Amendment Rules, Politics and Debates in Bangladesh

Amendment Rules, Politics and Debates in Bangladesh

Dr M Jashim Ali Chowdhury

in: Ngoc Son Bui and Mara Malagodi (eds), Asian Comparative Constitutional Law Volume II: Constitutional Amendments (Hart Publishing 2024) 367-388

Publisher's Link:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/asian-comparative-constitutional-law-volume-2-9781509949748/

Abstract

This chapter considers Bangladesh’s constitutional amendment rules, politics and debates. It evaluates the history, nature and impact of Bangladeshi amendments from a functionalist perspective developed by Ngoc Son Bui – one of the two editors of this volume (Asian Comparative Constitutional Law Volume 2: Constitutional Amendments). Bui argues that a mere rule-based and theoretical perception of constitutional amendments might not tell the whole story of amendment realities. He rather offers a ‘functional’ approach which would focus on the contexts – regional, regime and historical – in which the amendment politics roll out, the actual functions the amendments discharge in the body politic and the factors that influence the amendment choices made by the political actors. This chapter argues that Bui’s framework constitutes a suitable model for appreciating the Bangladeshi constitutional amendments within the broader lens of Asian constitutionalism.