Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the rule of law was the basic premise on which the rights of citizens and economic development reinforced each other through the principle of equitable distribution.
“Rule of law is an instrument of progressive change, social and political stability and economic development has been decisively demonstrated in countries, which have embraced its spirit in their institutions,” he said, while inaugurating the 17th Commonwealth Law Conference here today.
Singh added a sound legal system based on the rule of law and speedy enforcement of contracts were a major determinant of a favourable macroeconomic environment.
He asked emerging economies to align their domestic policies and laws with the new global architecture, so that they were a step closer in shaping the new international order.
Singh was addressing jurists, lawyers and legal luminaries from 54 countries.
Relevance He also asked the legal order to adopt new realities so that it could stay relevant to the present-day issues.
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Though the policy preferences of countries were invariably rooted in their history, politics and culture, the fact of globalisation and the challenges the world faced demanded a purposive alignment of domestic policies and laws with global norms, he said.
According to him, meaningful solutions to the problem of mass poverty prevailing in developing countries could be found in the framework of a rapidly expanding economy.
“With a view to minimising and eventually eliminating ‘rightless’ people, there is a compelling need to pursue development strategies, which provide effective livelihood security for the poor,” he said.
The prime minister also pointed out that the unparalleled creation of wealth in recent times was mainly because of various legal protection norms and instruments governing business organisations, corporation, tradeable assets, labour contracts, worker associations, venture capital, insurance and protection of intellectual property.
He also asked the other Commonwealth countries to learn from India in spite of its diversity on so many counts, adding that democracy, secularism and federalism provided in-built ‘safety valves’, which allowed and addressed any dissent within the constitutional framework.
Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily said the government and the country’s judicial system had been taking several steps to enforce the rule of law and speedy disposal of cases in all spheres.
‘Minimum core approach’ Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia said judges must adopt a ‘minimum core approach’ in dealing with issues related to people’s rights that largely remained in the realm of rhetoric due to lack of financial inclusion in the country.