INTRODUCTION
Before I look at the decade and its unfinished agenda from a legal perspective, let me quote what some of the great jurists have said about the law. Justice Holmes had said that “Laws are felt necessities of time”. Justice Cardozo had said that “Life of law has not been a logic, it has been experiencing.” These two jurists tell us that laws depend on time and experience. As time changes, society changes, the law should also change. If, however, there is a gap between society and the law, it is bad for both. The global, Asian, as well as Indian national economic reforms in this decade, have been the hallmark of this decade. The main direction of these reforms is of-course towards what Gorbachev said – glasnost and Parastrioka i.e. openness and freedom. The world has come to accept the theory of capitalism and market-driven competition.
These economic reforms certainly had an impact on the legal reforms. At the international level, the increase in world trade has resulted in an increase in a number of international treaties either bilateral i.e. between two countries or multilateral i.e. between more than two countries. The General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT), the Urugave round and Dunkel Draft came to be discussed and many countries like India accepted it. Consequently, many countries like India and recently even Chiana accepted the World Trade Organisation regime. All these rounds, drafts and ultimate treaties which are signed between the countries are nothing but the job of those connected with the law with of-course the aid of economists. The treaties of these nature are signed on approval of the legislatures of different countries and these treaties results in imposing rights and duties on nation states.