A compelling exchange once took place between Shami Chakrabarti, former president of the UK-based human rights organisation Liberty, and the eminent jurist Lord Thomas Bingham following his lecture on ‘The Rule of Law’.
Recently, the Constitution Reform Commission (CRC) has made certain reform proposals to be brought to the Constitution. Two main reforms are central to the CRC’s proposal relating to fundamental rights. First, the CRC advocates for the justiciability of socio-economic rights, recognising them as enforceable legal rights subject to “progressive realisation” based on available resources. Judicial oversight would ensure that the state demonstrates reasonable efforts in fulfilling these rights.
In 1937, Ireland, for the first time, incorporated the Economic, Social and Cultural (ESC) rights in its Constitution as unenforceable directive principles. Countries such as India and Bangladesh followed the same model in their respective Constitutions.
The cyber legal landscape of Bangladesh has witnessed a phase of transition in recent years, initially marked by the repealing of the controversial Digital Security Act (DSA), 2018 with the Cyber Security Act (CSA), 2023 and now replacing the Cyber Security Act with the Cyber Protection Ordinance (CPO), 2025.
On April 28, the world observes the World Day for Safety and Health at Work—a day specified by the UN to reflect on how to make workplaces safer.
The crime of ‘Ecocide’ has been proposed to be considered as the fifth international crime, along with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by an expert panel in 2021. The proposed definition is “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”
The relationship between environmental protection and armed conflict is ‘bi-directional’. The concern lies not only with how international law applies to military activities and their environmental effects, but also with how environmental risks can escalate threats to peace and security. This write-up aims to highlight the important rules in international law relating to environmental protection in armed conflicts.
Judicial activism is a complex concept that can be both beneficial and risky. A few instances of judicial activism being truly beneficial are in order. In Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh v Bangladesh and others (Turag River case), it was held by our High Court Division (HCD) that Turag River and all rivers in or flowing in Bangladesh will be considered legal entity. Similarly, in another instance, the HCD held pharmaceutical companies accountable by issuing a writ of mandamus to ensure service standards and reform medical care.
Department of Law, University of Information Technology and Sciences (UITS) recently hosted a Law Lecture featuring distinguished constitutional law scholar, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ekramul Haque, who presented the keynote lecture “Constitutional Reform in Bangladesh: What Changes Do We Need to Bring?”
From the earliest periods of human civilisation, religion has served as one of the foundational elements of social identity and cohesion.
On 5 August 2024, the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India in the face of a nationwide uprising led primarily by students.
Article 35(3) of the Constitution of Bangladesh enshrines that every person accused of criminal offence shall have the right to a speedy and public trial by an independent and impartial court or tribunal established by law.
The Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), the century-old go-to apparatus for the civil law practitioners in Bangladesh, have gone through significant amendments. The amendments by and large aim to streamline civil court’s processes, expedite the disposal of civil suits, and ensure more effective and speedy remedy for the litigants.
