India Defense Manual
One of my favorite things about working at IBJ is the opportunity to learn about countries that I might not have gone out of my way to, otherwise. IBJ's country programs link its staff to places in ways that feel personal, and I believe this forms the heart of the organization. It has been a joy to work on the India Defense Manual, and I have endeavored to absorb all I can in the process.
Laura and I were tasked with completing a draft of the India Defense Manual this summer, building upon the work of last summer's W&M interns. Defense manuals are an important component of IBJ's approach. As a written material, they are a means of sustainable impact. Lawyers in a specific country are able to access the defense manual in print, online, or through IBJ's app as needed, long into the future. This fosters a continual process of lawyer "training," rippling beyond IBJ's targeted training programs. Each manual walks through statutory provisions and case law and is supplemented with secondary sources and best practices. The result is a comprehensive resource on public defense in the select country.
Before embarking on our summer journeys, a William & Mary Law Librarian provided international interns a briefing on international legal research. This proved to be indispensable for this project, as I had a list of resources to use as a launching pad into an unfamiliar realm. An Indian lawyer working in the Geneva office, who is supervising the project, was helpful in providing further recommendations. Nevertheless, being outside of the country, it is nearly impossible to find Indian case law that includes annotations and summaries the way that U.S. databases provide. The same can be said for legal journals and other secondary sources. Therefore, I quickly discovered that the majority of this research would be a detailed reading of Indian Supreme Court decisions.
As a former British colony, India has a common law system. This means that Indian Justices occasionally base their decisions on U.K. or U.S. law, particularly in areas of modern legal developments. In general, the Indian criminal justice system tracks with the United States', with similar court procedures and constitutional protections. I found it to differ most notably in areas where issues in Indian society have spurred legal reform. For instance, India law offers more positive protections to women to combat the prevalence of violence against women in society. When a woman brings a sexual assault allegation, the burden shifts to the offender to prove otherwise. Anytime a woman is subject to a search or a medical examination, the procedure must be performed by a woman. A woman in India also cannot be arrested after 6 PM and must be arrested by a female officer if at all possible. Another example is the discontinuance of juries because India's caste system caused bias in the jurors and returned unjust verdicts. Or, to counteract torture and other coercive interrogation methods, the Indian Evidence Act provides that confessions made to police officers, or made while in police custody, are inadmissible as evidence.
At this point, I have completed chapters on pre-trial matters and the rules of evidence. It has been rewarding to apply my legal research skills, to gain competence in another country's legal system, and to spend a lot of time thinking about criminal justice in India. It will be exciting to follow this Manual's publication and reception!