Promise and Perils of Basic Structure Doctrine in Bangladesh

This article argues that the use of the basic structure doctrine has upset its moral authority in ensuring the meaningful exercise of amending flexibility in Bangladesh. In doing so, it accepts the ‘why’ of the doctrine by finding it clearly compatible with constitutional democracy and goes on to assess its desirability by focusing on ‘how’ the doctrine has been (mis)used and ‘how’ it should be used in future constitutional cases of Bangladesh. Toward this end, it marks the misjudgments that have been woven into the doctrine and calls for redesigning the operational framework for the doctrine from the perspective of inevitability as well as the minimalism of the judicial role.