This week marks an historic occasion for India and the state of Hawaii to witness a substantive engagement and institutional interaction among some of the most important legal institutions in both societies.
In fact, the meetings this week assume historic significance in the light of Gov.
David Ige’s plan this morning to visit the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law to sign a bill strengthening the environmental court system in Hawaii.
What brings together this state with a population of over 1.4 million people, with India, the world’s largest democracy with a population of over 1.2 billion, to engage in a dialogue?
Many things, but most important, the shared values of pluralism, democratic governance, commitment to the rule of law and environmentalism, and deeply embedded principles of freedom of speech and expression in the civic and political culture of both societies.
There are three components to the Hawaii-India relationship that is being established:
>> Courts and judicial institutions:
The Supreme Court of India and the Indian judiciary have played a central role in the evolution of liberal and progressive environmental jurisprudence in India. It has enabled the Indian judiciary to play a leadership role in developing environmental law as a central facet of public law jurisprudence. This culminated in the establishment of a statutory institution in India known as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) with vast powers to deal with all matters relating to the environment.
The contemporary evolution of the environmental courts in Hawaii drew inspiration from the Indian experience of establishing specialized tribunals for dealing with environmental matters such as the NGT.
In recent years, two Hawaii Supreme Court justices — Michael Wilson and Sabrina McKenna — have interacted with India’s NGT and contributed to discussions and conferences held in India.
Justice Swatanter Kumar, the NGT’s chairperson, has visited Hawaii twice to interact with the Hawaii Supreme Court’s justices and UH law school faculty and students. All of these meetings and interactions have laid a strong foundation for the relationship being established between both democracies.
>> Knowledge sharing and capacity building:
The visit of the Indian delegation — led by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur of India’s Supreme Court along with fellow justices Arjan Sikri and Swatanter Kumar — to participate in this week’s “2016 India-Hawaii Judicial Colloquium” hosted by the Hawaii Supreme Court is a great opportunity for expanding the relationship between the courts.
The discussions between the Indian judges and Hawaii’s Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald and his associate justices will be a wonderful opportunity for sharing knowledge and building capacity in relation to the legal systems and traditions of both the jurisdictions.
>> Collaboration in legal education and profession:
The UH Law School is hosting the “2016 India-Hawaii Law Symposium: Environmental Rule of Law, Environmental Courts, Climate, and Constitutions” this week. Dean Avi Soifer and
Associate Dean Denise Antolini have demonstrated visionary leadership and institution-building initiatives in developing a substantive relationship with the Jindal Global Law School of O.P. Jindal Global University in India.
One of the ways by which this collaboration between Jindal and UH Law School has been substantively implemented is through the pioneering initiative of the Hawaii Supreme Court.
Last summer, the court hosted four students from Jindal pursuing a six-week legal externship program; it is hosting a second group this summer.
Truly, the evolving relationship between the leading legal institutions in Hawaii and India is part of the larger effort of democracies to come together in the pursuit of shared values.
Professor C. Raj Kumar, a Rhodes scholar, is the founding vice chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University in Delhi, India, and founding dean of Jindal Global Law School.
