Venkata Kartheek Vegesana (NALSAR, Hyderabad) has posted Theorising Transformative Federalism – Rights, Self-Realization and the Case for Purposive Interpretation on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This paper proposes a theory of Transformative Federalism in India. It argues that the normative core of the Indian Constitution’s federal structure was not designed as a mere administrative allocation of legislative authority between the Union and the States, but as a rights-enabling architecture whose function was to create the institutional conditions for the self-realization of constitutional guarantees. Drawing on the Constitution’s preparatory history, the tradition of transformative constitutionalism, and the normative foundations of Indian federalism, the paper argues that federalism in India is inherently instrumental: its commitments of decentralization, autonomy, and the accommodation of identities are organically connected to the realization of rights under Parts III and IV. The paper further argues that purposive interpretation, as theorized by Aharon Barak and consistently adopted by the Supreme Court, is the interpretive method through which this transformative potential ought to be actualized. Transformative Federalism is not a descriptive thesis about what the Constitution happens to be; it is a guide to how courts ought to read federal provisions in light of the purposes those provisions are designed to serve. The In Re: Article 370 judgment is examined as a case study in the failure of this interpretive commitment.
Recommended!
To receive new posts from Legal Theory Blog by email, get a free subscription to Legal Theory Stack.
Lawrence Solum