Bangladesh's Family Courts Ordinance (FCO) 1985 was touted as a very significant development in the personal law enforcement regime. It sought to establish a civil court of exclusive jurisdiction to dispose of family suits. The court was supposed not to follow the rules of regular civil process codified in the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) 1908. Instead, the Ordinance tried to provide a framework of rules that would avoid the protracted CPC process and ensure speedy disposal of the family suits. Additionally, a two-stage system of mediation was introduced in a hope that the avenues of alternative dispute resolution would help reducing case load of the courts and ease the sufferings of the litigants. The FCO also attempted to make the court’s decree execution process less cumbersome and more litigant friendly. This paper suggests that the system has failed in almost every aspect of its so-called specialty - exclusivity of its jurisdiction, avoidance of the CPC, the two-stage mediation and efficient and the timely execution of decrees. After explaining how this is the case, the paper concludes with some recommendations touching upon key weaknesses of the system
