Tag: India

Will the OpenAI case put pressure on US courts to resolve internet jurisdiction?

Artificial intelligence behemoth OpenAI is currently defending a lawsuit in India, brought by that country’s domestic news agency ANI. The primary allegation is that OpenAI improperly used ANI’s copyrighted material to train its generative AI programs.

Open AI has raised a number of defenses, including that the courts of India have no personal jurisdiction over it. As every first-year law student learns, courts must have personal jurisdiction over a defendant before they can issue any binding order. For centuries, personal jurisdiction required that the defendant be physically present where the court was located. However, as 20th-century advances in transportation and communciation made it easier for people to cross state and national boundaries, courts adjusted the doctrine. It is now widely recognized that someone who enters a state or foreign country (even virtually) and causes mischief can be subject to that state or country’s jurisdiction, even if the defendant is not physically located there.

But there are still limits. The United States Supreme Court has insisted that a defendant must “purposefully avail” itself of the state where the lawsuit is filed, meaning that it must engage with the state in some intentional and deliberate way. An accidental or unforeseen connection to the forum will not do.

And thus human interaction through the internet–so wide-ranging and ubiquitous in modern life–poses a problem. An e-commerce giant like Amazon or eBay might be said to purposefully avail itself of a forum by offering goods for sale in that forum through the internet. The interaction is knowing, willful, and intentional, and the case for jurisdiction is easy. But what about a third-party seller who puts a product on eBay without thinking about a particular market or location? Is that purposeful availment? Or what if someone posts allegedly infringing or defamatory material on social media or a blog? Is that person subject to personal jurisdiction anywhere the site can be accessed?

The U.S. Supreme Court has never answered that question, at least not directly. It seems to want to answer the question, if the Justices’ questions during oral argument for other personal jurisdiction cases are any indication. But the Court seems unable to articulate a coherent and workable set of jurisdictional rules for the internet, and instead keeps deferring the issue. (Meanwhile, lower courts in the United States are doing the best they can to articulate meaningful principles of internet jurisdiction, with a common approach being to allow the exercise of jurisdiction when the defendant “directed electronic activity into a forum” with the “manifest intent of engaging with persons in that forum.” That captures the Amazons of the world who know where they are selling and shipping products, but probably not the ordinary Instagrammer who just posts something online.)

But the Supreme Court may not be able to wait much longer. The outcome of the OpenAI case in India may force its hand, or at least put greater pressure on it to reach a resolution applicable to American courts.

Continue reading “Will the OpenAI case put pressure on US courts to resolve internet jurisdiction?”

Indian state rolls out mobile “e-court” vans to service rural areas

Uttarakhand, a state in northern India, is planning to introduce wifi-equipped “e-court” vans in five remote hill communities. The vans will have videoconferencing capability and will be administered by the district judges of the state.

The initial story provides few specifics about how the mobile courts will operate, what types of cases will be eligible, and exactly how the vans will be able to accommodate the presentation of evidence and the opportunity for transparent proceedings. What seems clear is that the effort is designed to chip away at a shocking large — and growing — backlog of cases in the state. 

India has an unfortunate history of extensive case backlogs, and this creative effort to improve that circumstance should be applauded. I hope it is successful.

India develops rules for live-streaming court proceedings

The E-Committee of the Supreme Court of India has developed a set of draft rules for live-streaming and recording court proceedings. The draft rules are open for public comment through June 30.

The draft rules exclude a number of case types, including many related to family law, gender-based violence, and cases which “in the opinion of the Bench may provoke enmity amongst communities likely to result in a breach of law and order.” Parties will also have a chance to object to livestreaming in advance.

Concerns about India’s judiciary remain unresolved

Almost three years ago, four justices of India’s highest court held a press conference to publicly air concerns about the administration of justice in that country. The press conference made international news, but it appears that it has not catalyzed significant change. At least, that it the view of this op-ed:

It appeared to have been alleged that in certain important matters the allocation of cases was done in a manner that could lead to desired outcomes.

If true, this was a profoundly serious charge.

There has been no change in this and the allocation is still being done by the Chief Justice at his own sweet will with no rational or transparent method.

There is still no transparency in the selection of judges.

The press conference by the judges was a historic first in the history of the judiciary anywhere in the world. It yielded no result and got reduced to a mere publicity event.

I wonder if this will get new traction in the coming year.

Attorneys in India protest court’s decision to work through summer months

Changing the culture of a court–to promote efficiency, fairness, or dignified treatment of the parties–has been a program of serious study in the United States for at least half a century. But changing court culture is not merely a matter of changing judicial attitudes. All of the key players must share the new vision, including court staff, attorneys, and court users.

The trial courts in Vadodara, India are finding that out the hard way. Having declared that they will work through the summer to whittle down a docket of over 37,000 civil cases, the Vadodara courts were greeted with protests from some attorneys who had already made vacation plans. Those attorneys filed an “appeal” with the Gujarat High Court, seeking clarification that they in fact do not need to attend scheduled summer hearings. Among the reasons for seeking clarification: one hearing conflicted with an attorney’s personal naturopathy treatment.

India’s docket crisis is legendary and troubling. But judges cannot resolve these issues without the cooperation of the court system’s other key members.

Courts in India and Pakistan continue to struggle with congested dockets

Two recent end-of-year reports suggest that justice systems in India and Pakistan remain completely overwhelmed. In Pakistan, the docket of the apex court has more than doubled in five years, to more than 40,000 pending cases this year. This is unfortunately reminiscent of the terrible backlogs that India also continues to experience in its courts.

Part of the problem has to do with human resources: one report notes that India has fewer than 20 judges per million people, as compared to 51 judges per million people in the UK, and 107 judges per million people in the US. But it is also not appropriate to blame the docket crisis solely on not having enough judges. The court system needs to think more creatively–and frankly, work harder and smarter–about resolving cases efficiently.

Previous entries on India’s docket crisis can be found here, here, here, and here.

 

India’s Supreme Court to introduce live streaming

The Indian Express reports:

Ushering in more transparency in the judiciary’s work, the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave its nod to live-streaming of court proceedings, saying this will bring more accountability and enhance the rule of law.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, in two concurring judgements — one by CJI Misra and Justice Khanwilkar and other by Justice Chandrachud — said: “We hold that the cause brought before this court by the protagonists in larger public interest deserves acceptance so as to uphold the constitutional rights of the public, and the litigants in particular.”

Delving into the benefits of allowing this, Justice Chandrachud said, “Above all, sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

India gets it. When will we be able to say that of our Supreme Court?

 

More internal strife within India’s court system — UPDATED WITH DOCUMENTATION

Two stories coming out of India caught my eye this past week. The first was an op-ed discussing the ongoing debate about the use of MBA-qualified court managers to gain better control over the administration of the court system. Given the shocking backlog and delay in many of India’s courts, appointing special managers to help streamline the case management process makes good sense. But as is the case with most organizations, the introduction of “outsiders” to clean up an internal mess poses a threat to those already working within the system. Fixing this will require a cultural shift within the Indian court system, probably from the top down. But it will not be easy.

In an unrelated story, but one reflecting some of the same difficulties, an attorney was held in contempt of court and jailed for one month for making disparaging remarks about the court on Facebook. The court referred to the “judge bashing” as a form of browbeating, terrorizing, or intimidating judges.

I cannot find the exact social media post that instigated the contempt charge, so I cannot tell whether the lawyer’s actions were an anomaly or something more pervasive. But the whole story suggests an unhealthy relationship between court and counsel. Attacking the courts on Facebook is childish and unprofessional. But jailing a lawyer for a social media post is (at least seemingly) thin-skinned and cowardly. Unless the post called for violence against judges or the court system, a contempt proceeding would seem to do more harm to the courts than a Facebook post ever would.

UPDATE: The entire contempt order can be found here. It does appear that the lawyer’s Facebook comments were pretty obnoxious (although I am not culturally suave enough to decode them entirely). But the court’s 45-page defense of judicial independence and the “majesty of the law” also seems very over the top. Quoting Othello is a particularly odd, cloying touch. A shorter, sterner statement could have addressed the court’s concerns without making the judges appear so professionally and emotionally fragile.