ODR in the Civil Justice System of Bangladesh: Prospects and Challenges
ODR in the Civil Justice System of Bangladesh: Prospects and Challenges
Md Sekander Zulker Nayeen and Md Abbas Uddin
 
ABSTRACT: The judiciary of Bangladesh is overburdened with a huge case backlog (currently about 3.63 million, where nearly 1.54 million are civil cases). It still operates in traditional ways, with limited or no use of technology. Consequently, the justice delivery process in Bangladesh is not economical regarding cost and time effectiveness. To address these issues, Bangladesh adopted and developed a system of court-annexed mediation in 2003, but it did little to change the situation. Hence, the government is actively considering moving towards e-judiciary, for which the COVID-19 pandemic also served as a push factor. Given this context, the article has assessed the prospects of introducing Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in the formal justice system of Bangladesh, having its socioeconomic realities in context. In doing so, this research has investigated the economic and commercial benefits of ODR. It has also developed the normative framework of ODR, analysing the experiences from the States of Utah, British Columbia, and the UK, where ODR got some developments. Then, the study assessed the prospects and challenges of introducing ODR in Bangladesh based on the proposed normative framework.

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