Commercial courts, competition laws and cyber laws are some of the "emerging trends" in jurisprudence, Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B Lokur said today and called upon the legal fraternity to be aware of them.
"These issues are being discussed and debated but they have not yet crystallised into some kind of jurisprudence in the country. We need to look at these issues carefully," Justice Lokur said, inaugurating a two-day international workshop on Intellectual Property, Commercial and Emerging Laws here.
"All of us are affected by intellectual property rights (IPRs). These are issues that are dear to all of us. These rights are all over. It's just about everything that we are dealing with on a day-to-day basis that is a subject matter of IPR," he noted.
"One of the areas that is being actively looked at in India in ease of doing business is the efficacy of commercial courts. I was told commercial courts have been started at a very large number of places but a study of these courts is being done in Delhi and Mumbai only.
"There is no reason why other states or cities should be excluded from this study," Justice Lokur said.
On judicial reforms, the apex court judge said they could be brought about only if there was cooperation from the Bar.
"There are discussions on emerging trends. It's only then that reforms can be brought about; only when everybody is aware of what are the emerging trends, what are the laws and how are the laws to be interpreted.
"That is another way of moving forward on the global
stage," he added.
"All of us, it doesn't matter whether we are judges or lawyers, academicians or just laypersons... All of us need to be aware of what's happening around the world.
"Many of the things happening around the world are somehow connected with the rule of law. Some of the statutes that you find in the world relating to cyber crime and information technology are way ahead of the laws we have in India," Justice Lokur pointed out.
Noting that India has emerged as a "very important player" on global stage -- be it on the economic front, impact of technology from India can have on other parts of the world or the point of view laws that are being developed -- whichever way looked at, Justice Lokur, however, said it was "not good enough" to be among top 5 or top 10 and remain over there.
"We need to keep up with the times and try and become number one. It's not impossible. We are in that kind of a position where we can become number one may be in 5 or 10 years," he added.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Supreme Court Justice N V Ramana, Delhi High Court Chief Justice G Rohini, acting Chief Justice of High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the state of Andhra Pradesh and the state of Telangana Ramesh Ranganathan, judge V Ramasubramanian, Japan's Intellectual Property High Court judge Justice Akira Katase and others spoke on the occasion.
The Japan External Trade Organisation and the AP Economic Development Board jointly organised the workshop.
