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Till today, there exists no straight-jacket formula for testing the legitimacy of governments. The idea of legitimacy is a predominantly fluid idea which changes with the change in society. This paper seeks to establish the relationship between the legal concept of legitimacy and the state of the society. The ideas to assess legitimacy that have been put forth are over simplified. This paper thus advocates an elaborate idea - initially put forth by Aspremont - which breaks legitimacy down into two - legitimacy of origin and legitimacy of exercise. Simply put, the first refers to how a government comes to power and the latter refers to the way in which utilizes the power. Thus a monochrome view of the concept of legitimacy needs to give way to a spectral view of both origin and exercise, under which both need to be accorded weight in testing for legitimacy. Thee paper also analyses the role of recognition in determining the legitimacy of a government. The main question that the paper would seek to answer is whether democracy has become the touchstone of legitimacy in the present day world? The answer to this would involve a discourse into the much talked about procedural and the less talked about substantive elements of a democracy. This would be buttressed by an analysis of some of the governments of the present as well as the past. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyze the rights accorded to homosexuals as a sexual minority with special reference to India. Specifically, the object is two-fold: firstly, to establish that even homosexuals have a legal right to marry in India; secondly, to establish the unconstitutionality of anti-sodomy law in India (Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code). The right to marry being a basic human and fundamental right in India, denying homosexuals this right would amount to discrimination. The principle of non-discrimination on the basis of 'sex' - enshrined in the Indian Constitution - includes within its ambit non discrimination on the basis of 'sexual orientation', thereby implying that 'sexual orientation' is a subset of 'sex'. Further, the paper shall establish the unconstitutionality of anti-sodomy law in India which was essentially a crystallization of the western Judeo-Christian concept of heterosexual paradigm by the British during their rule over India, and how such laws have now been discarded and repealed by a majority of these very western nations. The legal invalidity of the provision shall be based upon: the legal doctrines of unreasonableness, arbitrariness, non-discrimination on the basis of sex and the right to privacy - all enshrined under the Indian Constitution; the doctrine of desuetude; and on the basis that the said law violates India's various international obligations and would in reality lead to the 'underground' spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Throughout the paper references to the global scenario concerning homosexuals and their legal rights would be made which would provide a comparative analysis. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]