, and safe havens shall be pushed in the UNGA.
• Global counter-terrorism agencies shall upgrade their skills and capabilities to counter ‘new age terrorism’. They shall also function in a more coordinated manner, exchanging intelligence and tactics. 
  • They should consider and focus on newer patterns of terror such as ‘enabled terrorism’ and ‘remote control terrorism’, which refers to acts of violence planned and directed by controllers hundreds of miles away and poses Internet-enabled terrorist risks.

Nut Graf: Terrorism remains the omnipresent threat that it has always been. The global community must heed the warning that terrorism will be a threat to future generations as well. Therefore they need to enlarge their expertise to accommodate multi-domain operations and take cognizance of lesser-known terrorist outfits as well.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. International trade law

Syllabus: Effect of Policies & Politics of Developed & Developing Countries on India’s Interests

Mains: Provisions for Dispute Settlement at WTO

Context: The World Trade Organization gave a ruling on U.S. tariffs imposed on steel and aluminium imports on December 08, 2022.

Introduction:

• Four separate World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel reports have ruled that the tariffs of 25% and 10% on steel and aluminium, respectively, that the United States (U.S.) had imposed in 2018 are inconsistent with WTO law. 
  • The cases were brought by China, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey.
• The WTO panellists held that these tariff rates breached the U.S.’s obligations under Article II.1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which obligates countries not to impose tariffs beyond bound rates. 
• Tariffs also breached Article I of GATT as they discriminated between some foreign producers of steel and aluminium over others.
• The U.S. in a statement strongly rejected the interpretation and conclusions in the report.

Background:

• The U.S. justified its tariff hikes under Article XXI of GATT which allows countries to deviate from their trade obligations on grounds of national security. 
  • Article XXI(b)(iii) of GATT allows a country to take any action that it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests taken in times of war or other ‘emergency in international relations’. 
• The U.S. claimed that it raised the tariff rates because of global overcapacity, which could result in excessive imports of these two commodities utilised in defence production and jeopardise national security. The Panel rejected this claim.
  • According to the Panel, because the U.S.’s situation lacked severity, it did not qualify as an “emergency in international relations” under Article XXI(b)(iii).
• The panel’s decision is consistent with previous WTO law laid down in the Russia-Transit and the Saudi Arabia-IPR cases.

Neoliberal to Geoeconomic order:

• International economic order is moving away from the post-Cold War neoliberal order toward a new geo-economic order. 
• Neoliberalism is based on principles such as non-discrimination in international economic relations and a peaceful settlement of disputes through neutral international courts. 
  • It prioritised interdependence. Global institutions such as WTO, free trade and investment agreements gave legitimacy to this principle.
• Geoeconomic order began emerging due to the convergence of independent economic and security tracks, especially after the global financial crisis. 
  • The trade openness index, which was steadily rising in the post-war period, started declining after 2008. 
• In recent decades, China evolved into a key factor in trade and growth. The ongoing COVID pandemic has sped up the “deglobalization” process. The process was also influenced by the trade disputes that existed between the US and China under Donald Trump.
• The result of all these changes is economic nationalism. China and the US are both concentrating on enhancing their domestic capabilities. Similarly to this, other significant economies are reevaluating their reliance on global supply chains.
  • Tariffs on steel and aluminium by the U.S. is a classic example of an American consensus on the geo-economic order. 
• Many experts believe that the geo-economic order will inevitably lead to ‘international trade lawlessness’. 
• Strong opposition by the U.S. to the ruling and its blocking of the appointment of judges to the Appellate Body of the WTO for the last several years is seen as a significant obstacle in international dispute settlement. 
  • Going against rule-based order in global trade by the U.S. will embolden other countries to brazenly pursue unilateralism and economic nationalism. 

Nut Graf: A dispute panel of the WTO has ruled that the customs duties imposed by the U.S. on certain steel and aluminium products are inconsistent with the global trade norms. The WTO report assumes significance for India also, as the country in 2018 too had approached the Geneva-based WTO against the US move to impose these duties.

Category: POLITY

1. Vacations for Judiciary

Syllabus: Judiciary

Mains: Impact of pendency of cases and judicial delays

Context: The two-week winter break of the Supreme Court started on December 19, 2022. The court will resume operations on January 2, 2023.

Background:

• The Union Minister of Law recently questioned the “long vacations” in the Supreme Court and the inconvenience it caused to litigants.
• Citing the Law Commission’s 230th Report on ‘Reforms in the Judiciary in Parliament’, the Union Minister of Law said the government had suggested the Chief Justices of all high courts curtail vacations by at least 10-15 days and extend the working hours of the courts by at least 30 minutes.
• The Supreme Court of India is on a two-week winter break which will reopen on January 2, 2023.
• The Supreme Court has 193 working days a year for its judicial functioning, while the High Courts function for approximately 210 days, and trial courts for 245 days. 
  • High Courts have the power to structure their calendars according to the service rules.
• The Supreme Court breaks for its annual summer vacation typically for seven weeks. The court takes a week-long break each for Dussehra and Diwali, and two weeks at the end of December.
  • As per practice, vacation benches are constituted only during long summer vacations.

Pending cases during vacations:

• A Vacation Bench of the Supreme Court is a special bench constituted by the Chief Justice of India. 
• Litigants can approach the Supreme Court and, if the court decides that the plea is an “urgent matter”, the Vacation Bench hears the case on its merits. 
• While there is no specific definition as to what is an “urgent matter”, during vacations the court generally admits writs related to habeas corpus, certiorari, prohibition and quo warranto matters for enforcement of any fundamental right.

Read more on Writs in India.

Arguments in favour of the Court’s Vacation:

• Long breaks are strongly defended within the legal fraternity as the profession demands intellectual rigour and long working hours.
• Judges typically work for over 10 hours on a daily basis. The Supreme Court has a minimum of 50-75 matters every day. 
  • To read, comprehend and make an assessment of voluminous files and complex issues requires time and effort.
• The Indian Supreme Court has the highest caseload among the apex courts around the world and also works the most. 
  • Australia’s Supreme Court has only 97 working days when oral arguments are adduced.
  • Singapore’s Supreme Court has 145 holidays, the U.K.’s Supreme Court has about 180 holidays, and Canada’s has about 120. 
• Judiciary work, such as writing decisions and conducting research, is done in large part during holidays which cannot be done during court hours.
• Legal professionals also point out that reducing court vacations won’t necessarily result in a significant drop in the number of cases pending.

Various suggestions on Court’s Vacation:

• The Court’s vacations are criticised, especially in the light of mounting pendency of cases and the snail’s pace of judicial proceedings. 
• In the past, Chief Justices of India have tried to reform vacation cycles in view of the criticism.
• In 2000, the Justice Malimath Committee suggested that the period of vacation should be reduced by 21 days. It suggested that the Supreme Court work for 206 days, and High Courts for 231 days yearly.
• In 2014, when the Supreme Court notified its new Rules, it said that the period of summer vacation shall not exceed seven weeks from the earlier 10-week period.
• Former CJI Lodha in 2014 suggested that schedules of individual judges should be sought at the beginning of the year, and the calendar should be planned accordingly. 
• Former CJI T S Thakur also suggested holding court during vacations if parties and lawyers mutually agreed. 

Read more on Judicial Delays.

Nut Graf: India’s judicial schedule has its origins in colonial practices; it has come under criticism for quite some time now. The recent comment by the Union Minister of Law on “long vacations” in the Supreme Court and the inconvenience it caused to litigants have reignited the debate on the topic.

2. Gulf accounts for more than half of Indian convicts in foreign jails

• As per the data available with the Ministry of External Affairs, Gulf countries account for over 50% of Indian prisoners including undertrials and convicts lodged in foreign prisons.
• According to the data, about 8,441 Indians are lodged in foreign prisons in 69 countries in connection with various offences such as murder and domestic violence among others.
  • Out of the total, 4,389 are lodged in the prisons of Gulf countries. 
  • Further, about 1,858 individuals are lodged in the jails of the UAE which accounts for the highest number of Indian convicts in a foreign country, followed by Nepal.
  • A significant number of Indian convicts are also lodged in the jails of the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Singapore, Spain, etc.
• As per the External Affairs Ministry, Kerala has the highest number of passport holders in India and Kerala’s Malappuram district is ranked third in the list of districts with the most number of passports issued after Mumbai and Bengaluru.
• NoRKA Roots Chief Executive Officer has said the agency has initiated a Pravasi Legal Aid Cell to provide free legal assistance to non-resident Keralites (NRKs) lodged in various prisons of foreign countries, especially in West Asia.
  • NoRKA Roots is the agency under the Government of Kerala set up in 2002 to increase support and provide assistance for the welfare activities of non-resident Keralites (NRKs) across the globe.