Fighting Against Black Money by Offering Amnesty for Economic Development in Bangladesh: A Stigma Can Never Be a Beauty Spot

Black money is a global concern. However, black money has disproportionately affected Bangladesh. To combat the proliferation of black money in the country, successive governments of Bangladesh have offered amnesties to black money holders (BMHs) in contravention of the national Constitution, legislation, and international conventions. Nonetheless, responses to such incentives have been notably poor, mainly because the wrongdoers do not fear the superficial threat of law enforcement. This article examines the BMHs’ responses to amnesties so far and explains the substantial harm caused by such discriminatory favors, including increases in corruption, the price of real estate, money laundering, deposits by Bangladeshis in Swiss banks, defaulted bank loans, and capital flights. To address these problems, this article makes several recommendations, including discontinuing amnesties, placing checks and controls on corruption, strengthening watchdog and law enforcement agencies, incentivizing whistle-blowers and the establishment of the Ombudsman’s office, and establishing a new statutory body for the assessment of the performance of financial regulators. In addition, this article argues that effective measurements need to be undertaken to increase global cooperation, enhance public awareness, and stimulate social movement. These recommendations aim to improve the regulatory regime in Bangladesh in preventing black money, and they may also be suitable for other countries facing similar issues

Physical Elements of Rape under the Core Criminal Laws of Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan and Australia: A Comparative Review

Rape is a crime that invades the human body, degrades victims, offends the conscience of humankind, and causes physical, mental and reputational damage─ sometimes leading to tragic deaths of many innocent lives resulting from forceful transgression by perpetrators or deliberate cruelty inflicted by their own family members in the name of “honor killing”. Rape is a global problem, and one that is increasingly rising in Pakistan and Malaysia. Viewing one’s law through the lenses of others, this article critically examines the rape laws of Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia (NSW), all of which inherited their laws from the common colonial rule of the British Empire. It finds that Pakistan and Malaysia are still largely reliant upon their archaic penal codes, whilst Singapore and Australia have brought about fundamental new changes in their laws. Although the laws of no country could be claimed to be flawless, it is clear that the reforms adopted by Singapore and Australia have transformed their laws into a more practical and comprehensive formulation compared to those of the other two. This article identifies the loopholes in the physical elements of the offense existing in the laws of the selected four jurisdictions to varying extents, and it submits specific suggestions for legal reform in order to protect their respective societies from the perils of a heinous crime. Against the backdrop of the passivity of the governments of Pakistan and Malaysia in reforming their rape laws with respect to physical elements and recent increase in the incidents of this offense, this article attempts to address the deficiency and impotence of their present laws in light of their equivalents with the latest amendments in Singapore and Australia. Such a comparative and comprehensive analysis does not exist in the current literature, this is where the significance of this research lies. Although the recommendations are tailored to assist in overhauling primarily the laws of the chosen jurisdictions, these can also be utilized by other nations where laws on rape are deficient and ineffective in preventing and punishing the crime. Keywords: Rape, Actus Reus, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/132-01 Publication date:May 31st 202

Prevention of Judicial Corruption in Bangladesh: Cutting the Gordian Knot by Ensuring Accountability

Judicial corruption has eaten away at good governance in Bangladesh for decades, hindering its ambition to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”) and taking advantage of the absence of any effective accountability mechanism. The magnitude of corruption is so intense that the successive Chief Justices, Attorneys-General, local, and international anti-corruption organizations, and even the Supreme Court of Bangladesh (“SCB”) itself in a judgment have forthrightly admitted the prevalence of judicial corruption. The malpractice does profoundly undermine the rule of law and infringe on the people’s right to fair trial. Corruption is on the rise in the country as pronounced by Transparency International in its Corruption Perception Index 2022 released on February 1, 2023. The existence of the sole accountability body, the Supreme Judicial Council (“SJC”), is now in limbo following the constitutional amendment in 2014 replacing the SJC with the parliamentary empowerment in removing the SCB judges. Meanwhile the SCB has declared the amendment unconstitutional and ordered restoration of the SJC. But the executive has lodged a review petition reinforcing its refusal to return to the SJC consisting of exclusively three designated SCB judges. Consequently, judicial accountability is presently hamstrung by the conflict between the judiciary and the executive. This Article first presents a critical analysis of the entrenched judicial corruption and its consequences and then recommends establishing a new accountability body embracing judge and non-judge members building on the international standards stipulated by the International Commission of Jurists and its successful application in Australia. The Article formulates the composition and functions of the new body to be called Judicial Commission of Bangladesh (“JCB”) to bring about a reconciliation between the two apparently irreconcilable organs of the government and operate as a watchdog for the judiciary

Impunity of frequent corporate homicides by recurrent fires at garment factories in Bangladesh: Bangladeshi culpable homicide compared with its equivalents in the United Kingdom and Australia

How corporations can be best prevented from causing deaths of others has been a critical concern of judges, legislators, prosecutors and academics alike around the world since the 19th century. Concerns for workplace safety have mounted globally in recent decades, propelling the demand for industrial manslaughter prosecution as a more effective use of criminal suits. Like the regulation of human conduct, criminal Jaw is considered to be an instrument for changing corporate behaviour in a way that fosters future conformity with the expectations of society

Rampant food adulteration in Bangladesh: Gross violations of fundamental human rights with impunity

Food adulteration in Bangladesh is rampant and an increasingly serious concern for its residents. Several studies including those of the Directorate General of Health Services reveal that hundreds of people are getting killed every year eating adulterated foodstuffs and no one seems to have any real concern about such a life-threatening wrongful act. Food adulteration is criminally prohibited, but the wrongdoers care little about this proscription simply because of the continued apathy of the governmental agencies concerned and implicit acceptance or insensible ignorance of consumers. However, the current fragmented legal and regulatory regime for food safety in Bangladesh falls short of international standards. This article demonstrates that the Government of Bangladesh is obliged to prevent food adulteration and to punish perpetrators under its international as well as constitutional obligations. It is also submitted that effective regulation of such an endemic malfeasance entails weakening the offenders by adopting international standards and educating the consumers at the same time

Potential Risk Of Organic Manures Application On Soil Salinization

Application of organic manures as fertilizer is essential in supporting plant with nutrients and soil improvement. Field and laboratory experiments were carried out to assess the effect of three organic manures on soil salinity. Field experiment was arranged in randomized split plot, the main plots were two levels of soil salinity at average of 2.9 and 8.7 mS/cm, the sub plots were alfalfa green manure, chicken manure and cow manure at rate of 20 t/ha added one month before sowing of maize crop. The results showed that; soil salinity was raised up to 5.5, 5.1 and 5.8 mS/cm in low saline soil in the first season for alfalfa, cow and chicken manure respectively, whereas in the second season the salinity was increased in respective up to 7.3, 5.3 and 6.4 mS/cm. The high saline soil salinity was increased from 8.7 mS/cm to 10.9, 12.4 and 13.1 mS/cm in the first season, and 12.6, 13.6 and 14.4 mS/cm in the second season for alfalfa, cow and chicken manure respectively. The results of the laboratory experiment showed that salinity level increased linearly with increasing rate of organic manure for all organic materials investigated in this study. Keywords: organic manures, soil salinity, sustainable agricultur

Determining the status of chlorinated pesticide residue in some leafy vegetables

A study was carried out to identify the bioaccumulation and the ascertain level of chlorinated pesticide residues in three leafy vegetables viz. red amaranth, spinach and Indian spinach collected from city market. The samples were randomly collected from different shops and analyzed by capillary column of Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) with Electron Impact Ionization (EI) method for the detection of chlorinated pesticide. The results of the study revealed that collected samples of red amaranth and spinach were contaminated with some chlorinated substances. But Indian spinach was free of contamination with organochlorine pesticide