Civilian supremacy in democracies with ‘fault lines’: The role of the parliamentary standing committee on defence in Bangladesh

This article sets out to identify the conditions that promote civilian supremacy over the military in the post-military democracies. The article addresses the case of Bangladesh, where a decade-old post-military democratic political process is riddled with problems, such as the absence of opposition parties in the parliament, chronic political instability and violence and inefficient governance. However, the powerful military has not yet shown any inclination towards intervention in domestic politics. Rather, various civilian institutions, such as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence (PSCD), have been successful in raising the level of the military's accountability to the civilian government and society. The article seeks to explain the role of PSCD during 1998–2001 in promoting civilian supremacy in Bangladesh. It argues that three sets of factors can explain the PSCD's role. First, there is intense competition for political power between the two major parties, which resists the military's involvement in politics in favour of any one political party. Second, there is the important role of civil society in favour of civilian supremacy. Third, there are external factors such as the donor countries' and international agencies' stance in favour of democracy and the Bangladesh military's participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions, which are discouraging military intervention in politics at home.     

'The erosion of property law principles in cohabitation disputes--a step too far?': Stack V Dowder [2007] 1 All ER 929, HL

Cohabitation of unmarried couples is becoming ever so popularin the society. Accordingly the number of property disputesbetween such couples is on the rise. Until now the law in thisarea was marred with conflicting dictums. In Stack v Dowdenthe House of Lords tried to resolve these conflicts by layingdown a simple rule that if there is a joint legal ownershipthe presumption would be of joint beneficial ownership. Thisarticle argues that the framework suggested by the majorityof House of Lords in Stack v Dowden cannot be rationalized bythe long standing law of property.