One of the enduring maledictions that plagues Bangladesh is bribery and corruption, which is prevalent across sectors, including our judiciary.

Bangladesh has recently introduced section 46A to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1898, a reform aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability, and fundamental fairness during the process of arrest.

Battery-run rickshaws are the blind spot for the laws governing the streets in Bangladesh, and we might be suffering all the more for it. In this piece, I will attempt to discuss the relevant legal framework and give my views on what ought to be done.

Few areas of law are as labyrinthine as Company Law, where intricate rules on formation, governance, and finance demand both precision and insight.

The Bay of Bengal, central to the nation’s “Blue Economy” ambitions, is a zone of immense opportunity.

Bangladesh has missed the critical deadline to implement the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC 2009), which it ratified in June 2023, but enforcement is still pending as of June 2025.

The continuing paradigm of domestic violence and other social obstacles taught the women to be empowered, especially financially. Policies were passed for women’s education; seats were reserved in many professional sectors and even in parliament. While women’s empowerment became another project for every other political party to attract votes in the election, very little was done to successfully put an end to domestic violence.

In Bangladesh’s criminal justice system, the admissibility of recorded materials e.g., First Information Reports (FIR), witness statements, confessions, medical reports, and post-mortem findings without examining their preparers is a nuanced legal issue shaped by statutory provisions, judicial interpretations, and procedural safeguards.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is a term that is increasingly gaining prominence in global climate adaptation discourse. NbS unify existing ecosystem-based strategies emphasising the use of natural processes to manage environmental risks. 

Access to justice is embedded in the fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution. According to our Constitution, every citizen has a right to be treated equally under the law (Article 27) and possesses an inalienable right to legal protection (Article 31). However, justice remains out of reach for millions of underprivileged people living below the poverty line, due to unfortunate circumstances. Legal aid aims to address this disparity, but its effectiveness continues to be an issue of both hope and frustration.

Despite Bangladesh making commendable progress in advancing the rights and treatment of women and children ever since its independence, there are certain enduring challenges that need to be addressed. Gender justice aims to ensure that individuals, regardless of their gender, have equal rights, opportunities and protections. However, the prevalence of patriarchal ideologies creates significant barriers to achieving this goal.

On 22 August 2025, several Bangladeshi newspapers, including The Daily Star reported another tragedy- the custodial death of a 27-year-old Durjoy Chowdhury, arrested only a day earlier. According to the police, he had “committed suicide” by hanging. But does this explanation absolve the responsibility of the state? To find the answer to this question, we need to look at what our law actually says about deaths in custody.

The rate of conviction in cases of violence against women and children in Bangladesh is alarmingly low. A 2019 research by ActionAid reveals that, on average, it takes two years to begin trial proceedings in four out of every five cases.

More than a million Rohingyas are living in the refugee camps in Southern Bangladesh who are not only deprived of citizenship but also access to justice.

The Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 (CrPC) has been the cornerstone of our administration of criminal justice for more than a century.

Last year, within 9 months, road crashes claimed more than 5,500 lives, while 33.71% of these occurred on national highways.

The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937, through section 2, envisages Islamic Shariat to have its full application in certain cases, such as gifting properties when the parties are Muslims.

Unfortunately, the gendered effects of climate disasters are ignored by national policies in Bangladesh. This happens although women are more likely to be victims of trafficking, violence, and displacement.

Thirty-eight years ago, on the 7th day of August, the founder editor of Dhaka Law Reports (DLR) Obaidul Huq Chowdhury, left this mortal world for his eternal abode. Today, we remember him with a deep sense of reverence. He founded the DLR to project the views of the then Dhaka High Court on legal jurisprudence.

Climate change is no longer solely an environmental issue; it has become a critical human rights challenge, especially for the most vulnerable communities.