Lecture on "The Role of International Law in Unravelling the Kashmir Knot" by Aman Hingorani, Lawyer and mediator

Lecture on
“The Role of International Law in Unravelling the Kashmir Knot”
by Aman Hingorani
Lawyer and mediator in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi

Friday | 17th March 2017 | 4.00 pm – 5.30 pm

Organised by The International Centre Goa

Entry Free & Open to public

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About the Speaker:
Aman M. Hingorani (PhD, Delhi University) is a lawyer and mediator in the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. Dr Hingorani has also acted as an arbitrator and as adjunct faculty to teach law students and runs training courses for young law teachers. He has taught in programmes at various institutions in India (including National Judicial Academy, Bhopal; Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi; Indian Law Institute, New Delhi) and abroad (including Keble College, University of Oxford, UK; Law School, Warwick University, UK; South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh).

Lecture Synopsis:
What role can international law play in helping to resolve the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir?

Ever since the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947, the conflict has been driven by Indian bungling, Pakistani intervention and the political expediency of the major powers. With tens of thousands killed and millions rendered homeless, the Kashmir issue has poisoned relations on the sub-continent, given impetus to international terrorism and threatened an all-out war between the two nuclear powers.

Based on his book Unravelling the Kashmir Knot, which draws extensively on material in the British archives, the lecture by Aman Hingorani will argue that the Kashmir issue was the end product of Britain’s ruthless policies to satisfy its geo-political, defence and strategic interests in the Indian subcontinent. Even more importantly, he will make the case that the way forward on the Kashmir issue is to first depoliticize it by subjecting it to a legal analysis. While Kashmir is certainly a political issue, it is imperative to separate the legal from the political aspects, so as to test the legality of the stand of India and Pakistan on Kashmir before an international adjudicatory body like the International Court of Justice at The Hague. While law alone cannot resolve the Kashmir issue, a confirmation of the correct legal position by the International Court of Justice will help alter the current political discourse.