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A study of the legal framework for accountability of individuals for crimer against humanity and the role of the international law enforcement agencies.
(University of North Bengal, 2014) Ghosh, Satarupa; Chakraborty, Gangotri
The principle that individuals are and can be held criminally accountable for violations of
the laws of war dates back to many years. However, it was only after World War II and
the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, set up to judge those German and Japanese military
leaders accused of serious crimes during the war, that the idea of individual criminal
responsibility for serious breaches of international law gained ground. In this thesis an
attempt has made to trace the evolution of individual’s responsibility for crime against
humanity, the present legal framework in national and international level and the role of
various law enforcement agencies to deal with the problem.
Evolution of the Problem:
History is witness to the fact that wherever an individual or groups of individuals have
become powerful, they have flagrantly tortured the weak and the defenseless. Even where
power is legitimated and turned into a legally valid authority, abuse of power and torture
of the weak and the defenseless has continued. In this back drop considerable legal
mechanism has developed for the exercise of such raw power.
An international crime has been broadly defined as “an act universally recognized as
criminal, that is, an act that is considered a grave matter of international concern and for
some valid reason cannot be left within the exclusive jurisdiction of the state that would
have control over it under ordinary circumstances”. Crimes against humanity now are
established as jus cogens norms and are implicitly recognized as such in the preamble of
the Hague Convention, which served to codify the customary law of armed conflict.
Unfortunately, despite several attempts for fixing liability to the individuals who have
committed crime against humanity and subjecting them to trials like Nuremberg trials and
Tokyo trials the legal framework for fixing liability to individuals guilty of the act of
committing crime against humanity to this day remains obscure and vague and ad hoc
mechanisms are used to settle such cases.
In the face of recent developments in countries like Libya, Egypt, Iraq the lack of legal
framework to deal with such matters has become a cause for international concern. The
main thrust of this work is to study the existing legal framework for determination of
individual’s accountability for the crime against humanity and to propose changes into
the existing framework.
Hypothesis
There is insufficient legal framework for the control and regulation and for fixing liability
on the individual for committing crime against humanity and the present mechanism
works through international ad hoc tribunals internationalized or mixed tribunals, the
International Criminal Court as well as national courts, military tribunals and ordinary
courts which allows any state to try alleged perpetrators, even in the absence of any link
between the accused and the state exercising jurisdiction which leads to miscarriage of
justice on one hand and multiple trials on the same cause of action on the other hand.
Research Questions
1. What is the genesis for global movement for accountability?
2. What are the shortcomings of the present legal framework for accountability of
international crime?
3. What is the role of the International Law Enforcement Agencies to provide proper
justice to the victims?
4. What are the shortcomings of the institutional mechanisms to prevent the growth
and spread of the international crime?
5. What is the concept of global movement towards accountability and what is the
scope of its growth?
Methodology
Having selected the above topic for this research, the work will perforce be based on
theoretical doctrinal research. The methodology followed is traditional non-empirical
research.
Chapter Summary
Chapter I: “ACCOUNTIBILITY OF INDIVIDUALS FOR CRIME AGAINST
HUMANITY: THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK”. The
jurisprudential rooting of the present research work is discussed under this chapter. This
chapter also explains the concepts used in this research and international legal theories.
Chapter-II: HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE CONCERN FOR CRIME
AGAINST HUMANITY AND FIXING OF ACCOUNTABILITY: This chapter
discuss about the preliminary concepts of international crimes, such as aggression,
genocide, war Crimes and crime against humanity and the historical evolution of crime
against humanity, this is also an attempt to establish individual criminal liability for the
crime against.
Chapter-III: CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS: PRE 1945
SPECTRUM: This chapter deals with the scenario of crime against humanity by
individuals before 1945.
Chapter-IV: CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS: A POST 1945
SPECTRUM: This chapter describes the scenario of the framework of the trials of
individuals for crime against humanity after World War II (1939-1945).
Chapter V: “A ROADMAP OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW
ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES FOR DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS ACCUSED
OF CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY”. In this chapter the matter of discussion is about
various international law enforcement agencies like International Criminal Court,
International Court of Justice, Ad Hoc Tribunals and Hybrid Tribunals.
Chapter-VI: “A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE INTERNATIONAL AND
INDIAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK RELATING TO CRIME AGAINST
HUMANITY BY INDIVIDUALS”.
This chapter mainly deals with the Indian legal framework and also the various Indian
incidents regarding the crime against humanity in comparison with international
framework for accountability of individuals for crime against humanity.
Chapter-VII: “A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL PRINCIPLES REGARDING
LIABILITY OF INDIVIDUALS FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY IN
SELECTED NATIONAL JURISDICTIONS”.
The subject matter of this chapter is about the various national laws to combat crime
against humanity and the implementation of those laws by the nation states.
Chapter-VIII: “INDIVIDUAL LEADER’S LIABLE FOR CRIME AGAINST
HUMANITY: A COLLAGE”.
In this chapter I have discussed about various specific instances of individual leader’s
liability. It is a narrative chapter.
Chapter IX: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS: In conclusion it
can be summed up that the hypothesis that legal framework for the control and regulation
and for fixing liability on the individual for committing crime against humanity is
insufficient, has been proved and in this regard certain suggestion has been put in the
thesis.
Domestic financial market integration : a study on inter-linkage amongst Indian money, capital and foreign exchange market
(University of North Bengal, 2022) Dey, Debashree; Ray, Hirak; Dhar, Samirendra Nath
There is endless debate on globalization, free economy and integration of markets. Followers
of McKinnon (1973) and Shaw(1973) forcefully argue and advocate that ‘ this is the only
game in the town ‘(Obstfeld 1994, Mohan 2005,Trichet 2005, Lane et al., 2006). Again,
scholars like Agenor (2001), warns the world about the evils of financial integration. Despite
the debate on boons and evils of integration, now almost all economies are following the ‘free
regime' and obviously India cannot live in isolation and started to pursue the ‘free economic
policies' from 1991 and attempts to reap the benefits of globalization. The central Bank of
India, accordingly, sets the objectives of reform of the financial sector. Reddy (1999, 2005),
former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, argued and prescribed that more and more
policy reforms are necessary to converge the domestic markets. Integration of domestic
markets not only help to reap the benefits of liberalisation across the domestic and
international financial sectors but also help to increase the efficiency, integrity and
competitiveness of all the sectors —be it real or financial and the outcome of which
ultimately be translated to the overall development of the economy.
The issue of domestic integration has escaped adequate attention of the scholars. Majority of
the studies investigated the stock, foreign exchange and money market as secondary or
auxiliary issue and a few have investigated the domestic financial markets as the only or
primary issue. Studies in the context of India are rare. The use of low frequency data, variety
of methodologies, incomplete searching, absence of report on the presence of the variables in
the co-integration space, etc, and the fractured findings suggest that there is the scope for
further research to unveil the intricate relationship amongst the Indian money, foreign
exchange and stock market. The primary objective of this study is to investigate whether
Indian domestic financial markets are integrated and would remain integrated in future or not.
In pursuing the objectives and considering a time period from 1st January, 2008 to 31st December, 2018, the daily data of the stock, foreign exchange and money market are
collected and used in this study.
This study transformed all the select time series process under the scrutiny by taking natural
logarithm and estimated the entire tests with log-level data. The stationarity tests suggest that
all the variables representing the markets are significantly integrated to order one. With the
I(1) time series process we assessed the relationship of the markets based on the methodology
suggested by Johansen, (1991,95) and Johansen, and Juselius, ( 1990). Results of the test
significantly suggest the presence of one co-integrating relation and the deterministic term as,
there is ‘a linear trend at level, and intercept with no trend’ which is very common and
expected in the studies in finance and economics. Results of the test show the presence of
significant long-term stable relationship amongst the markets and all the markets are found to
be significantly present in the core of the co - integration space. There is no serial or
autocorrelation at and up to the optimum lag order and also found stability of the system. The
coefficients of error correction terms are statistically significant and according to the absolute
figures, the speed of adjustment of the money market is relatively higher followed by stock
and foreign exchange market. Levels of co-integrating relation of the Indian domestic
financial markets found in this study do not disappoint the policy planners as it is marked by
ups and downs around the critical levels of 95 percent. All these findings suggest strong longterm
stable link between the markets.
Results of the Granger causality tests point to bi-directional causality in between the stock
and foreign exchange and unidirectional from foreign exchange market to call money market.
The pair wise Granger causality run in both direction between the markets. In other words,
the past values of all the markets grossly influence the future values of all the markets. The
findings of the forecast error variance decomposition analysis indicate that the foreign
exchange market followed by stock market will remain flexible over the future period of 50
days and steps are needed to make the money market more vibrant and flexible. The results
of the impulse response analysis show that the markets transmit shock to other markets and
responses to the shocks nearing to zero at or up to 50th day of our study indicating all the
markets under study would remain integrated, at least, to the future horizon of the study.
The results derived and observations made by the study should be accepted with caution due
to the inevitable bias and technical limitations of statistical and econometric tools used. In
this study, the modified information criteria in the selection of the optimum lag order are not
used, the cases of fractional integration, if any, also not considered when testing the order of
integration of the time series process. There is enough scope to use alternative tools and
techniques to improve the outcome of these types of studies and the matter is left to scholars
to study in future.
In investigation, linear co-integrating relationship is assumed. Theoretically, the relation
among the markets may well take the nonlinear form. This possibility is not investigated by
this study.
One of the primary objectives of this study is to investigate whether there is any
co-integration among the domestic markets or not, but to investigate the probable reasons for
co-integration or no integration is beyond the purview of this study, hence, it is left for future
studies.
In this analysis ‘narrow base' but highly traded segment of the Bombay Stock Exchange that
is S & P BSE SENSEX 30 is used. Future studies considering broad base index is welcome.
Real rates in place of nominal rates, basket of currencies or more currencies in place of single
currency rates, forward rate instead of spot, Yield on Treasury bills in place of call rates can
be used to study the relationship in future.
Surface enhanced raman spectroscopic study of some functional molecules adsorbed on noble metal nano particles
(University of North Bengal, 2019) Hossain, Washim; Haldar, Sripada; Sarkar, Uttam Kr.
The objective of the present thesis is focused on the Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic (SERS) study of different arylazo imidazole (AAI) molecules adsorbed on colloidal silver nanoparticles (SNPs). The AAIs have two N heteroatoms and a pendant azo group and show significant chemical interaction (chemisorption) with Ag nano particles through exchange of electronic charge. These five membered N-heterocycles are poor π-acceptors and hence good π-donors. Thus there is a possibility of charge transfer between the AAIs and the Ag-particles which has been probed by SERS. The significant modification of the physical and chemical properties of the complexes due to presence of different substituents in the heterocyclic ring and side arm to azo functions has also been investigated by a comparative SERS study. The present work gives information for better understanding of the mechanism involved in SERS and finds the possibility of some AAIs of being used as organic semiconducting material.
The thesis consists of nine chapters and an outline of each of them is given below:
In Chapter 1, the mechanisms involved in Raman scattering as well as in the enormous enhancement of Raman signal of the molecules adsorbed on suitable metal surfaces due to SERS effect are discussed. At the beginning the classical and quantum theories of Raman effect are presented. In the following sections, advantages and limitations of normal Raman spectroscopy are illustrated. Although Raman signals can be used as a fingerprint for a given structure of molecule as different structures exhibit characteristic Raman spectra, normal Raman signals are very weak. That SERS effect enhancing the Raman signal by a factor of 1010 to 1011 overcomes the weak scattering cross-section of normal Raman spectroscopy is discussed in the subsequent sections of this chapter in different sub-sections:
Discovery of SERS, Key features of SERS, SERS substrates, Mechanisms involved in SERS and Application of SERS.
Chapter 2 gives a brief description of the materials and methods of study along with the experimental details. The instrumentation for the related experiments is also discussed in a nutshell. This chapter consists of sections presenting an overview of the functional properties of the arylazo heterocyclic molecules, preparation of colloidal SNPs and recording of UV−Vis spectra, Raman spectra and Transmission Electron Micrograph (TEM). The computational details for the simulation of Raman and SER spectra for comparison with experimental results are presented in the concluding section.
In Chapter 3, the Raman spectra and SERS of 1H-2(phenylazo) imidazole (PaiH) adsorbed on SNPs are presented. A trans-to-cis isomerization of PaiH is suggested by the appearance of the cis-signature peak at 570 cm-1 for a monomolecular layer coverage at a concentration of 5×10-6 M. This hypothesis is further substantiated by the shifting of the π−π* band from 358 nm, in methanol solution to 370 nm, in silver sol along with the appearance of the n−π* band, in silver sol at the optimum concentration, as observed by UV-vis spectroscopy. The excellent agreement of the SER spectra obtained experimentally with that simulated by DFT calculations indicates that electronically, biologically as well as optically important PaiH molecule undergoes chemical interaction with SNPs possibly through the imidazole nitrogen atom. A gradual trans-to-cis dark isomerisation of PaiH is suggested with lowering of concentration: the trans-isomers being the majority and hence predominant at higher concentrations whereas almost all the molecules are present as cis-isomer at monomolecular layer coverage.
Chapter 4 presents a pH dependent SERS study of 1H-2(phenylazo) imidazole (PaiH) adsorbed on SNPs. A combination of different conformations of PaiH is evident where majority of the molecules prefer a particular conformation at a given pH. It is revealed that most of the PaiH molecules are in cis-form in the concentration range from 10-6M–10-5 M at pH = 7. In alkaline pH, majority of the molecules undergoes azo to hydrozone conformation whereas at acidic pH the azo-Ns participate in the electronic interaction with silver. Significant reduction of HOMO–LUMO gap indicates the possibility of PaiH of being used as an organic semiconductor
In Chapter 5, Raman and SER spectra of 1-H-2 (tolylazo) imidazole (TaiH) are reported. It is observed that monomolecular layer of TaiH is formed on SNPs at a concentration of 4.93×10−6 M in Ag-sol which is less than the concentration required for monomolecular layer coverage of PaiH which is indicative of the effect of the substituent methyl group on the electronic interaction with the metal nanoparticles. Plasmon induced trans-to-cis dark isomerization of TaiH molecules is evidenced by the appearance of signature cis-peaks in SERS and the UV-Vis absorption spectra. Fragmentation of SNPs with significant reduction in the particle size is revealed by the interaction of TaiH. Large SERS enhancement is observed by these uncoupled plasmons. DFT calculations based on single Ag-atom model are in excellent agreement with experimental observations.
Chapter 6 highlights the significant changes observed in the SER spectra of 1-H-2(parachloro phenylazo) imidazole (pClPai-H) molecule with respect to those of PaiH molecules. Monomolecular layer of pClPaiH is formed on SNPs at a concentration of 10-5 M. A moderate dark trans-to-cis isomerization of pClPai-H molecule is indicative with lowering of concentration. The influence of the presence of the chlorine atom at the para position of the phenyl ring is discussed. The pClPaiH molecule undergoes chemical interaction with SNPs possibly through azo N atoms.
In Chapter 7, Raman spectra and SERS of two larger arylazo imidazole compounds 1-(CH2)17CH3-2(phenylazo) imidazole (Pai-C18) and 1-(CH2)17CH3-2(tolylazo) imidazole (Tai-C18) adsorbed on SNPs are reported. The Pai-C18 molecules which are known to demonstrate some liquid crystal properties show monomolecular layer coverage at a concentration of 10-7 M in Ag-sols, whereas, the first layer coverage of Tai-C18 is observed at a higher concentration of 10-6 M in Ag-sols. Higher concentration for monomolecular layer formation indicates smaller effective coverage of the metal surface by Tai-C18 molecules as compared with Pai-C18 molecules.
Chapter 8 illustrates a comparative study of SERS on different arylazo imidazole molecules. The substituents on the imidazole ring as well as on the phenyl ring are observed to change the electron density in the rings significantly. Consequently, the extent of adsorption of the molecules on the metal surface is modified by the presence of these substituent groups. SERS of 1-methyl-2-(phenylazo) imidazole (PaiMe),1-ethyl-2-(tolylazo) imidazole (TaiEt) and 1-H-2-(napthylazo) imidazole (NaaiH) is reported and the substituent effect on the SER spectra of these molecules is also presented in this chapter.
Chapter 9 summarizes the experimental results described in chapters 3-8. It is revealed that AAI molecules undergo chemical interaction with the SNPs mainly through the imidazole N atom and/or azo N atoms. Also the 𝜋-electron system of the aryl group significantly contributes to the charge transfer between the AAI molecules and the SNPs depending on the side group attached to it and the concentration in Ag sol. It is inferred that because of the presence of 𝜋-electron system of the aryl group, imidazole N atoms and azo N atoms the arylazo imidazole molecules may find significant use as prospective smart molecules to show various functionality.
Socio-economic aspects of migration from rural India: study of West Bengal
(University of North Bengal, 2019) Das, Yasodhara; Roy Mukherjee, Sanchari; Ramachandran, V. K.
This thesis is concerned with short term/seasonal/circular migration for work from rural India. It attempts to describe and critically analyse the magnitude of such migration from the available secondary and primary sources of data and will try to bring out the relevance of such migration from rural West Bengal.
According to the 64th round of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) on Employment, Unemployment and Migration (2007-8) there were 324 million internal migrants in India, which is almost 29 per cent of the total population, 140 million of whom were workers. On the remittance front, the NSS estimates reveal that international remittances received in India comprised about half of the domestic remittances received. The results also indicate that ninety-one per cent of migrants in rural areas and 59 per cent of migrants in urban areas in India had migrated from a rural region.
Rural migrants thus constitute a large proportion of short-term /seasonal/circularmigrants who move for work/employment related reasons.The 55th (1999-2000) and the 64th rounds (2007-8) of the NSSO tried to quantify short duration migration.Estimates of short-term migrants vary from 15 million (NSSO 2007–8) to 40 million (Srivastava, 2011) to 100 million (Deshingkar and Akter 2009).
Research on the socio-economic characteristics of this stream of migrant workers and the impact of migrant earnings on the rural household incomes, is thus necessary for an understanding of this crucial segment of India‘s labour force. A brief overview of the chapters of this thesis is given below:
The first chapter introduces the research topic; reviews the available literature relevant to the study, states the research questions and the research methodology followed during study.The second chapter is intended to describe and critically evaluate the results obtained from the secondary database available i.e. the Census and the NSS surveys and compare their methodology with that of various primary surveys on internal migration.
The third chapter is intended to describe and critically evaluate the results obtained from the secondary database i.e. the NSS survey with special focus on West Bengal.
The fourth chapter introduces the villages which will be studied as the origin of the migrant worker. For this purpose I study the villages of West Bengal which were surveyed by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies as part of the 2010 West Bengal Round survey of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI).
The fifth chapter is intended to compare the socio-economic conditions of migrant and non-migrant households in the study villages.
The sixth chapter analyses the difference between migrant and non-migrant households with respect to rural household incomes.
The seventh chapter studies the migrant worker at the destination. The samples for this study are the migrant construction workers from West Bengal who migrate to the Ernakulam district of Kerala. The demographic and socio-economic characteristicsof migrant workers is studied in this chapter.
The final chapter summarizes the specific findings of the chapters of the thesis.
Formulation and characterization of room temperature ferroelectric and antiferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures
(University of North Bengal, 2018) Debnath, Asim; Mandal, Pradip Kumar
Now-a-days displays have become a field of tremendous importance as they
provide the best means for interface between man and machine. Large numbers
of displays are presently available in the market, but among all these displays
about 90% are controlled by the liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. Most
of the LCD devices starting from simplest wrist watches or calculators to
complex laptops or flat TV sets mainly use the nematic liquid crystal phase for
their operation. Although a tremendous improvement in the quality of display as
well as reduction of manufacturing cost has taken place over the years, there are
many issues which the LC industry is trying hard to address. Ferroelectric liquid
crystals (FLC) are of current interest in the LCD industry since among various
other advantages FLC based displays have micro-second order switching
compared to milli-second order switching in nematic based displays. To meet
the market demand much effort has been made to optimize the physical
parameters of FLCs, such as temperature range, spontaneous polarization (PS),
helical pitch (p), switching time (τ), tilt angle (θ) and rotational viscosity (γφ).
Multicomponent mixtures are, usually formulated to optimize all the required
properties for practical applications since no single FLC compound can satisfy
the above requirements. Keeping all these in mind we have prepared room
temperature ferroelectric and antiferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures to the best
of our knowledge first time by any Indian group, which have properties suitable
for FLC based display devices and at par with mixtures used in the industry.
Suitability of the formulated mixtures for display applications were
characterized by optical polarizing microscopy, differential scanning
calorimetry, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, dielectric spectroscopy and electrooptic
methods.
First of all, six binary mixtures (M1-M6) were formulated by using a
biphenylyl benzoate ester with oligomethylene spacer based non-flourinated
chiral compound (DP1) as dopant and a three ring pyrimidine compound (H5)
as host. Of these, M4 exhibit the wide range (100o) and lowest temperature
(24oC) ferroelectric phase at 10wt% concentration of DP1. In addition to I-N*-
A*-C* phase sequence all the mixtures found to exhibit weakly temperature
dependent optical tilt (~22.5o) and fast response time (~200μs), can be useful
for high speed SSFLCD applications where contrast and brightness will be less
temperature dependent. Temperature range and response time are also found to
improve when the binary mixture M4 is used as chiral dopant in a multicomponent
host mixture (HM) to formulate another mixture (M7).
Next, six multi-component mixtures (M8-M13) were prepared by doping a nonmesogenic
chiral terphenyl compound (DP2) with chiral centers at opposite
ends in the multi-component host mixture (HM). This HM was prepared
mixing four phenyl pyrimidine compounds. Although DP2 is non-mesogenic
but only 2wt% of it induces SmC* phase in the HM at or close to room
temperature and with increased concentration it produces SmC* phase below
ambient down to at least 12°C with physical properties useful for SSFLCD
based applications.
An oligomethylene spacer based partially fluorinated chiral liquid crystal (DP3)
which has smaller spacer length than DP3 and which has only SmC* phase
when doped in the HM, resulting mixture (M14) was found to exhibit very
broad temperature range SmC* phase (~93o) from below ambient down to at
least 12°C and almost temperature independent high optical tilt, low driving
voltage and switching speed around 100μs suitable for display applications.
To study the effect of SmC*A- SmC*- SmA* phase sequence and molecular
structure, four partially fluorinated chiral compounds DP4, DP5, DP6, DP7,
which differ only in the number and position of fluorine atoms in the benzoate
ring of the molecular rigid core, were doped in the multi-component host
mixture (HM). Number and location of fluorine atoms in the dopant structure
shows significant effect on the phase sequences as well as on the different
physical properties of the mixtures (M15-M18) critically important for display
applications. Mixture M15 and M18 showed extended antiferroelectric phase
while M16 and M17 exhibited only ferroelectric phase.
A wide range room temperature electroclinic mixture, M19 was obtained when
only 10wt% of DP6 was mixed in the HM. The mixture exhibits large field
induced optical tilt (~23.5o) with less than 0.1% shrinkage of layers suitable for
developing fast electroclinic devices free from defects due to buckling of layers.
Most of the results have been published in the peer reviewed journals viz;
Journal of Applied Physics, Journal of Molecular Liquids, RSC Advances,
Liquid Crystals.