On 23-24 February 2024, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh organised an international conference on the South Asian Constitutional Courts in the twenty-first century:

The criminal justice system of our country is primarily regulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 (CrPC). From initiation of a case i.e., lodging of the First Information Report to the conclusion of the trial, the judges must comply with the provisions of this code.

The practice of publicly displaying the faces of accused individuals in the presence of media has been longstanding.

This week Your Advocate is Barrister Omar Khan Joy, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is the head of the chambers of a renowned law firm, namely, ‘Legal Counsel’, which has expertise mainly in commercial law, family law, labor law, land law, constitutional law, criminal law, and IPR.

The oaths of the newly elected MPs have given rise to a constitutional conundrum. These oaths may be constitutional in both textual as well as literal senses. However, there are honest questions to be answered.

In a landmark judgement handed down in December 2022, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh applied the constitutional principle of equality to protect the rights of daughters and granddaughters in matters of succession under the Hindu law.

Many legal opinions are spelled out about the ‘Tangail Saree’ geographical indication (GI). Unfortunately, some of them are emotion-driven or misconceived!

Medical negligence happens whenever a healthcare professional fails to meet an acceptable level of care, causing harm to the patient.

Recently, this writer happened to have invited a friend, a judicial officer, to deliver a guest lecture on the functioning of our ‘lower judiciary’.

Data localisation requires for data, particularly personal and/or arguably sensitive, to be stored and processed within a specific geographical location or jurisdiction.

After the new Income Tax Act 2023 (the Act) was passed, a debate arose as to whether the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) powers were curtailed by the said law. In this piece I argue that the new law did not curtail the powers of ACC. The argument will get clearer as we look into the provisions of the Act in this regard.

With the Supreme Court of Mexico decriminalising abortion nationwide on 6 September 2023, Latin America continues to spearhead the movement for liberalising abortion laws. Each country in Latin America has different enforcement mechanisms for abortion laws. Some countries have allowed abortion only under certain circumstances e.g., in case of rape or when there is a health risk to the mother while some allow abortion up until a certain term of pregnancy; with a few banning it under all circumstances.

Most recently, South Africa has instituted proceedings in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel, accusing it of violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to its military operations against the Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Public assemblies play a crucial role in holding the authorities accountable and to voice demands on issues that matter.

The concept of affirmative action, also known as positive discrimination encompasses a range of policies and practices implemented by the government or other organisations to address the inadequate representation of specific groups of people.

In order to get intellectual property (IP) protection, a product ought to be a creation of mind. In this regard, at times, a product must also fulfil other criteria, such as novelty, utility, originality etc based on the kind or manner of IP protection.

Social safety net programmes to protect the vulnerable population are not a new concept. However, in the context of Bangladesh, the Universal Pension Management Act 2023 is quite a novel (and laudable) initiative. In this write-up, we will focus on the important aspects of the Act as well as compare it with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) multi-tier pension model.

2023 was a year filled with new legislation. A total of 50 new laws were enacted by the parliament on a wide range of areas. Law making in 2023 was by and large characterised by a reform spirit (i.e., reforming old laws), devising welfare schemes, and defining new offences. Few notable ones are discussed in this piece.

In view of the end of 2023, the write-up compiles certain landmark decisions that were handed down by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh last year.

In 2022, one of the most concerning impacts of noise pollution was witnessed when a four-month-old child succumbed to death amid excessive noise of fireworks during new year-eve celebrations.