THIS Encyclopedic Compendium is surely one of those rare books which can not but be the product only of the most prolonged commitment to a cause and readiness to devote years to realise the commitment. As the authors have mentioned in the Preface, their's was not 'writing a book'. I must add, it would have been more appropriate if they said "not merely writing a book", in the conventional sense of the term. Everybody who even only skims through the hundreds of pages of these volumes can easily see and agree with the authors that their effort "was more laborious, time-consuming and tedious than writing a book." And, understandably, it took the authors almost six years to finish this massive book.

We generally know that there are laws a plenty. However, until the publication of this book, there was no way of knowing or even finding out all the laws on neither any given topic/subject/issue nor the numerous amendments to the laws even if one managed to find a law on any given subject.

The four volumes of the book, covering more than 2,000 pages, contains the title of our laws, their amendments and rules and where these can be found, i.e., the volume and page number of Gazettes, law reports and other publications, as appropriate and applicable. These basic information took, as already indicated, more than 2,000 printed pages to cover.

The laws of Bangladesh have been arranged under three major headings; first the laws in force have been arranged chronologically, i.e., the laws enacted are listed under each separate year, starting from 1799. The earlier official publication, Bangladesh Code, starts with laws from 1825, giving the wrong impression that there are no law prior to 1825 which are in force. The oldest law in force is The Wills and Intestacy Regulation, 1799 (Bengal Regulation V of 1799), as recorded in this Compendium. This Act can be found in East Pakistan Code, Vol. Bengal Code, Vol. I, at pp 5-8, I, at pp. 81-85. The footnote to this entry indicates that this Act was last amended in 1982. In some years, such as 1984, as

many as 78 Ordinances were promulgated whereas in other years such as 1998, there is no entry under Ordinances. We all know about the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 but surely no one knows that this Code was amended more than 70 times, the first amendment brought about by the Currency Notes Forgery Act, 1899 and the most recent amending Act was The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2000.

The laws are then arranged alphabetically. The footnotes here indicate the number of sections of the law and, more importantly, whether the law confers any rules making power. If rules have been framed, relevant foot-notes indicate as to where in the Compendium can one find these rules. For example, footnote 10 to Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Ordinance, 1982 (p.303) states that section 46 has conferred rule making power and that rules framed under this Ordinance can be found in Chapter 6, among the rules framed in 1982 (chronological listing of Rules) and in Chapter 7, under alphabets 'A' and 'R' (under alphabetical listing of Rules). Therefore, going through alphabetically, under 'A' in Chapter 7, we find that Acquisition of Immovable Property Rules, 1982 (S.R.O. 172-L/182) was framed and this Rule was published in Bangladesh Gazette dated 5 June, 1982.

These chronological and alphabetical arrangements of laws comprise Volume I of the Compendium.

The third arrangement of laws is under 'subject matters', Volume II. In Chapter 4, in this Volume II, the authors have introduced a novel category, that of "Parent Laws". The authors explain: "_ the term 'parent laws' has been used to mean the laws which were enacted first on any issue or subject, as opposed to subsequent amendment/s of these laws at later periods." (p. 561) The authors have found 961 such 'parent laws'.

In the beginning of this Chapter 5, the authors have mentioned that "In this chapter the laws have been categorised according to subject matter and then presented in alphabetical order. Needless to say that the subject head categorisation of laws by the authors has been subjective, reflecting the perception of the authors." All told, the laws have been categorised under 1596 different subject headings. Laws on major subjects such as Agriculture have been further categorised under such headings as agricultural bank, agricultural census, agricultural debtors, agricultural development and so on including agricultural research and agricultural university. There are such uncommon subjects for laws such as dargah or decimal coinage and very common ones such as Corporation, which includes a list of 61 laws, including the repealed one. This subject categorisation is extremely useful if one is trying to find laws on a subject which is not commonly invoked in courts and for researchers this is almost a gold mine. From now on any researcher (lawyers and judges as well) looking for laws on any particular subject, topic and so forth can pick up this Volume II and find all the relevant laws and other volumes would indicate the amendments and rules framed under the laws found.

Volume III is on rules, again arranged chronologically and alphabetically. This Volume also contains list of Regulations, Orders and other Bye-Laws in Operation. In these times of Union Parishad election, one can see that there is only one law on Union Parishad (from the subject heading "union parishad") and six Rules under "U" in the Rules sections.

Volume IV lists repealed, expired and spent laws and laws declared to be no part of laws of Bangladesh. The attention to detail is evident in this Volume as well. The author cites the law which has been repealed and the repealing law, i.e., the law which has repealed the 'parent' law. For example, a typical entry is: Bengal Borstal Schools (Extension to Sylhet) Act, 1949 (EBA No.II of 1950), see EPC, Vol. VII. p.107. Repealed by: Section 3 and the Second Schedule of the Repealing and Amending Ordinance, 1966 (EPO No. XIII of 1966). Footnote to this entry tells us that the 1949 Act had a Preamble and 2 sections and it was published on 3 January, 1950.

The last and shortest chapter (13) of the Compendium, lists repealed British laws and interestingly as recently as in 2000, two British laws from 1840 have been repealed.

The history of our law making in the first chapter is most useful. In the Preface, the authors have drawn attention to the utter chaos in our laws. "If laws are not systematised, in some form or manner, enactment of laws can easily lead to chaos rather than order. We have so many laws but we do not know where all the laws are, nor can we find the laws on any given subject or issue with ease and certainty. Some of our major laws have been amended almost a hundred times." (at p. lxxvii). The task of updating and consolidating laws, under the Rules of Business, 1996, is a responsibility of the Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and the authors go on to comment, most appropriately, that:

"The eleven volumes of the Bangladesh Code is one, albeit, partial indication of such undertaking by the government. This Compendium, arguably, could also have been an official endeavour. Unfortunately, successive governments have not been attentive to this task of 'updating' and publishing laws, further compounding the already problematic issue of access to justice. Besides, non-availability of the updated official texts of the laws can not but make the task of administering and dispensing justice complicated, unless members of the Bar go the extra length of keeping track of legislative activities to update the law on their own initiatives." (at p. 35).

Since the concerned Ministry seems to be inattentive to one of it's core tasks, it fell upon scholars such as Dr. Khan and Mr. Hoque to, as it were, come to our aid by producing this monumental work.

The book is well produced and the price of Taka 1,600 for the four volumes is very reasonable, if not cheap. It is now hard see how anyone dealing with law can afford not to have a copy of this publication which would of use on innumerable situations and occasions.

DR. Borhan Uddin Khan and Quazi Mahfujul Hoque Supan, Encyclopedic Compendium of the Laws of Bangladesh,published by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), 4 volumes, Dhaka, 2002, pp. lxxx + 1947, price Taka 1,600 for four volumes.

Dr. Shahdeen Malik is an advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh