Department of Law School, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) is dedicated to building a vibrant community and creating an environment that facilitates critical thinking and reflection on the fundamental legal issues confronting our interconnected world. The Department is committed to training students to be competent to facing the challenging environment. The School is staffed by an outstanding permanent, adjunct and part-time faculty member diverse in origin, expertise and qualifications.
Located in the modern town of Bashundhara, near to international airport which is a fasted growing commercial hub in the country. IUB has started its journey since 1993 with the determination of providing affordable high-quality education in Bangladesh. IUB Law Department curriculum is designed to serve students not just only from common law jurisdiction but from other jurisdictions and disciplines. It is the demand of contemporary world that the legal education is comparative, international, and multi-disciplinary. There are many visiting faculty and students from every continent, offering a lively, cosmopolitan atmosphere both inside and outside the classroom.
The strength of the IUB Law Departmentcurriculum lies in the broad and diverse range of subjects it offers. In addition to a rigorous core curriculum, students can choose electives in areas ranging from banking and finance, from public international law to intellectual property, or from arbitration to jurisprudence. The aim is to provide a liberal education that enables our graduates to think critically and creatively, as globally-oriented lawyers with a strong sense of their role in the society.
Global, regional, and uniquely Bangladeshi perspectives on legal issues are all evident in the research produced by the faculty members of IUB Law Department. The professors and lecturers at the IUB Law Departmentare not only engaged in a constant search for better legal solutions to the issues that confront all societies, but are also continually challenging accepted wisdom and conventional norms by raising new questions and problems to be confronted. Their research work stretches across all aspects of law and appears in the most prestigious journals as well as books published by leading university presses around the world.
Dhaka is an ideal place to study andconducting research in law, with excellent facilities with collaboration of several Law Faculties/Departments with their rich libraries, and infrastructure, and exceptional faculty and students. This city is becoming a favourite place among the people from neighbouring countries, middle-eastern, African and some European countries.
Legal study is one of the world’s oldest academic fields. Studying law offers the opportunity develop a range of skills and explore many aspects of human life. It gives you the chance to sharpen your mind, strengthen your understanding and deepen your experience across the full range of humanities and social sciences. You acquire both breadth of understanding and depth in the areas that interest you most.
Law should therefore appeal to those who want to develop both abstract thinking and practical problem-solving. It’s easy to see why you don’t have to become a lawyer just because you’ve done a law degree; many choose other paths. A law degree can give you the skills to be a successful lawyer but also a successful producer, politician, manager, journalist, diplomat or police officer; a law degree equips you for almost any profession that requires intellectual strength combined with a practical approach to the world.
A law degree opens up a wide range of career opportunities in a numerous of fields. At the Department of Law, IUB, we prepare our students for careers in legal practice, judiciary, business, media, the arts, science, education, engineering and governmental departments.But there is far more to studying law than just considering career opportunities:
Understanding levers of power in society
Studying law develops one’s understanding of the levers of power in our society in a way that is even more effective than that of political science. This is because law is directly concerned with power and reaches into every part of life. For that very reason law is extraordinarily important to the way of life of any people.
Understanding the ‘rule of law’
Lawyers refer to ‘the rule of law’ because a society which is governed without law leaves ordinary people at the mercy of the arbitrary abuse of power by those who are simply powerful. In some countries the rule of law is absent – think of Cambodia during the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, for example – and when that happens, life is very difficult for ordinary people who have no way of protecting themselves from the powerful.
In societies where the rule of law exists, people may even be relatively unaware of it, because their life is not interfered with by corruption and abuse of power. Australia is a country where the rule of law mostly exists, and although its legal system is not perfect in every respect, it does restrain unfettered power in many respects. Lawyers can use the law to hold governments accountable.
Making a difference through law reform
Studying law allows a person who has a strong sense of justice to see where there are defects in the system and to work constructively and effectively to change it. In this sense, studying law offers the idealistic person a realistic way to make a difference in the world. Many lawyers work in policy and law reform in this way.
An intellectual challenge
Studying law offers a wonderful intellectual challenge in that it develops the ability to argue from a basis of evidence in a way which can be very hard for non-lawyers to counter. Studying law will equip you with intellectual skills which will give you a decisive advantage in whichever profession you choose.
Differentiation Factors to prepare graduates for liberalised legal profession
“…to offer the students a learning experience where fundamental doctrines and concepts of contemporary law and practice are comprehensively explored whilst challenging the boundaries of the application of the law in the national and international context”
Students will explore the fundamentals of both Bangladeshi law and the Law of England and Wales (body of law in the International context) – Programme prepares graduates for liberalised legal profession where they will need to compete with lawyers from abroad practicing in Bangladesh (global citizens)
REAL WORLD EXPERIENCES
Highly Qualified Legal Academics
Best education can only be ensured when highly qualified academic members are employed in any department. Department of Law, IUB promises affordable best quality legal education in Bangladesh ensuring highest number of highly qualified academic members in it. This is the only Law Department in the country which ensured highest number of Ph.D degree holders.
Grooming Successful Legal Professionals
Department of Law, IUB prepares students to hit the ground running the moment they graduate, by exposing them to simulated real-world experiences and real-world practice whenever possible.Throughout their educational journey, students participate in various activities and events designed to prepare them for professional practice.
Mooting and Debating
Moots and legal debates are essential exercises that students are required to participate in during the course of their study at the Department of Law, IUB. It has a very conducive Moot Court with the relevant facilities for the students to have real world experience. Department has a designated MOOTMASTER for coaching students to participate national and international Moot competitions.
Industry Partners
The Department of Law, IUB has partnerships with number of top law firms in the city. It regularly organises networking events with industry partners. These events provide a platform for students to meet and engage with some of the country’s legal giants.Oftenselected members of partner law firms invites students to visit their firms and offers high tea and round table discussions on various important national legal issues.
Lecture Series
This initiative is taken as clinical legal service to the society at large. The Lecture Series is open to both students and staff of IUB, and various sections of the society, touches upon specialised areas of law not usually covered during classroom study.
Colloquiums
The law colloquiums not only raise awareness on current issues but also enable students to address social, economic, cultural, civil and political issues affecting our society at large. These colloquiums provide a platform for students to research, present, and debate these issues.
Field Trips
Students regularly participate in visits to the courts, Attorney General’s chambers, prisons and the Parliament, to gain exposure to law in action and to help them gain a deeper insight into the legal practice.
Law Dinners
The Department of Law, IUB organises Law ballroom dinner end of every semester to appreciate the performance of all the students and the academic members. This is also a ground for the students of the Department of Law, IUB to mingle around with the top lawyers, the members of the judiciary and various legal departments and government agencies. This event helps students to gain exposure before going to the real world of legal profession.
Legal Aid Centre
The Department of Law, IUB has established a legal aid centre to serve the society providing free legal solutions. This is student run centre under the supervision of an academic member in the department.
Pastoral Care for Students
Personal Tutorship Meetings
Buddy Mentorship
Staff Student Liaison Committee
Dialogue Session with Dean and Deputy Dean
Street Law Programmes
Street Law Programme is a new initiative by the Department of Law, IUB which allows students to pledge legal aid to the society. By this programme IUB students goes to the various part of the nations and the section of the society who needs to be furnished with the legal aid. E.G. students go to the aborigines to advise about their land rights, students go to the slams to make awareness about their rights under the Law.
Most students will choose law because they are interested in pursuing a career in the legal profession. They can either choose to practice in the court of justice or can choose to become judge to ensure justice; they can even choose to spread their legal knowledge by choosing the academic profession. They can engage themselves in in-house practice, counselling and consultancy; join multi-national corporations in their legal team, and serve other institutions using their legal skill, knowledge and capacity. A law degree can prepare someone for working at the highest levels – many world leaders are lawyers including Barack Obama, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher etc. One can also choose a different career after studying law. Such as, Derren Brown, a famous English illusionist, mentalist, trickster, hypnotist, painter, writer, and sceptic, Gaby Logan an English presenter and a former Wales international gymnast who is best known for her presenting roles with BBC Sport and ITV, and Gerard Butler, a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television, etc. are trained lawyers.
