Article 51 of the Indian Constitution states that the state shall foster respect for international law and treaty obligations. To give effect to this provision, Article 253 of the Constitution empowers the parliament to make any law for implementing obligations under international treaties, conferences, or agreements. In particular, the preamble to the NGT Act states that the creation of the NGT symbolizes the fulfilment of India's obligations under the United Nations Conferences on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972) and Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). These conferences call upon member states to, inter alia, provide effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings and to develop national laws regarding liability and compensation for victims of environmental pollution and damage.

While there are several internationally recognized norms and principles, three main principles form the bedrock of environmental jurisprudence in the Indian context. These three principles are sustainable development, the precautionary principle, and the polluter pays principle. While these have been extensively used by the Supreme Court in several important environmental cases, the NGT Act is the first legislation that codifies these principles. Section 20 of the NGT Act states:

Overall, the NGT Act accords significant discretion to the Tribunal in relation to how it should adjudicate and award compensation. Given this context, Section 20 assumes greater significance as it is the only guiding provision contained in the NGT Act, which provides directions with respect to how the Tribunal should pass an order or award. The use of the word “shall” indicates that it is a mandatory provision and that the NGT is obligated to base its decision on these three principles, if they are applicable.

Accordingly, these principles have formed an integral part of most decisions of the NGT and are intricately linked with its jurisprudence. As we will discuss, most landmark cases of the NGT have relied on these principles to provide environmental justice. Through this chapter, we explore the significance of these three principles. In doing so, we highlight their origin and evolution in the international context, their interpretation and application by the Supreme Court of India, and their use by the NGT.

Monitored anesthesia care (MAC) is a varying type of anesthesia where an anesthesiologist is involved in a patient’s care ranging from either fully awake with ASA monitoring or a deeper level of sedation with a natural airway depending on the level of surgical stimulus and the patient’s physiological state. This chapter discusses the different levels of sedation, ASA guidelines for sedation, and associated risks and complications.

In academia, as in any profession, one of the toughest decisions facing an autistic person is whether and when to disclose their diagnosis. On the one hand, disclosure can bring awareness, understanding, and support. On the other, it can bring misunderstanding, stigma, and discrimination. In this chapter participants reflect on their decisions to disclose (or not to disclose) to employers, colleagues, staff, and students – and the impacts of these decisions. This chapter also addresses the issue of masking (hiding their autistic characteristics), including when and why participants feel the need to mask and the impact this has on them.

Triple entry accounting (TEA) is simultaneously a novel application in the blockchain universe and one of the many concepts applied in blockchain technology. Its Wild Wild West status is accompanied by a lack of consistent and comprehensive set of categories, a state of play that impedes a proper apprehension of the technology, leading to contradictions and oversight of important nuances. To clearly delineate the confines of TEA within the world of blockchain, we provide building blocks to standardise its terminology. Particularly, we distinguish between essential elements such as accounting and bookkeeping, as well as between decentralised systems, distributed ledgers, and distributed journals.

This chapter explores the oscillations of political power and the “revolutions” – both violent and subtle – that appeared on the US stage throughout the nineteenth century. While many dramatists sought to avoid political debate, all too aware of the potential consequences (from boycotts to riots), timely issues of the day, including the abolition of slavery, the eradication of Indigenous populations, temperance, and women’s suffrage, inevitably made their way onto the stage. Some playwrights struck out boldly, naming issues of substance misuse and miscegenation in dramas such as The Drunkard or The Octoroon. Others infused politics into their depictions of everyday life, including Ossawattomie Brown (which retells John Brown’s history as a romantic family plot) and the labor melodrama Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl. These homely narratives reminded viewers of how inescapable these issues had become. But whether starkly challenging or subtly questioning, nineteenth-century US theater never escaped the pressing political issues of the day.

In the late 1940s, Chinese diplomats skillfully highlighted complementary aspects of Chinese philosophy to align with Western human rights concepts during the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By emphasizing compatible cultural elements and ignoring inconsistencies, they successfully integrated Chinese cultural values into international human rights norms. This achievement was made possible by the diplomats’ education in both Chinese and Western traditions and the Chiang Kai-shek government’s preoccupation with the civil war, which allowed diplomats more autonomy. Despite this success, Confucian thought declined after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the Chinese Constitution does not explicitly mention freedom of thought, listing guiding ideologies that serve mainly as political declarations rather than practical legal principles. In contemporary Chinese court cases, the main theoretical issues around freedom of speech involve determining the boundaries of expression and whether statements constitute legal wrongs. With the development of social media and technologies, the line between public and private life has blurred. Chinese courts have touched upon the question of which ideas deserve legal protection, particularly in religious cases, but this question remains inadequately addressed and warrants continued research.

The abstract notion of freedom of thought, dating back at least to Roman times, has transmutated into a tangible legal right with its incorporation in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This chapter traces the genesis of the right through evolving formulations in the drafts of the Declaration and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also presents the few pertinent remarks on the right by notable figures such as Charles Malik and René Cassin as documented primarily in the Summary Records of the Commission on Human Rights between 1947 and 1949. An in-depth analysis of the travaux préparatoires yields ten significant findings for an understanding of the freedom. The analysis reaffirms some established facets of the right such as its unique twofold structure, and sheds light on hitherto unexplored facts such as the specific relation between thought, conscience, and religion. It further identifies unresolved questions and offers perspectives for contemporary interpretations of the freedom.

The historical profession emerged in Europe in the nineteenth century in tandem with the rise of the nation-state. Historians of the modern period in particular focused above all on the political history of nation-states and the diplomatic history of relations between them. Global aspects of European history were covered mainly in terms of Europe’s impact on other parts of the world, as in Hobsbawm’s “dual revolution” (the worldwide repercussions of the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution), or the history of Europe’s colonial possessions overseas. And yet there were demonstrable global influences on many key developments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe, from the liberalism of the Latin American revolutions of the 1820s to the economic impact of the cotton-growing slave economies of the American South. The globalization processes of the late twentieth century have brought these into sharper focus and powered an approach that places Europe’s history in a broader global context of mutual interaction. Yet the nation-state is not dead, and national governments are vigorously promoting a return to national histories in the service of patriotic education. Global history is here to stay, but its place in the educational system, particularly school curricula, remains heavily contested.