Rule of Law and Good Governance in Bangladesh: Does Judicial Control Matter?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of judicial control in establishing rule of law and its impact on good governance in Bangladesh. Rule of law and human rights are very burning issues in Bangladesh now. This paper highlights on few core aspects of rule of law such as- equality before law, absence of arbitrary exercise of government power and protecting rights of citizens. Besides, the paper also highlights some cases analysis which is directly related to environmental rights of citizens. The key findings of the paper are:i. Democratic and sound political environment is the most crucial for rule of law and human rights as well good governance but the present state of political culture in Bangladesh is very ghastly which impeded establishment of rule of law, human rights and democratic governance. ii.Though, rule of law is one of the most crucial elements of good governance and judiciary is a very vital institution of government to establish rule of law in a country. However, breach of equality before law, abuse of power and violation of human rights are still stirring in Bangladesh. Delay and log jam of cases is another crucial problem of Bangladesh judiciary which appears in few cases of this paper. It has also found that the role of some NGOs or human rights defender organizations is very effective to promote and protect individual rights as well as to uphold the spirit of rule of law. The main learning lesson of this paper is that there is no single entity by which rule of law or good governance of a country may ensure.