The Stateless Soul: What Happens To Identity When Law Abandons The Body
- IJLLR Journal
- 35 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Riya Bhatia, OP Jindal Global University (Jindal Global Law School)
ABSTRACT
This essay examines the legal and spiritual vacuum created when international law does not provide protection for the most vulnerable people, who are not only rendered invisible as refugees but also as stateless souls. The state-centric basis of international legal systems that require documentation for protection is criticised, erasing the identity and dignity of innumerable people including women, children, and the displaced whose existence is not recognised by geopolitical structures.The essay makes the case that human identity is sacred not because it is acknowledged by the state but rather because it exists at all, drawing on the legal theories of Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben as well as biblical knowledge from the Bhagavad Gita, Quran, Bible, Torah, and Guru Granth Sahib. It exposes the systematic dehumanisation of women and children during wartime through case studies from Gaza and Afghanistan and denounces the failure of international legal institutions to bring powerful violators to justice. The essay argues for the reintroduction of spiritual conscience into the practice of law and reveals that contemporary legal procedures frequently function as soulless moral theatre rituals. In the end, it is a moral critique of a legal system that honours treaties but disregards the deceased and an appeal to make the soul the primary focus of justice.
