I happened to attend the launch of the book Disaster Law: Principles and Practice out of sheer interest in gaining knowledge about the rising disasters and how this could, in coming times, impact courtroom understanding of law around accidents.
The detailed discussion that was triggered through points raised by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Former Judge, Supreme Court was impactful enough for me to read the book in detail. Once I got hold of the book, it was nothing less than an unstoppable torrent of ideas which could impact the way both Judges and lawyers visualise constructions, encroachments, deforestation, wildlife, city planning and developmental projects around the country. I decided to write a short review of this book as below:
The book is a crisp 205 pages with eight focused chapters and an epilogue that sums up the way forward after the doomsday talk. The author begins by explaining the terminology which is likely to be adopted in the law of current times threatened by climate change, mass migrations, pandemics, and contingencies of global agricultural policies. As I read through its sections, the book clearly distinguishes a disaster, a hazard, an accident and a calamity. It establishes a vision clear enough to perceive what turns a hazard into a disaster — whether there is a divine hand in bringing disasters or whether disasters are merely human errors, with courtrooms going easy on encroachments and environmental destruction of ecosystems. Anyone who wishes to learn terminological usages in contemporary climate-affected governance would gain a lot of insight through the manner in which hazards, resilience, adaptability, carrying capacity, and risk assessment have been analysed. This has been done by raising some fundamental questions around disaster law such as:
(i) Are all disasters natural?
(ii) Is disaster management a standalone top-down task or teamwork?
(iii) Is “resilience building” an indispensable requirement of disaster management?
(iv) How would “risk assessment” define public action in disaster management?
Of course, in later chapters, this terminology expands to match global usage of legal lexicon with a detailed historical analysis through landmark archival cases from British and European courtroom battles. The second chapter has a perceptive title: The Jurisprudence of Disaster Law, from God to Zoonotics. It explains the trajectory of law for managing disasters as an incremental evolution from humanitarian narratives of duty and care for the wounded, injured, orphans, dead and homeless to administrative law principles of negligence, equity and accountability. The author narrates some early landmark cases to show how the judiciary applied “due diligence” in administrative action and explained how enlightened Judges have gone beyond statutory laws to apply common law in resolving human concerns, miseries, and hurt due to disasters. An evolving judicial perception has helped to incorporate into disaster databases a more progressive vision on inclusion of all life forms including other humans (animals) and their habitats. The pandemic of 2020 has brought law face-to-face with zoonotic diseases and the organisations managing health across the world, but more than that, it is a provocation to stay prepared and alert for disasters which originate from a micro virus or a nuclear fallout and cause mass casualties. Contemporary district administration cannot have life as usual but needs to bring major changes suggested from the Hyogo Declaration to the Sendai Framework, where the Paris-Brussels regime to the Vienna regime concerning civil liability for nuclear damage ought to be adopted. This would regulate building by laws, construction designs, and market areas in the cities besides ensuring a substantial green area to breathe from. The chapter on Comparative Legal Frameworks in India and South Asia brings out the governance imperatives ready to handle some contemporary challenges in the region. Legal frameworks bring out a richness of information, anthropological demands, and the ability of the local administration and communities to reach the last mile. Interestingly, the stronger countries in the region have reduced spaces for local initiatives.
The fourth chapter is a matchless analysis of vulnerability during disasters. The Lordships in courtrooms are more likely to deliver better equity and justice with knowledge about pre-existing intersectional discrimination on race, caste, sex and religion. The author has broadened the vision on this subject by bringing in critical theorists on race and civil rights activists such as Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989 and 1991) who coined the metaphor in 1989 when she wrote an article, “Demarginalising the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”. For decisions on rescue, shelter, medical aid, safety, and compensation during disasters, intersectional vulnerability improves decision-making and courtroom orders.
The book consistently maintains that a disaster is not a one-time silo event disjointed from other events silently building up to a disaster. The fifth chapter on Administrative Law and Disaster Law: Addressing Negligence, Responsibility and Accountability analyses how disasters grow under the cloak of administrative negligence, disowned responsibility, and blatant escape from accountability. When a disaster actually strikes — as floods, fire, or earthquakes — it becomes a shield for local administrators to escape the application of regular administrative norms for handling emergencies and instead display individual philanthropy to please political currents and social media showcasing. The author has confidently presented tools on advancements in satellite imagery, remote sensing technologies and the availability of new tools of artificial intelligence-based big data in geophysical, meteorological, atmospheric and marine sciences, which the court can use to fix accountability for causing disasters.
The problems of the modern world have not completely worried the lawyers and the judicial officers in the trial courts, even though the first knock of trouble is at their door. The sixth chapter on Disaster Law and a Resilient Foreign Trade indicates a plethora of laws which prevent disruptions in international trade and supply chains due to disasters. Global gross domestic product (GDP) has increased to a whopping 110 trillion United States Dollar (USD) which is fully wired into transportation, routing, quality testing, payments, insurance, banking and producer-customer demands. Vulnerability to disasters rises manifold when countries have no pre-existing laws, regional agreements, or global agreements which could help them bounce back sooner and better. The chapter brings in many important case studies which express the need for pacta sunt servanda during such times — such as the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros case1, Maganbhai Ishwarbhai Patel v. Union of India2, as well as international trade laws from United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) established by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2205 (XXI) on 17-12-1966 to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements and related supplementary decisions.
The seventh chapter on International Disaster Response Laws (IDRL) would be an eye-opener to researchers in law, governance, and the judicial fraternity. This chapter weaves humanising forces in law that conjoin the laws regulating wars with those regulating disasters. There are technical and strategic distinctions which melt away as new definitions of human security emerge in current times threatened with climate change. International humanitarian law is applicable to armed conflicts and wars, as it lays down principles for a just war (jus ad bellum) in the first Geneva Conventions of 18643. This chapter explains the deliberations in the United Nation (UN) General Assembly where protection of rights inherent to every human being transcends nationality, race, sex, colour, religion, language, or ethnic origin. War is also a disaster, bringing similar forms of misery, destitution, displacement, and death to human beings. The eighth chapter on Disaster Diplomacy and Disaster Law would startle many diplomats in the Ministry of External Affairs for their heightened role in current times. The Disaster Management Act, 20054 has been a blueprint for professional and experienced strategies which are firmly embedded within a country’s system, but the real action during disasters — starting at the pre-disaster stage — is actually done by diplomats. Whether it is South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), or the SAARC Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters (SARRND-2011), the real humanitarian intervention and lasting relationships are built by diplomatic missions which strengthen disaster laws. It brings very interesting ideas from the ground and an innovative thought process to witness what goes on behind disaster diplomacy.
The last chapter, Epilogue, sums up some pertinent concerns which could still be lingering in the minds of readers — such as the need for disaster law, the process of disaster, laws that shine out in disaster management, changes from Hyogo to Sendai Frameworks, and lastly, the Legal Framework & Enforcement of Disaster Management (Pre, During, Post-Disaster) in India and South Asia. A clear description of State action at every stage makes this book an important toolkit for disaster managers besides being a knowledge bank for empowering researchers, administrators, and the judicial fraternity to address problems of current contingencies that citizens face during climate change.
To sum up, it is important to mention the many “firsts” attributed to it by readers: It is the first book in global literature on disaster law which presents such a comprehensive universe of legal analysis for every situation encountered during disasters. It is also the first book to comprehensively analyse laws in relation to and in comparison, with each other in a regional setup. The book earns another credit for being the first to raise disaster diplomacy and wars as part of strategic international law dealing with disasters. An exclusive chapter dedicated to intersectional discrimination and vulnerability is a new area of law within disaster management, and the book is the first in global literature to deal with it so comprehensively. The language of the book is simple, and that makes it a significant book, strongly recommended for the libraries of researchers, lawyers, Judges and universities.
Grab your copy of the book, Disaster Laws: Practice and Principles, from the EBC Webstore: https://www.ebcwebstore.com/product/disaster-law-principles-and-practice-by-amita-singh?products_id=99108776
Also watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g97e18rBxm4…
1. ICJ Rep 7.
3. Geneva Conventions 1864.
