Autumn School on ADR
The law faculty of Dhaka International University (DIU) organised its second autumn school on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) recently at Madaripur Legal Aid Association (MLAA) in Madaripur town.
It was a unique initiative by DIU where a private university arranged a programme outside Dhaka for its students to know legal processes beyond the classroom and to exchange views with people.
Judges from lower courts, academicians, practitioners, activists and 40 law students participated in the three-day residential camp, held from September 29 to October 1, says a press release.
Md Nuruzzaman, District and Sessions Judge (DSJ) of Madaripur, delivered the inaugural speech as chief guest, while Zakir Hossain, Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Madaripur; Shameem Haider Patwary, a barrister and vice-chairman, Board of Trustees, DIU, QMH Supan, associate professor, Department of Law, University of Dhaka, addressed the students as special guests.
Raisul Islam Sourav, assistant professor and coordinator, Department of Law, DIU, presented a paper on Necessity of Introducing ADR in Land Related Dispute Settlement at the inaugural session, where he urged launching ADR before initiating any law suit.
Mashiur Rahman Shaon, a presenter at the event, said ADR is an alternative forum for litigants to get redress within a very short time, while spending small amount of money and labour. It is high time to consider ADR in every sphere to reduce backlog of cases,cases, he urged. Jannatul Ferdous, an LLM student, opined that this kind of programme beyond the classroom will help students to understand the problem from a justice seekers perspective. Nasima Islam Monny, a student of LLB (Hons), expressed her gratitude to MLAA for arranging a visit to an actual mediation process. It breaks our myths about success of ADR, and it is important for any learner to get practical knowledge from the actual field, she said. Another participant, Arif Rabbani, said the principles of ADR are included in Islamic law and we can follow those to get quicker as well as effective remedy.
DSJ Nuruzzaman shared his experiences with the students. Patwary mentioned that DIUs initiative brought the students to the justice seeker to compare their knowledge with reality. At the end, CJM Zakir Hossain clarified some issues relating to ADR and answered questions on ADR in the civil justice system. The session was presided by Mily Sultana, assistant professor and chairperson, Department of Law, DIU.
On the second day, Patwary exchanged opinions on arbitration law and practice in Bangladesh, while Md Sanaul Huq, Joint District and Sessions Judge of Jhalokathi, focussed on different aspects of mediation. Later, Jamila A Chowdhury conducted a session on Women Empowerment through Mediation: Challenging Social Antiquities in Mediation under the Shadow of Law.
At the concluding session, Fazlul Huq, secretary, MLAA, informed the students about his struggles to popularise ADR, instead of formal litigations, to reduce backlog of cases in our courts. MLAA arranged a visit for the students to an actual mediation on October 1 at Kenduya Union Parishad. Certificates were distributed among the participants at the closing session.
