JOURNAL OF THE ASIATTC SOCTETY OF BANGLADESH

Rule of Law is "Rule by Law not by man "

This paper dispels the myth of liberal Enlightenment in relation to penal law reforms in colonial India by advancing two sets of argument. First, the liberal project of codification on the basis of universalist notion of utilitarianism never broke with cultural hierarchy inbuilt in the very act of colonisation. In this paper, I specifically look into the emerging phenomenon of evolutionary science in the nineteenth century – social Darwinism – to explain the dominant norma-tive, as opposed to realist, justification of such racial hierarchy in colonial discourses since the nineteenth century. Second, using Dipesh Chakrabarty's theoretical framework, I provincialise the penal law reform project in colonial India through the examination of literature in the field, and substantiate how the notion of utilitarian universality remained vague and unpromising in face of instrumental needs on ground – both in the colony and in the metropolis. Taken together, these propositions dispel the myth of the liberal project of penal law reforms in colonial India based on this universalist position and underscore the fallacies of the transition narrative of modernity itself.

publisher Oxford University Press, , 1998

THE REFLECTION OF COLONIAL POWER IN BANGLADESH: A CASE STUDY, 2022

Britain having many colonies and commonwealth countries has been regarded as one of the most significant countries in the world due to its international politics. Tracing back to 12 th century, kings and queens had an authority over other countries from which Britain could benefit economically, culturally, financially, or simply socially in terms of cultural interactions. While there are a wide range of countries and regions that Britain has dominated, Bangladesh holds a crucial position as it has witnessed a colonial process and rise of British power within its boundaries. Besides having boundaries and close associations with India, which was a former colony of Britain, Bangladesh has experienced the rise of British power and penetration of Britishness in terms of society, politics, institutions, education, social norms and ultimately language. This paper aims at presenting the development of colonial power which was achieved by Britain in Bangladesh touching upon demographic aspects, cultural norms, language and institutional things by at the same time offering a general overview regarding the outcomes of colonization in Bangladesh.

Jhaveri, Swati, and Michael Ramsden, eds. Judicial Review of Administrative Action: Origins and Adaptation. Cambridge University Press., 2021

This chapter argues that the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has been moving towards a decolonized approach to judicial review of administrative action. The Court has been steadily disassociating its administrative jurisprudence from its colonial legacies on the one hand; while on the other, innovating doctrinal principles, modalities of statutory and constitutional interpretation and broadening its reliance on international legal authorities. In a bid to evolve a system of adjudication that addresses sociopolitical problems unique to Bangladesh, the Court has diverged from conventional Euro-American approaches. This divergence maybe understood in light of constitutional politics in Bangladesh, which is often animated by concerns over the doctrine separation of powers and threats to judicial autonomy. While the Court has been at the forefront of shaping administrative jurisprudence, the struggle to maintain its centrality and autonomy has also produced certain pathologies, thereby generating uncertainty and disequilibrium between institutional efficiency and administrative justice. Accordingly, the development of Bangladeshi administrative jurisprudence ought to be understood in light of these contextual and unique adaptations of judicial review.

A large number of statutes, over the last quarter of a centttr/, have provided for death sentence as punishment for various crimes. The Penal Code ol 7860, oll1' primary criminai law, contains only 7 crimes which arc punishable by sentences of death. In comparison, one of the most recent penal statue, Nari O Shisu Nirjatan Domon Biswes Ain 2000, enacted in February of this year, prescribes death sentences for as many 9 crimes. However, this ultimate sentence is imposed primarily in crimes of murder. Though the number of crimes, particularly the heinous ones, are certainly on rise and the sentences of death are being provicled for increasingly large number of crimes, these issues of crimes and punishment have not attracted academic attention. In fact, besides news reports on gruesome mllrders and sometimes on verdicts in sensational murder cases, the issne of sentence of death does not seem to have attracted figr-rred at all in academic analysis and articles and we have found only one previously published article on death sentence.l As for imposition of the sentence of death, there were (in September of 2000) 174 'condemned prisoners' in the jails of the country. The Daily. Research for this article, as a Part of a larger undertaking on death sentence, was funded by a grant from Grameen Trust. I am indebted to my research assistants Zafrvl Hasan Sharif and Layla Pervin for invaluable assistance in collecting unreported judgements, collating information from these judgements and other useful inputs, .

Illegal detention and Extrajudicial killing in Bangladesh, 2018

This paper is design to argue and comparative discussion between the respective legislation of India and Bangladesh on the arbitrary arrest, detention, custodial torture and death by law-enforcing agencies. These extrajudicial activities and killing by law-enforcing agencies is persistent feature of our criminal justice system. Over the years, the incidence of torture has only increased, with the methods becoming highly complex, involving psychical and, or physical exhaustion. This is the horrible issue arising in society ‘why the protectors become perpetrators?” The Law enforcement agencies through the misuse of laws and legal loopholes have done such arbitrary arrest, detention and custodial torture and death either for their personal interest or for serving political purposes. These practices have been widespread in Bangladesh irrespective of the forms of government and successive governments have failed to stop this endemic problem. Arbitrary arrest, detention and infliction of tortures are unacceptable in any form of government that is committed to democracy and the rule of law. Despite the legal and constitutional provisions against arbitrary arrest and detention, the practice of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture is rampant in Bangladesh. These practices have destroyed people's belief and that’s why people’s belief does not stay on Law enforcement agencies.

IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2017

2002