With a glorious history spanning over 103 years from the inception of the University of Dhaka and its Faculty of Law in the year 1921, these years have yielded the intellectual backbone of both the country and the legal field. The Faculty of Law is the oldest and longest running faculty of law in Bangladesh, its history laden with illustrious feats in the field of academics, extra-curriculars and alumni alike. It stands as the pioneer of legal education through and throughout, be it historically or contemporarily, shaping the legal field of Bangladesh as it moves forward. We grow and nurture our students in an inclusive environment and equip them with a wide range of skills and academics necessary to navigate the 21st century. Our prowess in legal education is unparalleled, mostly attributable to the rigorous academic endeavors, knowledgeable faculties who are authorities in their respective fields and last but not least our hardworking students whose efforts make all of the faculty’s efforts worthwhile.
We pride ourselves in birthing and nurturing hundreds of social engineers, who move on to shape the past, present and future of Bangladesh, not only in the legal field in the form of judges, lawyers and consultants, but also as researchers, academics and flag-bearers of Bangladesh on an international level. Our dexterous alumni are not only contributing to the country from inside the country through being part of the judiciary as judicial magistrates, district judges, Supreme Court judges and Chief Justices, or only through being resourceful lawyers in district courts and Supreme Court but also as political analysts, forensic researchers, academics globally, secretariat of the United Nations amongst many other professions where our people excel greatly. Our alumni can be seen working hard in all three organs of the state, the judiciary, legislative and judiciary. They fare greatly in pursuing higher education in top ranking universities of the world like Harvard University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, New York University (NYU), and The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), amongst many other leading universities. Notably, our teachers have completed higher education degrees and professional degrees from top ranking universities as well.
Albeit the characterization of the University of Dhaka as a small university nestled in South Asia, we always strive to provide education at international standards, our constant revisiting of syllabi, teaching methods and evaluation procedures facilitate our adherence to international standards in the field of education. It is possible to maintain our academic standards owing to the fact that we have the most amazing teachers, who are so knowledgeable in their fields that the academia that they produce become the norm for the rest of the country, and those pieces of academia are what represent Bangladesh to the outside world. We pride ourselves in having the most apt bunch of faculties who are able to implement contemporary methods of teaching in consonance with global standards while simultaneously tending to the needs of our students and budding talents. Besides the regular academic endeavors as to classes, the Faculty of Law publishes the Dhaka University Law Journal (DULJ) which both historically and contemporarily has yielded some of the best academia this country has every produced, our faculties alumni and authors have displayed the utmost academic rigor and have made sure that DULJ stands as one of the leading publications in Bangladesh in the legal field. The Faculty of Law of the University of Dhaka has always been at the forefront of publications in the national level, as well as the international level, where our faculties and alumni regularly contribute to leading publications around the world and have published in Oxford, Cambridge, Springer, Routledge, Brill, Hart, Brill, amongst many other leading international publishers.
Our pursuit of academic excellence is coupled with our effort and subsequent success in extra-curricular and co-curricular activities, with our students excelling at moot court competitions at home and abroad, bringing home accolades from Bangladesh, Asia and beyond! We have introduced an extensive law clinic program which delves into the idea of clinical legal education, the format of which accentuates the study of law of our students and makes sure that they get an ample taste of what real-world law feels like after the arduous task of studying everything in theory.
The Faculty of Law of the University of Dhaka began its journey from the foundation of the University in 1921. Since then the Faculty of Law has been contributing enormously towards the legal education in this country. Until 1973, it offered a two-year LL.B. evening programme. During the 1973-1974 session, it introduced a three-year LL.B. Honours course in lieu of the evening programme. The duration of this course was subsequently extended to four years in the 1977-1978 academic session. Since 1976-1977 session, one-year LL.M. course is in place. The Faculty offers two research degrees in Law, namely, M.Phil. and Ph.D.
Under the revised syllabus newly introduced in the 2004-2005 session for the students of LL.B. (Honours), the marks for the subjects offered in the undergraduate program got increased from 1700 to 2300. The grading system introduced in session 2010-2011, included 2200 marks equivalent to 132 credits against 24 subjects offered at the undergraduate level and 100 marks equivalent to 6 credits against four viva-voce exams taken at the end of each year- in-total 2300 marks equivalent to 138 credits. In 2005-2006 session, Master of Laws (General & Specialized) Course was introduced.