Why a Constitutional Paper Ends in International Law

In one line

A constitution is made by a majority, and the whole difficulty of a plural society is what happens to those the majority does not represent, which is exactly what international human rights law exists to answer.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: MU's fourth module joins pluralism to international concerns, and the join is not accidental. The instruments in this module, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, the two Covenants of 1966, the Genocide Convention 1948 and the United Nations Declaration on Minorities 1992, were made in response to what majorities had done to minorities inside sovereign States, and they assert that how a State treats those within its own territory is not a matter for that State alone. India's own constitutional text acknowledges this: article 51(c) directs the State to FOSTER RESPECT FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW AND TREATY OBLIGATIONS; article 51A(c) makes it a fundamental duty of every citizen to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India; article 253 gives Parliament power to legislate for the whole or any part of India for IMPLEMENTING ANY TREATY, agreement or convention; and Entries 13 and 14 of List I place participation in international conferences and the entering into and implementing of treaties in the Union's exclusive field.

The provisions

Article 51. The State shall endeavour to (a) promote international peace and security; (b) maintain just and honourable relations between nations; (c) FOSTER RESPECT FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW AND TREATY OBLIGATIONS IN THE DEALINGS OF ORGANISED PEOPLES WITH ONE ANOTHER; and (d) encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration. It is a Directive Principle, so article 37 makes it unenforceable by any court while declaring the principles fundamental in the governance of the country.

Article 51A(c). A fundamental duty of every citizen to uphold and protect the SOVEREIGNTY, UNITY AND INTEGRITY of India. It is placed here because the objection to international human rights supervision is always an objection about sovereignty, and the Constitution itself makes sovereignty a value.

Article 253. The implementing power: Parliament may make any law for the whole or any part of India to give effect to a treaty or to a decision at an international conference, and its opening non-obstante words let it do so even on a STATE List subject. A treaty obligation therefore displaces the ordinary division of legislative power, which is why this article belongs as much to Module I as to this one.

Entries 13 and 14 of List I. Participation in international conferences and the implementing of decisions made there; and the making and implementing of treaties. Both sit in the UNION List, so treaty-making is an exclusively Union function and no State has any part in it.