Corruption and Judges' Personal Independence in the Judiciary of Bangladesh: One Bad Apple Can Spoil the Bunch

Authors

S M. Solaiman, University of Wollongong, Australia

Abstract

Corruption appears to have been an inexorable crime in Bangladesh for decades. More deplorably, the magnitude of judicial corruption has profoundly increased the miseries of litigants. The situation is so awful that the nation's two successive Attorney Generals have publicly raised the issue to two consecutive Chief Justices of Bangladesh at their felicitation gatherings organized by lawyers of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh soon after their appointments as the nation's top judges. Consistently, empirical findings of Transparency International, a German-based organization, and Transparency International Bangladesh have unequivocally revealed the practice of a large extent of judicial corruption. These allegations are further intensified when a sitting Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Bangladesh publicly commented that courts are hindering the disposal of corruption cases, and the judicial system is not helpful in eradicating corruption. Even more appallingly, the conviction of a former Chief Justice of graft cases in November 2021 has probably rung the final alarm for the government to wake up and take stern actions against corruption. Bangladesh has achieved appreciable economic development over the past decade and is now striving to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs") by 2030, but corruption is eating away at that aspiration. More importantly, many justice-seekers are victims of injustice in violation of their fundamental human right to a fair trial, which is central to the rule of law and democracy. With due regard to the people's rights and aforesaid allegations, this Article examines the considerations in making judicial decisions with a particular emphasis on judges' personal independence and submits specific recommendations for effectively addressing the deeply entrenched judicial corruption in Bangladesh. The recommendations would benefit other nations encountering a similar problem with respect to judicial corruption.

Disciplines

Comparative and Foreign Law | Human Rights Law | International Law | Law | Taxation-Transnational

Recommended Citation

S M. Solaiman, Corruption and Judges' Personal Independence in the Judiciary of Bangladesh: One Bad Apple Can Spoil the Bunch, 6 Cardozo Int’l & Compar. L. Rev. 501 (2023).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/ciclr/vol6/iss2/5